The Daily News

Online courses offered at North Dakota State College of Science (NDSCS) continue to boost the student population. Since fall of 2002, online enrollment grew from 101 to 643 and now draws students from 27 states.

"Many of those students would never come to campus," said Margaret Wall, dean of extended learning at NDSCS. "If the option wasn't there, we wouldn't have them as students at all."

This alternative form of education, which has become an integral opportunity at institutions nationwide, provides the school a way to combat the changing demographics in North Dakota. Students aged 18 to 20 represent the school's target population, and the percentage of high school graduates has lessened in the past decade, said Wall.

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"We typically get about 10 percent of graduating seniors, so that has affected our student body," she said.

Educational online support tools such as eCompanion, which allow students access to course material and even audio lectures with PowerPoint, supplement standard class instruction. While campus enrollment grew to 2,545 in 2008, the highest in five years, the college values its online offerings. Twenty percent of the credits generated in the fall semester were distance credits, which can dually be credited to the Skills Technology and Training Center in Fargo.

"It's an important part of our campus," said Wall. "It certainly addresses accessibility for students."

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