JENNIFER LEWINGTON, Globe and Mail
Experts say the flexibility of online learning is especially attractive to women juggling work, family and personal demands. “It is really about fitting the learning pattern to the lifestyle,” says David Porter, chief executive officer of eCampusOntario, a non-profit, government-funded agency that publishes a directory of 16,000 online courses and 700 programs at colleges and universities across the province. According to Statistics Canada (which does not track gender splits in online learning), women accounted for 56 per cent of students on campus at colleges and universities in 2013-14, but the ratio is higher in distance learning, as reported by individual institutions and agencies. For example, women account for two-thirds of participants in online offerings, according to the Ontario College Application Centre.
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