. . .says leading education expert, Professor Curtis J. Bonk, author of “THE WORLD IS OPEN: HOW WEB TECHNOLOGY IS REVOLUTIONIZING EDUCATION” and Professor at the School of Education at Indiana University. The nearly 10 percent growth rate for online enrollment far exceeds the 1.5 percent growth of the overall higher-education student population.

According to a recent Sloan Survey of Online Learning, 70 percent of colleges reported that competition for students interested in online learning is increasing and 58 percent of all colleges surveyed agreed that online courses were strategically critical. In the United States, as parents struggle to find a way to pay for tuition and room and board at even more modestly priced community colleges and state schools, it is likely that the demand for online learning services will continue to grow. While online visitors to the top institutions cannot earn college credits, Ivy leagues like Harvard and Yale are offering full course materials — lecture, notes, readings and class syllabuses for anytime with the time and the interest. The most ambitious online education is offered by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) which offers an astounding 1,800 classes online.

“It is the opening up of education that ultimately makes a flatter or a more robust economic world possible,” says leading education expert Professor Curtis J. Bonk, Professor at the School of Education at Indiana University and author of THE WORLD IS OPEN: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education (Jossey-Bass, an imprint of Wiley: August; 2009). In the twenty-first century, education trumps economy as the key card to participation in the world.” THE WORLD IS OPEN contends that the rise of the Open Educational Resource movement is an exciting development made possible by the web. Universities such as MIT have already placed large educational resource materials on the web, free to use by people anywhere in the world. The ramifications of the open educational system are profound and far reaching beyond the shores of America. From Nebraska to Nairobi, people across the world who do not have access to libraries or textbooks can find educational resources at their fingertips.

“Now anyone can learn anything, anywhere, at anytime. We can work online from research vessels in Antarctic waters to ranches in South Africa,” says Bonk. “In the coming years, billions of people will be utilizing the web for at least part of their education.”