When infomercials first began advertising online college programs years ago, few people took the idea seriously, often labeling such institutions “degree factories.” The thinking was that anyone who paid the fees would be handed a degree without any work required or education gained.

But the idea caught on, and now, only a few years later, most colleges and universities of all sizes offer not only classes online, but entire college degree programs. Students are attracted to the flexibility online classes allowed, and the number of people signing up is steadily growing.

Three of Rome’s higher learning institutions have joined in, and administrators say they have plans to expand their online offerings and take learning beyond the classroom.

Ga. Northwestern Technical College

At Georgia Northwestern Technical College, students have a variety of choices for online learning. The college offers courses that are taught entirely online, courses that are considered hybrid, meaning that about 50 percent are taught in a classroom, and courses that are Web enhanced, meaning only parts of the classes, such as testing, would occur on the Internet.

This fall, 2,249 students at GNTC are taking 99 entirely online courses, and the college catalog includes 184 courses that are offered via the Web.

The number of students taking the 160 hybrid classes is 1,710, and 430 students are enrolled in 38 Web-enhanced classes.

Mindy McCannon, vice president of academic affairs, said the college offers 14 degree, diploma and certificate programs totally online. She said online offerings began at the college in 1998 when some forward-thinking instructors had an idea to teach via the Internet. They had to basically write the programming code back then.

“They blazed the trail,” said McCannon. “They were creating everything from scratch.”

She said it wasn’t long before Web programming companies realized the need for programming to aid the instructors and developed the programs. Now instructors can focus on content and not worry about the technology-side of things, said McCannon.

Cathy Vann, associate vice president of academic affairs, said online learning is attractive for a lot of people because of the convenience it offers. Pointing out that almost twice as many females than males sign up for online courses, and that the average age of their online students is 30, she said many working adults take advantage of the offerings.

“Probably convenience is the No. 1 issue for female students,” said Vann.

She said students are able to work ahead, or attend their class whenever they get the time, so there is less worry about missing class and falling behind. She pointed out that just because the class is convenient doesn’t mean it isn’t challenging.

“Some students think it’s easier, but it’s not,” said Vann, who has both taken and taught online courses. “It’s actually harder online if you’re not focused and disciplined.”

She said GNTC offers online and in-person tutoring to help their students, including those who take online-only classes, and many students take advantage of those services. Additionally, instructors do peer reviews and students evaluate the course at the end of term to ensure the quality is at an appropriate level.

Ultimately, Vann said students who are successful in the classroom can be successful online.

“Communication is key, both ways, from the instructors and the students,” she said.

Pam Kizziah, an instructor who teaches online classes, said preparation for teaching via the Internet is not much different than preparing to teach in person.

“We try to teach the online class as close to a face-to-face class as possible. The main difference is that offering a lecture in the online class requires software for delivery,” said Kizziah. “Our goal is for the quality of instruction for an online class to be equal to a face-to-face class.”

Georgia Highlands College

Georgia Highlands College has been offering online courses for a few years, as well as television and DVD courses. This semester Highlands has 948 students taking 37 entirely online classes and 204 students taking 12 hybrid classes.

Hybrid class at this college mean students will experience a mix of classroom time and online time, said Jeff Brown, director of E-Learning programs, who explained that because the online offerings are so diverse a significant percentage of students will take at least one Web-based course during their two years at the college.

Brown said the college has recently began offering more Internet-based classes because its professors have been getting more involved.

“We’ve started doing a lot of our online classes here,” he said. “We put out a cry to our professors that we wanted to offer more online classes and they’ve responded.”

Because Highlands attracts a lot of working adults and other non-traditional students, their Web-based courses, which offer flexibility and fewer time restraints, are usually quite popular.

Additionally, Highlands offers what could be considered a precursor to online learning: television- and DVD-based classes. This semester the college offers three classes that are taught via Comcast Channel 4.

Students who sign up for these classes typically meet with their professor at the beginning of the semester to get a syllabus, but other than meeting for tests or to turn in assignments, the rest of the class is taught on TV. Those live broadcast classes are recorded and later used to teach DVD-based classes.

Similar to the TV course, the difference is students receive a semester’s worth of lectures on DVD at the beginning. They can then watch the class on their own time. However, students are still required to turn in scheduled assignments and take tests on certain dates, so slackers can easily fall behind.

Brown said there are currently 217 students enrolled in DVD-based courses. As with online classes, professors are available via e-mail, chat rooms, or during office hours for students who need some help or have questions.

Shorter College

Offering online courses is part of Shorter College’s strategic plan, says Sean Butcher, director of online programs for the institution. Although the college only began offering online classes last summer, Butcher called the move “a natural progression” of the school’s effort to reach more students and in diverse ways.

This fall Shorter is offering six online classes, and more than 140 students have signed on to log on. During the summer, when the program was launched, 80 students registered for the groundbreaking classes.

In the spring the college will offer nine classes, and next summer there will be 12 online courses to choose from. Shorter will even be launching a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in sports management program that will be entirely online. Students will have to have 50 credits hours to qualify though, and chances are at least some of those credits will have to be earned in the classroom.

“I’d say it’s growing,” said Butcher. “We definitely are planning more programs. We have a number of programs we are looking at,” said Butcher.

Like the other institutions, a number of Shorter’s online class-takers are non-traditional students, but many are traditional students who enjoy the flexibility afforded by Internet learning.

Berry College

The one college in Rome that does not currently offer online classes is Berry College. That’s not because the college shies away from technology, says Berry’s provost, but because the administration takes pride in face-to-face interaction with its students.

“We have a number of courses that use electronic media, communication and platforms as enhancements to learning,” said Katherin Whatley. “We are a residential liberal arts college, and we place great value on face-to-face conversation and interaction.”

She said the college does allow students to participate in online offerings in selected areas (specialized languages, for example), but they have no purely online offerings at this time.