Studies have found online learning may be more cost effective, said Ann Hill Duin, associate provost and director of Extended and Continuing education, during a nontraditional student conference.

Duin was the keynote speaker for the Association for Nontraditional Students in Higher Education. Keynote Speaker Vernon Wall, assistant dean of students, had to reschedule his address.

“Ann is a great speaker. She always has great things to say. We were very fortunate to have her present,” said Penny Rosenthal, director of Off Campus and Adult Student Services.

Duin addressed concerns with lifelong and distance learning to 47 nontraditional students and educators about distance learning in the digital age at noon Saturday in the South Prairie Room of the Holiday Inn Gateway Center, US 30 and Elwood Drive.

She said studies have found online learning can provide more cost-effective learning. She said per-credit cost to students shows an advantage in online classes.

Duin said content in Web classes is the same as face-to-face classes. “If you can’t get a class at the institution you are attending, you should go online find it and transfer it in,” she said. “You shouldn’t have to wait for a class you want.”

She also talked about the Web as a place for relationships. “You go online for information, you stay online for the relationships,” she said.

Duin said one of the best advantages of the digital age today is the possibility of control of our information such as e-portfolios. An e-portfolio is an online area allowing a person to keep all information in one area and the ability to release certain information only. “We live in a digital age, practicing an industrial age,” she said. “We need a digital strategy in a digital age.”

Duin has more than 60 publications, including books and journal articles on the design of online learning environments, collaboration, usability testing and distance education research. She has taught at the elementary, secondary, collegiate and corporate levels.

More information about distance learning at Iowa State University can be found at www.lifelearner.iastate.edu.