Veronica, Thank you for your insightful response. In my experience, the decision to offer online courses was not strongly influenced by responding to student characteristics or "learning styles." Given recent controversy over the credibility of "labeling" learning styles, I'm further convinced it should not be a primary consideration for offering online courses. The factors you identified are some of the "realistic" considerations that a school has to take into account when making the decision to offer online coursework. Other factors to consider are: which learning platform to choose; level of technical support required; the cost of developing and maintaining courses; desired quality and depth of online instruction; faculty qualifications, proficiency and effectiveness; strategies for outcomes assessment; an objective assessment of the connection between academic performance and advancement; and ultimately if the graduate will perform at the expected level of proficiency. Dr. Robert Roehrich