Some students add an online course to fit the schedule dictated by their job. Some take “blended” courses that combine online with classroom instruction. Others take all their courses online.

“There’s massive growth,” Matthew Rascoff, the UNC system’s Vice President for Learning Technology & Innovation, says in the accompanying video. Rascoff highlights that growth in online coursework across the University system:

• 337 degree and certificate programs are now available, many in high-demand fields like nursing, technology and management.
• 39% of the system’s 221,000 students took at least one online course last year. In 2009, that figure was just 16%.
• 9% of students — more than 20,000 — take all their classes online.

“That’s a good-sized campus that you didn’t have to build. That’s huge,” Champ Mitchell, a member of the UNC Board of Governors, declared at a recent meeting.

The state budget adopted by the N.C. House proposes $2 million to support online and competency-based instruction identified in the University’s strategic plan. Rascoff shows us why those dollars would be a worthy expenditure.