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Welcome to our StraighterLine Blog: A New Forum for discussing the Online Education Terrain

by straighterline

Nearly 3.5 million students signed up for one or more online classes in 2006. That’s almost 20 percent of all college students in the U.S. While students are flocking to online higher education courses, teachers and administrators are left scrambling to fine tune their systems and methods.

The truth is that all of our competing institutions can benefit from an open dialogue. The online education terrain is new and exciting, and sometimes intimidating. It is increasingly difficult for schools to opt out of offering some type of online application. Schools often get feedback on how students are reacting to their programs, but there is an incredible opportunity for growth if educators have a place to engage in a straightforward conversation about what works, what doesn’t, and everything in between.

Our ambition is to provide here a forum for a lively, open discussion of online education issues. While I and other senior leadership of StraighterLine will lead the conversation, we invite teachers, students, and educators of all sorts to join in. Our parent company, SMARTHINKING, has nine years of expertise in the e-learning market to bring to the table. We have a hunch that a lot of you will have some interesting things to add too.

One of my major goals of 2008 is to debut StraighterLine smoothly and successfully. We hope that this blog will be a place where people can learn about our program, and we can learn about others’. We look forward to starting the conversation.

Thanks for joining us,
Ryan Busch

Ryan Busch is Director of StraighterLine, a Washington, D.C.-based division of SMARTHINKING that provides high-quality, low-cost online required college courses that include one-on-one instructional support. With StraighterLine’s personal, on-demand instruction – a key difference among its competition – students earn transferable credits that give them a head start on their degrees. StraighterLine focuses on the required courses needed for an undergraduate degree, such as English, Algebra, Economics and Accounting, and the company maintains relationships with regionally accredited institutions. Ryan has daily oversight of all mission critical elements of StraighterLine, from developing relationships with college presidents to giving final approval to a software development contract.

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StraighterLine provides students with a new online option for obtaining required college credits from accredited colleges and universities. StraighterLine’s affordable courses are the first to include up to 24/7 live, on-demand instruction. StraighterLine offers transferable entry-level curriculum courses including College Algebra, English Composition, Economics 101 and Accounting 101, with many more under development. Courses completed through the StraighterLine program will receive credit from StraighterLine’s regionally accredited partner colleges. Student-earned credits may also be transferred to non-partner colleges that recognize StraighterLine’s partner’s courses as equivalent programs. There are no set due dates for StraighterLine courses. Students may start and stop at any point with up to six months of access. For more information, visit www.straighterline.com or call (202) 507-7020 or 1-877-str8erline (1-877-787-8375).

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