t results in a reduced commitment to the course. While dropout rates for all freshmen at American universities is around 20 percent, the rate for online students is 35 percent. Students themselves seem to understand the weaknesses inherent in the setup. In a survey conducted for eCornell, the DL division of Cornell University, less than a third of the respondents expected the quality of the online course to be as good as the classroom course.
Clearly, from the schools’ perspective, there’s a lot of money to be saved. Although some of the more ambitious programs require new investments in severs and networks to support collaborative software, most DL courses can run on existing or minimally upgraded(升级) systems. The more students who enroll in a course but don’t come to campus, the more the schools saves on keeping the lights on in the classrooms, paying doorkeepers, and maintaining parking lots. And, while there’s evidence that instructors must work harder to run a DL course for a variety of reasons, they won’t be paid any more, and might well be paid less.
57. What is the most striking feature of the University of Phoenix?
  A) All its courses are offered online.
  B) Its online courses are of the best quality.
  C) It boasts the largest number of students on campus.
  D) Anyone taking its online courses is sure to get a degree.
58. According to the passage, distance learning is basically characterized by _________.
A) a considerable flexibility in its academic requirements
  B) the great diversity of students’ academic backgrounds
  C) a minimum or total absence of face-to-face instruction
  D) the casual relationship between students and professors
59. Many students take Internet-based courses mainly because they can ________.
  A) earn their academic degrees with much less effort
  B) save a great deal on traveling and boarding expense
  C) select courses from various colleges and universities
  D) work on the requi