The West Virginia University campus will continue to bustle with activity during the next few months as increasing numbers of students take advantage of summer course offerings.

Not all of that growth is coming from traditional classroom learning. New options in distance learning and online courses have helped spur increases in the number of students using the summer months to continue their education.

While Summer Session enrollment in on-campus courses remains strong, the number of students taking a combination of on-campus and online classes has jumped by more than 18.5 percent from last year, and growth for online courses alone is up more than 14 percent. In fact, online courses have been so popular that WVU has opened additional sessions to accommodate the demand.

Students take the courses for a variety of reasons including completing general education credits, tackling challenging courses, increasing their GPA or studying abroad. Sue Day-Perroots, WVU dean of the Division of Extended Learning, said its all about options.

Todays students are looking for more balance in their academic career,she said.They like the flexibility that the WVU Summer Session offers. They can work and enroll in online or face-to-face courses while completing their degree, as well as pick up additional minors.

Day-Perroots also said that there has been an 8 percent increase in the number of doctoral-level students taking summer coursesparticularly in the fields of dentistry, arts and sciences, and human resources and education.

The WVU Summer Session, which runs from May 19-Aug. 7, offers a variety of courses lasting from one to 12 weeks. While core courses such as math, chemistry and accounting are still popular classes on campus, online offerings in advertising, child development, history and public relations provide an opportunity for students to increase credit hours and add a minor.

Its interesting to note that the biggest jump is in online, undergraduate courses,Day-Perroots said.There are a lot of students traveling home, but still taking WVU courses online. The reverse is also true with some college students from other institutions returning home to Morgantown and taking classes through the University.

The increase in summer enrollment mirrors a similar trend the University is experiencing in applications for the fall semester. Earlier this week, officials announced that freshman applications for the fall semester had reached an all-time high. More than 16,600 applications have been received so faran increase of 7.5 percent over the same time last year.

For more information about the WVU Summer Session, visithttp://summer.wvu.edu/.