Pasadena City College begins offering online classes

The way higher education is administered across the nation has changed dramatically as more colleges pump up their online course offerings. Nationwide, 32% of all college students have taken an online course. In California, the figure is closer to 27%.

But try to break that trend down to the local community college level and a stark juxtaposition between national and local emerges.

At Pasadena City College, online education options are only now starting to ripple through the student course catalog.

For the first time last year, the college started offering solely online classes. Previously, it had offered only a smattering of hybrid courses that were partly taught on-campus.

Leslie Tirapelle, director of distance education for the college, is working with administrators to allow students to take all of their core classes online. Under the program, students would be assessed to determine if they are naturally apt for distance learning.

“My goal is within the next two years we will have that in place,” she said. “We’re very positive about the direction we’re going.”

It’s a direction other campuses have been going for quite some time now.

At the College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, after 14 years of growing its Internet portfolio, more than 12% of its classes are online.

“We know that students need flexibility,” said James Glapa-Grossklag, dean of distance education there. “We need to offer classes when it is convenient for our students, and not when it is convenient for us.”

But Pasadena isn’t alone. At Glendale Community College, online education options may be growing, but they’re doing so at a measured pace.

“Distance [education] isn’t the panacea that everybody thinks it is, including the governor,” said Mary Mirch, vice president of instructional services for the college.

Gov. Jerry Brown has been pushing online courses as a way to help students move efficiently through a crowded system while also curbing costs.

“He thinks it’s going to be the most cost-effective way to provide education. Basically, the only thing that you don’t have to have with distance is the brick and mortar,” Mirch said.

Millions of students — all of them with different schedules, job demands, possible physical disabilities and other challenges — have been pushing colleges in that direction for years.

In the U.S., 6.7 million — or 32% — of college students have taken at least one online class, according to a study published this year by the Babson Survey Research Group and Quahog Research Group.

In California, the Community College Chancellor’s Office estimates that 27% of students will take an online class this year compared to the 12% of students who did so in 2006.

Policy makers and lawmakers have taken notice, seeing a way to meet student demands while also addressing the pressing problem facing nearly all campuses: overcrowding.

Already, nearly half of all California community college classes feature an online component, officials say. And 9% of all courses are online, according to the Community College Chancellor’s Office.

The 112 community colleges may also soon share a “virtual campus,” an online portal that could be made possible through Brown’s state budget proposal.

Proponents say online education promises to open up access to higher education for people with disabilities.

“Online learning provides for many of those people the only possible opportunity,” Glapa-Grossklag said. “Where is that person going to go except online?”

Educators at Pasadena City College agree.

“Having a hybrid or an online model is going to provide access to education you might not otherwise have,” Tirapelle said.

Natural science courses at the college take on a hybrid model where students can complete lectures online then participate in labs on campus.

“I really do try to stress with the deans and the instructors — balance is a good thing,” Tirapelle said.

Thirty-seven percent of community college students said they enrolled in at least one distance-education class because of the convenience, according to a 2011 survey by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office.

But convenience also comes with a cost.

It takes a strong technical staff to keep operations running smoothly, and campuses must regularly update their computer hardware.

“The idea that we have to bolster IT staff for this is a little disconcerting,” said Michael Dulay, chairman of the GCC’s social sciences department.

Glendale Community College officials have pondered charging students a $3 fee that would help offset the costs, but they’ve been reluctant to institute it.

Additionally, online courses — which exist in a realm that never sleeps — could have a huge impact on instructors.

“It can be much more time consuming because you’re on 24/7,” Tirapelle said.

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Follow Kelly Corrigan on Twitter: @kellymcorrigan.