Education isn't what it used to be. If you enrolled in a college or university before 1995, you probably spent untold hours sifting through brochures, printed catalogs, and comparative educational directories. Once you finally selected your school, you stood in long lines at the registrar's office and spent a good half day in class registration.

Colleges and universities have been quick to use the Internet for their own purposes. For starters, almost all colleges and universities have Web sites containing basic marketing information. Sometimes that information goes so far as to include a list of classes, a faculty directory, and other relevant information. Increasingly, post-secondary educational institutions are becoming much more creative with their approach to and use of the Internet.

Some universities already use the Net to provide students with detailed class listings, course syllabi, faculty biographies, and online registration. If anyone ever wants an example of something made better by the Internet, consider college class registration. Today, many universities issue usernames and passwords with the usual student ID card. These user-access codes provide students with high-speed Internet access and the most detailed and instantaneous university information available. Using secure servers, students can enroll in an entire semester of classes from their dorm rooms, in about the same amount of time it takes to walk to the cafeteria to grab lunch. Not only are these students better informed about potential classes (detailed information about the class and its professor is only a click away), but they can instantaneously see whether or not the class has any openings. And in more and more universities, these online, secure databases have been setup to alert students to registration anomalies.

If a student enrolls in too many courses, the Internet registration system can send the student an immediate warning. If there's a conflict between class times or locations, the student can be prevented from enrolling in a course until he or she remedies the conflict.

The university Internet often provides access to online library catalogs and circulation, not to mention a variety of other informational resources never before made so easily or readily available. Curious about whether the assigned text is in the university bookstore? Search online. Curious about whether an assigned reference text is checked out of the library? Search online. Want to get the full text of a Scientific American article assigned as reading for the next class period? Get it online.

The Internet is revolutionizing the ease with which Americans can pursue higher education. Today it is also increasingly becoming a venue for the classroom. More and more of our institutions of higher learning offer online Internet courses. For these courses, students can be on campus, in their dorm rooms, or in another country. An increasing variety of Internet technologies and the infrastructure enhancements of Internet2 are making Internet classrooms a completely interactive and viable way for colleges to educate their students.

Contributing Editor Cary Griffith is president of The Electronic Book Co., a Minneapolis-based Web development company specializing in electronic books.

Selected college and university Internet education sites

Higher-education Internet sites can be divided into two basic categories: higher-education reference sites, and sites set up by specific institutions. Reference sites provide college-bound students with quick, easy access to detailed and comparative information about a variety of higher education institutions. These are valuable sites to visit when struggling to sift through mountains of information on tuition, room and board, curricula, majors, faculty, scholarships, and related information.

Online education is opening doors both for universities and the potential students who want to continue their matriculation. If you're in the market for a school, consider conducting your research on the Internet. You won't be disappointed.

Petersons provides users with plenty of information about higher education. Whether you're looking for information on a particular college or university, comparison shopping, reviewing graduate programs, pursuing adult education, getting data on private schools, or want to study abroad, Petersons can help. Petersons also gives users access to listings of available adult, or distance-learning programs. Many of these listings contain references to institutions offering a variety of online courses over the Internet.

Another interesting site is CollegeQuest. While CollegeQuest is related to the Petersons site, it actually takes you to a different URL with an entirely separate look and feel. Here, potential students can get automated assistance choosing the right college or university. A series of questions helps users by considering geographic location, cost, academic standing, scholarship availability, financial aid, and other issues.

CollegeNet is another site devoted to providing potential students with a wide variety of higher-education resources. Top on the list is CollegeNet's ability to help you apply to one of more than 500 colleges and universities. Of course, before applying, you must first find your school of choice. Here CollegeNet helps by delivering several higher-education research sources and services. Some of these include an index to educational Internet sites, a scholarship search engine, and a list of links to other Internet resources.

Good examples of specific institutions' public Internet presence abound. For starters, if you wonder whether a college or university has an Internet site, you can usually call it up by using its acronym. Enter the abbreviation in the address location of your browser, followed by .edu http://www.harvard.edu, http://www.yale.edu, or http://www.stanford.edu. In fact, all of these institutions have excellent Internet sites and provide users with detailed information about the institution, its courses, majors, faculty, tuition, and other information. And all of them provide additional ways of locating information on their sites; search engines, site maps, and so forth.

All of these major institutions are also beginning to offer online classroom instruction. Naturally, the degree of each institution's participation in online course offerings varies greatly.

You can also visit some global online catalogs. A good example of an online listing is Distance Education Clearinghouse. Although the Distance Education Clearinghouse is produced by the Wisconsin Higher Education system, it covers information from other national and international sources.

Many university and college systems are beginning to offer virtual classes via the Internet. For instance, the MSU Virtual University is Michigan State University's effort to break new educational ground. This site lists and describes the degrees, programs, course offerings, required equipment, and other resources and services provided to the Virtual University student. VU also includes an invaluable support phone line, just in case you want to know more.

Many state university and college systems are beginning to set up their own Internet sites devoted to distance learning. Distance learning can include mail order, remote satellite, and other non-Internet learning services. But increasingly, courses offered via the Internet are composing more and more of each states' distance learning services.

The Indiana University system produces a site call the Indiana College Network. Via the ICN users can view a list of course and degree offerings available from Indiana institutions. Currently, the site lists 1,293 courses offered via the Internet.

The California higher-education institution takes a similar approach to the one used by Indiana. Navigate to http://www.california.edu and you'll be able to see a list of similar distance learning opportunities available via the California higher-education institutional network. An increasing number of these courses are also becoming Internet-based.

Similarly, Florida http://www.flcampus.org provides access to distance-earning resources for students and educators. Here you'll find a list of tools for online educators, as well as a catalog of available Internet courses. This catalog is searchable by delivery method (for example, Internet), and lists more than 500 courses offered via the Internet from any one of Florida's 28 community colleges.