Students Plead for Online Courses

It’s hardly surprising that a number of college students are clamoring for more online courses. But the reasons those students support distance education are, at times, unexpectedly sophisticated. In a board editorial, members of the staff of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Daily Tar Heel have urged campus officials to expand the institution’s roster of online courses. A full complement of Internet-based offerings, the editors argue, would give the university a greater role in modernizing North Carolina’s work force. "With the old North Carolina economy — based extensively on tobacco and textiles — fading into the past, education will become all the more important as we move into the new frontier," write the editors. (The Daily Tar Heel)