United States

The USA has a complex structure of HE e-learning providers including organisations offering both face-to-face and e-learning (usually blended) provision via different subsidiaries. In terms of blended/e-learning provision, the two leading players in the USA are often agreed to be:

• The University of Maryland University College (UMUC), with over 110,000 online enrolments spread over 540 distinct courses online (chapter 12).
• University of Phoenix (UOP), with over 109,000 attending via the Internet through the University’s Online Campus (out of over 213,000 students as of May 2004)

For comparison, note that the UK Open University is reported as having 60,000 online students.

There is a major applications service provider, eCollege, whose entry into the UK and other non-US markets is not unlikely in the next 12 months.

Yet the major feature of the USA is now the breadth of deployment of distance e-learning services in HE, including the beginnings of activity overseas, from literally hundreds of universities and colleges. Many leading public universities, including the US partners in the WUN consortium, such as Penn State, are increasingly active. Several of these are featured in the Gazetteer.

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