Francis Burns, Physical Sciences Department, Ferris State University, 820 Campus Drive, ASC 1015D, Big Rapids, MI 49307-2225 |
| The American economic landscape has undergone a major paradigm shift. Technology has expanded globalization, which maintains a downward pressure on U.S. inflation. Since 1996, U.S. inflation has grown at an average of 2.40%. While low inflation is beneficial, globalization has also created economic hardships through off shoring ? an unintended consequence. During this same period, the costs associated with higher education have grown at an average of 3.62%, putting an upward pressure on tuition and threatening higher education's accessibility. Can technology be used to constrain costs? Online courses and degree programs are commonplace. However, chemistry has been slow to develop online courses because of the laboratory. Once distance learning and the laboratory are successfully combined, online chemistry courses become feasible. What will be the long term effects of online chemistry instruction? This paper will focus on implications of the removal of the chemistry laboratory as a barrier to distance education. |
