Integrating on-campus and distance students into the same courses offers them opportunities to work as they will after graduation. They can "sit next to" a student from Pakistan whose workday is almost a half day later. They can learn about the challenges of international virtual teams, differences in cultures, and the complications of technologically mediated communication. On-campus students who work with distance technologies and distance students become competent naturally in using IT.Equally important to their later careers, they become knowledgeable also about the social and organizational dynamics of using IT.

Students who enroll on campus are different from distance students in many ways- average age, the kind of work they do outside class, experience and reasons for enrolling; but both sorts of students gain from working with one another. Fairleigh Dickinson University [2] is only one example of universities that see the advantage of requiring campus-based students to enroll in online offerings.

Just as students learn from being in class with distance students, so too do faculty. And as faculty members engage in distance teaching, they become adept at using information technology and begin to think about IT in new ways. A department in which faculty all engage in some forms of distance teaching is likely to begin working in new ways, as we have found at Illinois. Support staff originally hired for distance learning now support all faculty members, and almost all classes now embed some form of distance technology into campus learning. Lectures, commencements and job fairs are online for all students. Faculty from a variety of disciplinary traditions now use collaborative technologies with colleagues around the world.

To integrate online distance instruction with on-campus teaching requires a different way of thinking about how online learning fits with college and university business plans. It also requires skill in developing these integrated offerings so that parents, politicians, students and faculty understand distance learning in new ways.

Instead of cost models that focus on income and expenses of online programs alone, colleges might assess the benefits and costs to their campuses when programs are joined. [3] Does joining programs allow an institution to build fewer new classrooms- or even convert large classrooms to other uses? Can savings be realized this way? If students become adept at using new technologies, what are the benefits in employment options? If faculty can collaborate more easily, what are the advantages for research productivity? Are there cost savings from travel budgets? (Probably not: it is more likely that faculty will develop more international connections leading to more travel!) What are the cost savings in personnel when parallel administrative systems are reduced? What new opportunities do colleges and universities have for promoting and expanding the reach of their campus? ? Do distance students increase the proportion of out-of-state students and out-of-state revenue? Does enrollment of minority and international students increase?

To share on-campus and distance instruction as described above requires significant investment, albeit a portion is non-recurring. Faculty members require preparation time to develop online courses and usually will need to teach fewer students in class. The staff required to teach faculty and students in new modes and to operate distance technologies will be costly. And improving administrative systems is a nightmare.