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Walter Cummins, an English professor sporting a gray beard and a tweed jacket,began to tell a meandering anecdote during a Friday morning class at Fairleigh Dickinson University's campus here. Several students exhibited classic signs of tuning out. One stared out the window, while another picked at her fingernails distractedly.
Moments like this make some professors and education-technology experts wonder: Would it be more effective to replace some traditional class meetings -- or even whole courses -- with online sessions? After all, in a virtual classroom, students can log in when it is convenient for them, and they can review prerecorded lectures if they miss them the first time. And some students who rarely take part in classroom discussions are more likely to participate online, where they get time to think before they type and aren't put on the spot.
As Mr. Cummins puts it: "Why do we have to meet twice a week? Why can't there be another type of activity that substitutes for a class?"
Such questions are popular at Fairleigh Dickinson, which has taken the unusual step of requiring all of its students to take at least one course online each year, beginning with this year's freshman class. With the requirement, most students at the university -- even those who live just a short walk from classroom buildings -- will take about 10 percent of their courses online. Though officials here say they are proud of the institution's teaching, they also say that students should get used to taking online courses. And they hope the online-course requirement will help bring outside perspectives to their campus.
Many other colleges are encouraging students who live on or near their campuses to take an online course or two. And a growing number of colleges are experimenting with "hybrid" or "blended" models of teaching that replace some in-person meetings with virtual sessions.
Welcome to what some officials are calling "the hybrid campus," where virtual classrooms are part of every student's routine.
"Within five years, you'll see a very significant number of classes that are available in a hybrid fashion," says John R. Bourne, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering who is editor of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning...