VALDOSTA — Online courses are helping to make the pursuit of higher education more flexible.

At both Valdosta Technical College and Valdosta State University students have three ways to take courses — the traditional classroom setting with a teacher lecturing, on the World Wide Web, or by a combination of the two.

At both institutions, classes taught on campus are now being Web enhanced so students and teachers can take advantage of the online aspect by posting and responding to coursework via the Internet.

“Students can have the syllabus, worksheets, directions and presentations, but they still meet with the teacher in a traditional setting,” said Sally Dorminey, instructional technology coordinator at Valdosta Technical College.

Overall 1,680 students are enrolled in online classes at Valdosta State University.

During fall 2008, more than 350 new students enrolled in online graduate programs at Valdosta State University. The fall enrollment heralded a 50 percent increase in online graduate course enrollment. The entire online graduate program now has 875 students — the most in the regional university’s history.

Valdosta Technical College began offering online courses in 2002. In the first year, 66 students enrolled in five different courses, Dorminey said.

Now the program has more than 2,000 students enrolled in online classes and another 600 participating in hybrid classes.

“Even though the price of gasoline has gone down a little bit, people are really looking at hybrid and online courses as money-saving alternatives,” Dorminey said.

Valdosta State University started offering online courses in 1994, said John Sizemore, assistant director for distance learning.

“Quickly, VSU saw that there was a need for online graduate programs, and that’s really where our focus has been,” Sizemore said. “Our experience has been that the returning graduate students have more need for programs that fit their professional and family lifestyle.”

It can be hard for graduate students to schedule their work around classes held during the day.

“This helps them to continue their education and to continue to work and be in the workforce,” Sizemore said.

While online courses are offered at both the undergraduate and graduate levels at the university, online degree programs are still mainly focused in the graduate school, he said.

More than 200 students are enrolled in the new collaborative Master of Education programs, and 44 students are enrolled in Valdosta State University’s new Doctor of Public Administration program that began in fall of 2007.