Oregon Public Broadcasting

Here’s another way high gas prices are changing the way we live.  More college students are opting to take courses online to cut the days they have to commute to class.  Correspondent Tom Banse has our story.

Some commuter schools are reporting remarkable enrollment spikes for their online course offerings.

At Mount Hood and Lower Columbia community colleges, the number of students taking classes over the Internet has doubled in one year.  Tacoma and Centralia community colleges are up 70 percent this summer over last.

Cable Green directs eLearning for the community and technical college system in Washington State.  He says rising gas prices are one plausible explanation.

Cable Green: “As students are making choices and they look at how much it costs to fill up their gas tank to drive to campus, I expect that is part of their decision making process when they decide whether to take a class face to face and drive to campus or whether or not to take the class online.”

Bellevue Community College student Katoya Palmer would prefer to attend class in person, but the suburban Seattle mother is signing up for web-based courses for the fall.

Katoya Palmer: “I really don’t want to drive to campus every day.  That’s a lot.  My commute costs probably between $500-600 per month.”

High gas prices are not the only explanation for rising enrollment in online classes.  At some colleges, more courses in more subjects are offered over the internet today.