Colorado Community Colleges Online (CCCOnline) educators broke their all-time enrollment record in March - exactly 10 years since they started offering Internet-based classes. The Spring 2008 enrollment of 12,035 broke the previous record of 10,702 -- set in Spring 2006 -- by 1,333.

While enrollments represent the number of classes students are taking, CCCOnline's annual unduplicated headcount has also grown 116% in the past five years, now providing online learning for more than 17,000 students annually via nearly 1,400 courses.

CCCOnline is celebrating its 10 th anniversary of delivering online learning opportunities through the 13 Colorado Community College System institutions it serves. CCCOnline is not a college in and of itself but rather a consortium of the 13 CCCS institutions that provides student centered services that extend the reach of each school to people who need, or prefer, the convenience of studying and participating in class activities whenever and wherever it is convenient for them. The one-stop Web site - www.ccconline.org -- offers students the opportunity

• to take a couple of classes for personal enrichment
• to take all of the general education core courses needed for an Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree , essentially the first two years of college
• to earn degrees or certificates in specific career areas like Paralegal, Occupational Safety and Health, Accounting, Early Childhood Education, and Emergency Management and Planning
• to complete the prerequisites for many healthcare programs

While it's not for everyone, online learning is often the only option for people who work full time, have families, serve in the military or travel for their jobs. Learning through CCCOnline also is a great option for people with disabilities.

The CCCOnline consortium also enables its member colleges to jointly create course content with a staff of nationally-recognized e-learning experts, plus, it enables them to pool enrollments to make classes available that otherwise would lack enough students to be offered.

"Phenomenal enrollment growth has been the norm since CCCOnline began," remarks CCCS President Dr. Nancy McCallin. "Several national organizations have recognized CCCOnline as having outstanding quality assurance practices and a sustainable business model," she continues. "This strong growth has been the result of our concerted efforts to build quality courses, effectively serve student needs and keep learners engaged."

Another factor driving CCCOnline's growth is that it offers all of Colorado's state-guaranteed general education courses. Explains McCallin, "When students complete their A.A. or A.S. degree including 31 credits of state-guaranteed general education courses, and earn a C grade or better in each course, at least 60 hours of their degree will transfer completely, upon admission, to a baccalaureate Liberal Arts and Sciences major in Colorado's public four-year institutions." She adds, "And, those students are guaranteed to be able to finish their liberal arts and sciences baccalaureate degree in just another 60 hours." McCallin points out that this option is available in the bricks and mortar world too.

Yet another factor to CCCOnline's growth has been that students who want to apply to the health programs Colorado community colleges offer, including: nursing; dental hygiene; radiology technology; veterinary technology and respiratory therapy, can take all of their prerequisites through the consortium. In addition to the General Education transfer courses, CCCOnline offers certificate and associate degree programs in at total of 11 different career areas including: Criminal Justice; Paralegal; Elementary Education; Early Childhood Education; Library Technician; Emergency Management and Planning; Occupational Safety and Health; Building Code Enforcement; Business; Agricultural Business; Accounting and Computer Information Technology. A final reason for the record growth is that the 1,394 course sections being offered this year are more than four times the number that were offered ten years ago. For more information on CCCOnline go to www.ccconline.org.