Today’s college students may only have to travel as far as the nearest computer to attend their first class of the day.

More universities are ditching the classroom in favor of online courses. Reasons vary, but most universities say they are going online to reach a larger number of students. This means more sleep and for some, a better learning experience.

Joseph Skulan, University of Wisconsin professor of geology and the online course “The Age of Dinosaurs,” said his course is meant to reach those unable to attend class.

“The main aim of this course is to make it available to non-traditional students who wouldn’t be able to attend class otherwise,” Skulan said. “Money-saving is not an issue here.”

At some schools, entire departments have moved online. The universities of Iowa State, Iowa and Northern Iowa have joined forces to save a number of foreign language departments. The three schools plan to teach Eastern European language via Internet-based videoconferencing.

Whether or not going online is beneficial to students is yet unknown. Studies concerning online education and their benefits have yielded mixed results.

A recent study by two psychologists at Texas Tech University concluded stronger students benefit from online courses. A stronger student was defined as one with better comprehension skills.

In the study, students read a passage, listened to a passage and saw a series of pictures accompanied by words. After each section, students answered questions revealing how well they comprehended what they read. Students scoring well on the test did better taking the online course than their classroom counterparts.

A professor at Michigan State University conducted a similar study and found that students taking the online course performed worse than those taking the same course in a classroom setting.

Ed Fedosky, WebCT administrator for UW-Madison, said the level of benefit depends on the student.

“It’s not necessarily a better way of learning, but an alternative way of learning which for some students may be better,” said Fedosky. “Some students communicate more effectively in e-mails than in person. It’s just their nature. Other people would communicate more effectively and be happier on a one-to-one personal basis. I think online resources give students an alternative way to learn.”

Fedosky said students who might be less inclined to speak up in class may feel more comfortable doing so in an online setting.

There are already some universities that are exclusively online. University Alliance enrolls over 65,000 students while offering everything from a Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology to a Master’s Degree in Nursing. The number of schools offering online education is growing and experts say there is no end in sight.

“It’s really a demand,” said Fedosky. “If there’s demand for it there will be more opportunities. For example, in engineering, nursing and pharmacy–there’s a real demand [for online education] in those departments.”