More and more online degree programs are making their way into cyberspace, and online grant applications and fellowship and scholarship opportunities make it easier to find money to help pay for an online education.

In addition to long popular online degree programs in business, nursing, information technology and criminal justice, college catalogs for the fall 2010 semester and the web sites of virtual and traditional institutions boast a wide array of online classes and degree programs. Southern California has recently seen an increase in such degree programs at the associate degree level, and a single university in Memphis added 18 new bachelor and master’s degree programs to its existing 22 for the coming fall semester, according to reports. Distance degree offerings from these geographic areas and others now give students opportunities to pursue degrees in philosophy, history, African-American studies, the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects and more.

The online education boon could have to do with a historically large 2009 high school class and physical settings unable to take on increasing numbers of students, according to a scholarly report. National Center for Education Statistics information cited in the report, “32 Trends Affecting Distance Education”, included anticipating a 16 percent increase in online college enrollment between 2003 and 2010.

This forecast was based on high school information alone. Adults, including rising numbers of women and minorities, form a solid amount of the distance learning population. Between 1970 and 2000, the number of adult students rose 170 percent as compared to a 41 percent increase in 18 to 24-year-old students, according to “32 Trends”. Online education is said to cost about the same as physically attending college. Students browsing the Internet for online classes and online degree programs can also shop for online grant, scholarship and fellowship opportunities. Online grant applications include the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Large companies, non-profit organizations, civic groups and more provide scholarship and fellowship information online.

The education market has seen a dramatic move from classroom and lecture-room education to online education, a March Marketwire news release announced. Online education, in fact, is growing much faster than higher education as a whole, according to an article that same month in the San Diego Business Journal. More than 4.6 million students enrolled in least one online course during the fall 2008 semester represented a 17 percent increase over fall 2007 enrollments, the Business Journal reported, citing a 2009 Sloan Consortium survey. The entire higher education student population between fall 2007 and 2008, on the other hand, increased by only 1.2 percent, according to the survey information provided.

Students can enroll in online classes and online degree programs offered by online colleges and traditional institutions with distance education components. These online education offerings in some instances have been credited with providing more than 60 percent of a traditional for-profit college’s revenues, the Marketwire release stated. The number of students enrolled in online education programs offered by a Memphis institution increased by nearly 50 percent over the course of a year, according to an area newspaper known as the Commercial Appeal. And one college representative reportedly told the San Diego Business Journal that keeping up with the demand for online education has been a challenge.

For-profit higher education institutions were considered the fastest growing online education segment when the “32 Trends” report was written. And the report anticipated that the number of degree-granting institutions will continue to rise into 2020, while the number of traditional campuses declines. An Information Age work force during this time is expected to require continued retraining and “retooling” as well accelerated online degree programs, the report forecasted.

Distance educators at the time of “32 Trends” were exploring the ways that technologies such as wireless laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), videoconferencing, virtual reality, gaming environments and video streaming enhance distance learning. Looking ahead, the report forecasted that college accreditation and program approval is going to change, becoming more outcome-based and, by 2025, without one national accreditation system. Governments, testing companies and others, the report noted, would put testing programs into place, and large corporations would develop their own approval systems. To accommodate the accountability emphasis, distance educators should plan ahead to maintain accreditation and meet consumer demands, “32 Trends” suggested. Online education is going to evolve to focus on the student as consumer as well as on flexibility and global reach, according to the report.

Just as with traditional on-site learning, those wishing to attend college via distance classes will find graduate school scholarships are available to help pay for the classes. Begin your search for scholarships online by finding all the forms of aid that apply in your situation. If you wish for find additional information about pell grant application, check out the internet.