The Web Finds A Job; like so much on the net, it took a while. but online education is coming into its own.

Byline: Emily Flynn Vencat

Studying in Iraq or Uganda doesn't mean having to pass up a diploma from a world-class university anymore. Not when so many are available online. Oxford University, to cite just one example, has offered its master's in international-human-rights law to students working for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in East Timor, or those aiding tsunami survivors in Aceh. Tristram Wyatt, director of online learning at Oxford, says that in cyberspace, the "connection can be more profound than a real class. The students are actually in the world's hotspots."

Like so much on the Internet, Web classes stumbled after being hailed as the next big thing in the late 1990s. The first movers, like the London School of Economics' Fathom or NYU Online, failed--losing hundreds of millions of dollars-- because students in the West prefer to attend class (and parties) on a real campus. But online or "distance" learning is now an established and rapidly growing industry, mainly in Asia and the developing world. Market analysts at IDC predict that the global market for corporate e-learning will soar from $8 billion last year to $26 billion by 2010. In the United States, 65 percent of graduate schools now offer online courses, available to students anywhere in the world.

The trend is opening doors for students from small villages in ...