Ever thought about upgrading your education, or maybe taking a course in some subject that is near and dear to you - but you just could not figure out how you would find the time to get to a classroom? Ever thought about taking correspondence courses, but the idea of waiting for your essay or assignment to make its way to you in the post was just too much?

Well, you have no reason to put off upgrading your education if you have a computer. There are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of universities and colleges that offer courses at the secondary level over the Internet. Of course, there are minimum requirements for your computer.

Requirements

Athabasca University lists the following minimum requirements, and these are pretty standard for any online course you might want to take:

• IBM compatible computer with 32 MB ram
• 50 MB of free disk space
• 3.5 floppy drive
• 28.8 modem
• Windows 95
• A current version of Netscape or Explorer
• MS Word or MS Works or compatible software
• An internet service provider (ISP)

Not every online course at Athabasca University requires that you have an account with an ISP. There are more than a few courses that can be accessed by dialing the university directly.

In fact, Athabasca University is the largest provider of online courses in Canada. There are 450 courses available online - everything from anthropology, to literature, to computer sciences to business. Only a few of these courses are exclusively available online, and even those ones will need the occasional phone call to the professor. There will always be textbooks that will require you to trek down to your bookstore.

Athabasca University is also committed to letting students take classes without being online with a computer. Nearly every course offered can be taken by post and by phone.

The University of Alberta, Faculty of Extension also offers several courses online, including a masters course. This course is Master of Arts, Communication and Technology. Like any masters degree, an undergraduate degree is required. If undergraduate writing courses are what you're interested in, the Faculty of Extension has several courses that are available, for the most part, online.

Most universities and colleges offer courses at the secondary level that can be taken online. The University of Guelph, the University of Waterloo, the University of British Columbia and Champlain College are just a few of the institutions that offer online courses. In some cases, even full time students can take some of their classes online. Students prefer to boot up and study online after midnight, rather that get up and make a 7 a.m. class.

Variety expanding

The variety and range of courses offered online is growing. The University of British Columbia actually offers online courses in civil engineering, animal science and agriculture. As technology advances, so do the opportunities for online learning. Distance learning and education is becoming more common as busy people decide that they want to upgrade their education - whether to advance in employment, to broaden their job opportunities or to broaden their minds.

Athabasca University can be reached on the Internet at http://www.athabascau.ca/ or at 1-800-788-9041. The address for the University of Alberta, Faculty of Extension is http://www.extension.ualberta.ca/. An excellent website listing universities and colleges that offer secondary level online courses can be found at http://www.worldwidelearn.com/.