Jen Quaranta, who teaches autistic children at Rogers Elementary School, works with Jesse Coffey during class Thursday. Quaranta is taking online as well as classroom classes in pursuit of her master's in special education. She says the Web-based classes help her take courses related to her specialty.

chris richards / Arizona Daily Star

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Growth in online classes has college students moving away from the classroom, with working adults, rural residents and even on-campus students attracted by the freedom to study at home on their own schedule.

Whether supplementing their schedule, cherry-picking a class their own school doesn't offer or completing an entire degree on the Web, students say the flexibility is the key to pushing online education into a larger role. College and university officials say they're driven by accessibility, with the new technology catering to students who might otherwise be shut out of higher education.

A previously impossible combination of online classes and classroom instruction is the mix Jen Quaranta chose in pursuing a master's degree in special education. A teacher at Rogers Elementary School, she has two University of Arizona classes on campus and one each online at Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University.

Quaranta, who teaches children with autism, has been able to refine her academic program by using the Web to take classes not offered locally.

"Prior to these online courses that became available, there weren't classes on autism that related as well," she said. "I would have had to take courses that really didn't suit my interest."

Quaranta moved to Tucson three years ago with a degree from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and started teaching, knowing a master's degree was necessary to advance in the field. She's had about an even mix of online and classroom courses for three semesters.

While Quaranta praised online's flexibility, enabling her to take classes late at night or on the weekends, she conceded some drawbacks, such as working on group projects without ever meeting the partners.

"Plus, you have to devote the time to it. You can't look at it as 'Just my online class,' " she said.

Online enrollment is surging at the state's universities, with about 150,000 credits expected to be delivered online this year. Through AZUN, the Arizona Universities Network, 59 degree programs are available entirely online, with eight new programs brought online at NAU alone in the past year.

"The big issue is getting students access to higher education no matter where they live," said Fred Hurst, NAU's vice president for extended programs and dean of distance learning. "They can be in Nogales, Thatcher or Casa Grande and still have easy access."

NAU oversees AZUN, which ties together all online offerings at the three universities. The system is designed so that any student at any university can take any course, no matter where it's offered, and have the classes transfer seamlessly.

NAU surveys find students are just as satisfied with online classes as they are with the on-campus programs. Still, officials find awareness about the online programs is lagging somewhat, Hurst said.

One area likely to grow even faster is short-format courses. Seven-week intense classes fit the working-student lifestyle especially well and reduce the problem of exams for multiple courses hitting all at once, Hurst said.

"The bread and butter for universities is providing access to students to degree programs so they can get a degree and better their lives," Hurst said. "As we continue to build up additional (online) programs for students to enroll in, that's the big payoff."

Teaching online classes requires adjustments for instructors who have to make the course as interactive as possible.

"The challenge from an instructor's point of view is there's hours and hours on the computer. I really like the face-to-face interaction a great deal, but the content is very strong and the students are satisfied with it," said Stephanie MacFarland, director of the UA's Teacher Preparation Program in Severe and Multiple Disabilities. "The collaborative effort is what I really love. We can give our students more options."

Tim Dosemagen, director of academic affairs for the University of Phoenix Southern Arizona Campus, said students are increasingly turning to online classes and demanding more of professors, who now post audio and visual elements in addition to readings and lecture notes.

While there are some drawbacks to online delivery, including classes that simply don't translate to the Web, students can gain additional skills through their use of the technology.

"The medium almost forges a more effective practical use of the technology in the workplace," he said.

Online students are integrating their education even more broadly into their daily lives, Dosemagen said.

"The portability to me is the key," he said. "Our online learners jump into class and jump out of class sometimes half a dozen times in a day and it becomes second nature."

Still, not every course can necessarily be portable enough to be delivered online.

"We'll never really catch 100 percent. There are just some areas of study and some coursework that must be done on the ground," he said.

Christin Gilmer was studying music at the UA when she was offered a dream job at a new independent record label in Los Angeles. Gilmer considered attending a Los Angeles school, but she didn't want to throw away two years of UA classes and face the sticker shock of higher tuition.

Though she spends most of her time in California now, she's been able to continue her Arizona education through online courses, without skipping a beat. In three semesters, she's had a mix of UA, ASU and NAU classes, adding a business major and selecting classes that fit her interests better.

"I'll have a lot of random credits basically, but they qualify," she said. "I really do love the system in Arizona. They work really really hard to make sure the students are focused and stay driven."

Gilmer, 21 and from Yuma, said that in traditional classes a lot of students skipped most of the reading material and got by on tests. But online, the reading is more strenuous because there aren't lectures to fall back on.

"I'm learning at a pace I'm really comfortable with and also able to balance every important part of my life," Gilmer said. "It's really forced me to focus on myself and what my real goals are."

Peter Hunter, who started teaching English this year at Tucson High Magnet School, earned his teaching certification through Pima Community College's online program, taking courses at the same time as his wife. The online route was advantageous to their work schedules, but Hunter said they started with some skepticism.

"Our initial concern with taking courses online was the absence of the social atmosphere in the classroom. We were both a little tentative about how it was going to work solely on the computer," he said. "The truth of the matter is you can still get that in an online class, you just have to work a little harder.

"Success in the online class is almost purely driven by how motivated you are to pursue the class."