Inside Business Article on Virtual Learning Features ODU's Casiello and Smith

Andy Casiello, interim associate vice president for distance learning, and Don Smith, associate professor of sociology and criminal justice, were interviewed for an article appearing in this week's edition of Inside Business.

The article, which appears in the May 25 issue, talks about the increase in online course offerings at local universities and colleges in the last 10 years.

Smith, the director of the online criminal justice degree program at Old Dominion University, discussed the quality of the course offerings and of the participants.

"It's been fascinating, because we have people all over the world - military, police officers, etc.," Smith said. "And we have lots of single parents. I personally, last semester, had 500 students.

"The truth is I get better quality work online than I do in class," he said.

Casiello discussed the overall distance learning program offered by ODU.

"You can teach anything online," Casiello said. "The classroom is a nice environment, but it's just one technology and, in fact, it's not the best technology for a lot of things. We're learning over time that good instruction is good instruction and if you can have it in a classroom you can have the same thing online."

Read more of Smith and Casiello's comments here in the full article.

Old Dominion University is Virginia's forward-focused, public doctoral research university, with more than 23,000 students and innovative and engaging teaching in 70 bachelor's, 60 master's and 36 doctoral degree programs. A determined entrepreneurial approach to problem solving drives cutting-edge research and strategic partnerships with government, business, industry, organizations and the arts.

For more information about online learning options at ODU, visit http://dl.odu.edu/.