Though the recession has had many negative effects, it's been a boon for online education, which is becoming increasingly mainstream, schools here say.

Demand for online classes is rising, and schools are responding by adding more course's, and even full degree programs, to their online offerings.

It's not just college students who want online courses. Spokane Public Schools says demand for its online high school classes also is brisk, perhaps because high school students hear and see all the advertising for online college classes and say they want such options, too.

School administrators say some of the demand is due to a new generation of tech-savvy students who feel comfortable with online learning.

"I think online education is going to do nothing but grow," says Debbie O'Donnell, director of marketing and communication for Washington State University's Center for Distance and Professional Education, based in Pullman. "The economic situation helps that."

WSU offers online bachelor's degrees in four different categories of business administration, as well as in criminal justice, human development, humanities, and social sciences. Just this year, it added an online master's degree in business administration, O'Donnell says.

"We're getting a lot more prospects, students finding us, people expressing a desire to return to school," she says.

Paul Green, director of the University of Phoenix's Eastern Washington campus, based in Spokane Valley, says, "In economically challenging times, there's always that need for individuals to come back and 're-career,' and look at areas where they can move educationally. There's a lot of that happening right now."

The University of Phoenix, which is known nationally as an online-focused school, has seen its enrollment through its campus here, located at 8775 E. Mission, grow to about 1,200 students, from about 900 two years ago, Green says. To handle that growth, the campus has hired 14 new staff members in the past year, giving it 34 employees. Among the new hires have been academic and financial counselors, enrollment advisers, and managers, he says.

The campus here also opened a satellite operation in Kennewick, Wash., to meet the needs of a growing number of students in the Tri-Cities area. That operation employs four additional staffers, giving the school 38 employees in Eastern Washington, plus about nine part-time faculty members who also have other full-time jobs, Green says.

Though the school's courses all are online, it provides resource centers in its facilities, where students can use computers, study, collaborate, and receive some faculty assistance. The University of Phoenix recently remodeled about half of its 13,500-square-foot campus facility here to provide more resource space, he says. It now has 30 computer stations, multiple conference rooms, and a laptop bar with wireless Internet connections. It had 11 computers before the remodel, he says.

For years, the university offered a hybrid form of online instruction, in which much of the coursework was done online, but students were required to meet together with an instructor at times as they worked to complete a course or program. It no longer requires such in-person classes, Green says.

"As we've transitioned to be all online, we want the students to have the support they need," he says. "A lot of times there will be two mentors here at the same time during the evening."

He adds, "A couple years ago we may have had a hundred students in here every month. Just in August, we had right around 800 students at our campus immersing and really interacting with the coaches and faculty and employees."

Green says, "More institutions are seeing that (online education) is really a viable part of their long-term strategy."

Whitworth University here is currently developing online graduate-level programs in education, says Terry Ratcliff, dean of continuing studies. The school has begun offering undergraduate courses during summer, enabling its students to take courses from wherever they spend the summer break, Ratcliff says.

Signs of growing demand

WSU says that while growth in online enrollment in its programs currently is flat, there are indications the pipeline for such classes is filling up.

The university uses a measurement called class enrollments, which is the total number of students in all online classes combined, meaning that if 100 students each signed up for three classes, total class enrollment would be 300. O'Donnell says that while online class enrollment grew modestly this fall to just over 7,000, the actual number of online students fell slightly, to about 3,000. Still, there are many more students in the pipeline, she says.

"People are trying to line up their finances," O'Donnell says. "The last several years we've seen an increase, and I think we'll continue to see that trend because we're seeing so much interest. A degree helps people to realize their potential."

Students taking online classes from WSU generally are nontraditional students, who likely work full time and need flexibility in their school schedule. Still, more traditional students in Pullman also are becoming interested in taking some courses online as well.

Online education is "becoming more mainstream as more traditional brick-and-mortar schools get into it," O'Donnell says. "The overall quality rises, and it's more accepted."

Online students get the same degree as traditional students at WSU, and the cost for undergraduate classes is the same, she says. The school is looking to add more graduate degree programs online.

"We're in the initial phases of figuring out what the demand is, getting student input," O'Donnell says.

WSU started offering an online degree program in business administration-accounting this year.

That's "something that people are really clamoring for," she says. "There's just so much opportunity in that area for job prospects."

WSU's online bachelor's degree in social sciences also has been popular because of the wide applicability of it for people looking for work and those already employed, she says.

Like WSU, the University of Phoenix is looking at other degree programs to offer online, Green says. It's been adding about three to four new degree programs each year, and fine-tuning the ones it already offers, he says.

The popular study areas have been business administration, criminal justice, and health-care administration, he says. It's considering offering a degree in hospitality, and it has just begun offering a certification program for teachers.

Also, he says, "Green education is, I think, very much one education area that is out there," in which the university could begin offering classes and degrees with success.

The number of students graduating with degrees from the University of Phoenix here continues to grow, from 55 in May 2007 and 75 in May 2008 to about 115 this past May, Green says. It takes 120 credits to earn a bachelor's degrees at the University of Phoenix, costing about $360 to $530 per credit.

Gonzaga University offers online master's degree in organizational leadership, communication and leadership studies, and nursing, and has seen significant growth in the number of its online students, says Michael Carey, chairman and associate professor in organizational leadership.

Students are drawn in at first because of the convenience, but once in online education find it challenging, intense, and engaging if it's done well, Carey says. Students in the program are in different locations, working for different organizations, and are able to share their varied experience.

Carey says teachers find teaching online classes to be more work.

"You're really fully engaged in that course all week," he says of teaching online classes. Teachers have to keep up with reading students' online postings, class work, papers, and e-mail questions.

At the University of Idaho, online class enrollments have trended upward in recent years, reaching about 8,900 for the 2008-2009 school year, which included the summer, fall, and spring semesters. That's up from about 7,000 two school years earlier, says UI spokeswoman Joni Kirk. The university already has had 5,849 course enrollments for the summer and fall of the 2009-2010 school year, Kirk says.

"People who currently are employed in locations off-campus or away from one of our three higher-education centers around the state are taking online courses while pursuing an advanced degree or continuing certification," Kirk says. "Some students, even those who live on campus, find that an online class works better for their schedules than classroom-based delivery."

High school

Kristin Whiteaker, director of Spokane Public Schools' online program, Spokane Virtual Learning, says total course enrollments in that program grew to 670 this fall, from 411 in fall 2008. Spokane Virtual Learning serves students from every one of the district's high schools, she says.

"We're experiencing exponential growth," Whiteaker says.

Almost every class necessary to complete a high-school diploma is available online, she says.

Most students taking classes online, such as student athletes, are those who are retaking classes, trying to squeeze more into their schedule, or needing scheduling flexibility.

Whiteaker says demand has been spurred in part by advertising from for-profit companies that offer online classes, prompting high school students to ask for them.

Students taking online classes meet and collaborate in chat rooms and discussion forums rather than in classrooms. Instructors deliver curriculum through interactive, multimedia Web pages rather than through stand-up lectures and whiteboard work.