Pay a visit to any lecture hall on just about any college campus nationwide; chances are you'll notice a few empty chairs. Two years ago, most professors would simply have chalked these absences up to illness or, perhaps, just plain sloth. But, according to a new national survey, more students than ever are opting to get their learning online, trading in early morning lectures and long walks across campus for grades handed down in cyberspace.

Released Nov. 12, the second annual Sloan Report on Online learning entitled, "Entering the Mainstream: The Quality and Extent of Online Education in the United States, 2003 and 2004," is based on a survey of 1,100 colleges and universities. Its findings suggest that enrollments in university-sponsored online courses are spiking at average rates of 25 percent year over year.

The study was sponsored by the nonprofit Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and conducted by the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C), a group dedicated to pursuing the benefits of online education in schools. The survey looks at the factors contributing to the rapid expansion of online learning in postsecondary education, and the study's authors project the trend will continue through 2005.

The survey is not the first of its kind, nor is the phenomenon limited to colleges. In September 2003, Boston-based Eduventures Inc. released a report that tracked a veritable explosion of virtual courses in K-12 schools.

At the K-12 level, the Eduventures report "What can Virtual Learning Do for Your School?" suggested institutions are using virtual courses to provide both supplemental and advanced instruction to students who otherwise wouldn't have the option of taking such courses. Going a step further, some states--including West Virginia, Kentucky, and Florida--have developed full-fledged virtual schools, where students can take some or all of their courses online.

Now the trend is picking up at the college level as well. According to the Nov. 12 survey, approximately 2.6 million postsecondary students are currently enrolled in online courses through various colleges and universities nationwide, marking a significant increase compared with the 1.9 million students taking classes online in the fall of 2003.

But as students continue to flood online learning programs, opponents of the trend have remained critical, especially when it comes to a perceived need for more face-to-face contact among faculty members, students, and classmates. The Sloan-C authors, however, report such concerns are overblown. According to the survey, students enrolled in online courses say they are as satisfied --if not, more satisfied--with the instruction they receive over the internet as they are with the instruction in traditional classroom environments.

The survey states that 40.7 percent of online learners are "at least as satisfied" with their virtual teachers and courses as they are with their other classes. Students who attend large schools such as those offering Doctoral/Research, Masters, and Associates degrees tend to have a higher opinion of online courses than those attending small, Baccalaureate schools (enrollments of 1,500 or less), the study finds.