Institutions that offered distance education courses in fall 1995 were asked whether various training opportunities for faculty teaching distance education courses were available and whether they were required. The various forms of training opportunities were generally available but not required of faculty teaching distance education courses at about 60 percent of the institutions (Table 15). About a quarter of the institutions required faculty to have training in the use and application of distance education technologies, and to consult with support center staff; about 13 percent required training in curriculum development, and about 17 percent training in teaching methods for distance education courses.

Distance Education Program Goals

Institutions were asked about the importance of various goals to the institution’s distance education program and the extent to which the distance education program is meeting those goals it considers important. Increasing student access was an important goal for most distance education programs. Increasing access by making courses available at convenient locations was rated as very important by 82 percent of institutions, and increasing access by reducing time constraints for course taking was rated as very important by 63 percent of institutions (Table 16). Making educational opportunities more affordable for students, another aspect of student access, was rated as very important by about half of the institutions.

Goals concerning increasing the institution’s audiences and enrollments were also perceived as quite important, with increasing the institution’s access to new audiences and increasing the institution’s enrollments rated as very important by 64 percent and 54 percent of institutions, respectively (Table 16). Reducing the institution’s per-student costs, often mentioned as an important reason for institutions to offer distance education, was rated as very important by 20 percent of the institutions. Meeting the needs of local employers was considered a very important goal by 38 percent of the institutions, and improving the quality of course offerings was considered very important by 46 percent of the institutions.

The percentage of institutions rating various goals as very important showed some variation by institutional type (Table 17). Public 2-year institutions were more likely than public 4-year institutions to perceive the following goals to be very important: reducing per-student costs, making educational opportunities more affordable, increasing institution enrollments, and increasing student access by reducing time constraints. Public 2-year institutions were more likely than private 4- year institutions to perceive reducing per-student costs and meeting the needs of local employers as very important.

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