Factors Influencing the Institutionalization of Distance Education in Higher Education (Report‪)‬

Less than 2 decades ago, the authors of an influential text had this to say about the state of distance education in the United States: "Distance education, although a popular and effective concept in other countries, is still something of an unknown quantity in the United States and, with the possible exception of correspondence courses and telecourses, has until now had little impact here" (Verduin & Clark, 1991, p. 9). This sentiment was also echoed in the educational technology journals of the time. Clark (1989), for example, acknowledged that colleges and universities in the United States were "not leading practitioners of distance education at the adult learning level" (p. 7). As the first decade of the new millennium draws to a close, it appears obvious that this situation has changed considerably. The advent of the public Internet has facilitated a meteoric rise of online instruction (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2006). According to research conducted by the Sloan Consortium, 83% of colleges and universities now offer courses at a distance (Allen & Seaman, 2007). However, far fewer of these have established institutionwide distance education programs that include centralized coordination and complete degree or certificate programs available at a distance (Bear & Nixon, 2006; Boyd-Barrett, 2000).