Not-So-Distant Learning

Classes? We don't need no steenking classes.

Andy Steele lives just a few blocks from the campus of Black Hills State University in Spearfish, South Dakota, so commuting to class isn't the problem. But he doesn't like lectures much, isn't a morning person, and wants time during the day to restore motorcycles.

So Steele, a full-time senior business major, has been taking as many classes as he can from the South Dakota state system's online offerings.
...
At some schools, online courses -- originally intended for nontraditional students living far from campus -- have proved surprisingly popular with on-campus students. A recent study by South Dakota's Board of Regents found 42 percent of the students enrolled in its distance-education courses weren't so distant: they were located on campus at the university that was hosting the online course.

As someone who spent four years slogging on foot to campus through brutal Syracuse winters (or even brutal Syracuse autumns and "springs"), I'm tempted to say "suck it up and deal with it, you spoiled brats," but I suppose that would be petty of me--and make me sound like a cranky old guy (which I am). And since I haven't commuted to an office job in six years, there are many people who could probably say something similar to me. So perhaps we're even. I can agree with this, though:

[O]nline classes aren't necessarily easier. Two-thirds of schools responding to a recent survey by The Sloan Consortium agreed that it takes more discipline for students to succeed in an online course than in a face-to-face one.

I do worry about the sociological implications of generations of people who are able to do whatever they want whenever they want to. Seems like trouble brewing, but I hope I'm wrong.