Distance education has become what analysts call a growth industry, and they predict it remaining so for many years to come. The term distance education was formally introduced into the U.S. government’s Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) thesaurus on October 24, 1983 (Wright & Howell, 2004). One government study reported that distance learning had a presence in only ten states in 1987 but by 1989 it was in all 50 states (Perelman, p. 1992). The most current studies on distance education enrollment trends available at the time of this writing show that this enrollment growth “was a rocket-like 27.64%” for those 71 established distance education programs surveyed for the academic period September 2003 to January 2004 (“The Survey,” 2004). An economic study shows that the “U.S. education and training industry will grow from $2.1 billion revenue in 2002 to $33.6 billion in 2005” (“Six Higher,” 2004).

As academe continues to observe this growth phenomenon, many from within the educational institution and outside have asked what role universities, especially graduate schools, have in preparing a future workforce to accommodate such a shortage in distance education expertise. The newest release of the government’s Occupational Outlook, 2004–5, projects both the education administrator and instructional coordinator job outlook as growing “faster than average” for all occupations through 2012, which equates to a predefined categorical growth rate range of 21 to 35 percent (U.S. Department of Labor: Bureau of Labor Statistics, n.d.). While distance education educators are part of this general category of education administrator and instructional coordinator, many would agree that the distance education administrator and specialist subcategory are in even higher demand than the other administrators and coordinators.

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By Nathan K. Lindsay and Scott L. Howell

Article source: International Journal of Instructional Technology & Distance Learning