ABSTRACT
Providing online courses to domestic students is often seen as a way to reach non-traditional learners as well as regular students who want more flexibility in when and where they learn. Many institutions are also looking for a wider audience internationally. As the Sloan Consortium reports in their 2010 survey of U.S. higher education, online courses in U.S. colleges and universities have expanded dramatically. In Fall 2009, there were 5.6 million students enrolled in at least one tertiary-level online course. The Consortium reports an increase of almost 1 million students between their 2009 and 2010 survey (Sloan Consortium, 2010). This growth in online education is not limited to the United States. With increasing availability of high-speed Internet worldwide, the potential for online learning has expanded dramatically. For example, the Internet World Stats website reports that as of March 2011,44% of the world's Internet users were in Asia, and the number of users there has grown over 700% in the last decade (Internet World Stats, 2011a). China has 485 million Internet users, approximately 36% of the population (Internet World Stats, 2011b). The potential for marketing distance teacher education internationally is high.
