By day, she’s a customer service representative for a local medical services provider; by night, Susan Morrelli 29, is a wife, mother and student. Not at her local university, but at an accredited online university.

“I have a full time job and two young children,” says Morrelli. “There’s no way I could pursue my MBA — which I need to get ahead in the business I’m in — if I had to go downtown every week and sit through a class. With online learning, I do all my course work at home when the kids are asleep. It’s great.”

Locally, distance learning, the umbrella term for online education, is offered at Olympic College (OC) through Old Dominion University. OC also has agreements with St. Martin’s College and Western Washington University.

“Distance learning isn’t for everyone,” cautions DeAnna Kauzlaric, public information director at OC. “There is a great deal of self-motivation involved.”

Distance learning at OC means a lot of things — telecourses, WAOL (Washington Online), and Interactive Television courses among others. “It offers schedule flexibility and is also an introduction to some of the new technologies in a very non-threatening way,” Kauzlaric notes.

OC will offer 16 telecourses for the Spring Quarter and 30 online classes as diverse as anthropology to advanced Excel and everything in between — things such as Mass Media in American society. Additionally, a number of OC teachers are currently developing online courses that will be used in other institutions around the state.

OC also offers something called Ed-2-Go – these are non-credit courses mostly tailored towards professional development.

A growing number of women have discovered that online learning is a great way to earn the credentials they need to reach their career goals. For many working adults, sitting through a class on campus one or two nights a week is impossible. With online learning, students suddenly have a myriad of new doors open to them.

For more information on offerings from Old Dominion, contact Victoria Sager at (360) 475-7280. Kauzlaric can be reached at (360) 475-7106.