This past year alone enrollment in courses has doubled from 500 to 1,036 students. In the past five years, enrollment has grown from 172 in 1997, to 370 the next year, followed by 462 during the 1999 fiscal year.

Distance Education Coordinator Deb Gearhart said the growth is not only attributed to the increase in course offerings, which grew from 23 to 52 classes, but also to the enrollment in Digital Dakota Network (DDN) courses (326 students).

"It looks like we're heading into another record year," Gearhart said after looking at the current summer enrollment.

Last summer, DSU offered 10 distance courses and had 168 students enrolled; this summer 18 courses were offered with 292 enrollments.

"We're moving in lightning speed now," she said.

Aside from the abundance of courses offered through the university, a number of programs also use distance delivery. Those programs include both Master's programs and the Health Information Administration degree (the last two years of a four-year program).

High school students can also use the Fast Track Program available through DSU. This program allows students to take general education courses via distance, with the potential for not only getting DSU credit but high school credit as well.

Gearhart said the office of distance education has also taken on a new role this fall. The office has been expanded to the office of distance education and Web technology.

This change includes the addition of a Webmaster, professor Haomin Wang, and support staff.

The office is also working with faculty on alternative delivery, and a new Web site interface will also be implemented.

Growth in Distance Education hasn't been restricted to this past year, however. DSU president Jerry Tunheim said when distance courses were first offered, it wasn't uncommon for enrollment to double from year to year.

This recent growth is partially attributed to a re-emphasis on the distance education program.

"One advantage of the distance education program is the space required for distance education programs is quite small compared to the equivalent student residents on campus," Tunheim said. "DSU will be approaching capacity for on-campus students and this will allow for healthy growth." Tunheim said he also sees distance education as an obligation for the university.

"We also offer some unique programs that need to be delivered throughout the state," he said. "I feel we need to deliver those programs."

Tunheim said it is with the same logic that programs are offered at USD.SDSU.DSU at Sioux Falls, formerly known as Sioux Falls Center for Public Higher Education.

"We have the capabilities to serve those students and the students throughout the state," he said. "It's our obligation to serve as many as we can."

Distance education also serves as a means of reaching out to a different type of college student.

Gearhart said she has seen changes in the traditional student who may take distance courses first and then go to a university.

Distance education isn't eliminating the need for on-campus course offerings, however, it is instead expanding education.

"There will always be the students who want to be on campus," she said. "It's opening doors for those who otherwise wouldn't have had the opportunity."

It is especially an advantage for professionals who want to complete their graduate work, but don't want to put their lives on hold to get their graduate work done, she said.

Gearhart said there will always be the skeptics who don't think distance education will last. But then again, she said, distance education has been around for more than 100 years. It began with correspondence courses, which cropped up to offer courses to those who moved west where universities hadn't been established yet.

One challenge behind distance education is competing with diploma mills -- non-accredited institutions offering courses or degrees on-line. Some even give credit toward life experience.

"People fall for that, especially international students who don't know," she said. "That's one drawback to the way distance education is growing."

One thing to look for is accreditation through the Distance Education Training Counsel.

"If they're not even accredited by DETC I wouldn't touch them."

All courses offered through DSU are also listed with the Electronic University Consortium, which carries a complete list of courses offered through all the state-run universities.

"In the next five years, we'll look for our key programs to be offered off-campus -- either through distance education or in Sioux Falls," she said.