Distance ed students forming college clubs online

Feeling isolated as an online student? Join the club.

Or rather, join a club. At a handful of institutions, students working toward degrees online are meeting outside of class via the Web. These extracurricular organizations offer online students what many feel they are missing: the social and professional opportunities that historically have been part of the college experience.

"When you’re on campus, you have opportunities to engage your faculty and your peers," says Debra Ann Mynar, 39, an online psychology student at Pennsylvania State University’s World Campus. "When you do distance education, you don’t have those similar opportunities unless you make them."

By Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-03-10-IHE-online-college-clubs-distance-ed-students_N.htm