Boston is a city of campuses. On any jaunt around town, it’s nigh onto impossible not to find yourself at some point standing in the shadow of a university building. Whether brick and ivy or stainless steel and skylights, there’s MIT on Mass Ave, Northeastern and MassArt on Huntington, BU, BC, Berklee, NEC, Harvard, and many more between and beyond.

Given the physical presence of these institutions, Bostonians might forget that around the world, hallowed ivy-covered lecture halls are giving way to borderless cyberspace classrooms, unlimited by constraints of time or space. The spine-twisting screech of chalk on blackboard is being complemented and, in some cases, replaced by keyboard tapping and mouse clicking. Distance learning, in which instruction is delivered primarily or exclusively via the Web, offers a convenient, cutting-edge, and flexible way to pursue an education. For a growing population, from CEOs to senior citizens, online education provides a practical way to get a degree, keep current, develop new skills, or hone old ones. And students can choose from a growing number of high-quality programs.

Meighan Cappello, a 27-year-old information specialist at Genzyme, knew she needed her master’s degree to progress in her field. After investigating her options, she chose the online master’s program in library and information science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (www.online.uillinois.edu). She received her degree in two years while working full time in Boston. "I liked the flexibility that an online degree provided," says Cappello. Distance learning "requires an extra amount of commitment and a lot of typing," she explains, nonetheless emphasizing that she "never felt disconnected" from her classmates. Once a week, a synchronous class was held: all the students logged on at the same time, listened to an audio streaming lecture, and took part in a moderated chat room. Besides that, students were required to travel to the campus every three months, and a two-week on-site session at the beginning of the program "provided a base to build off of." The thing with distance learning, explains Cappello, is that "you’re able to have conversations across time and space," and "it doesn’t matter if the best person to teach the course is living in California; there’s unlimited flexibility in terms of who you can work with."

One of the best examples of that flexibility is the European Graduate School (www.egs.edu) based in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, which offers MAs and PhDs in media and communications and taps the best minds in the field to teach its courses. Instructors include luminaries such as social philosopher Jean Baudrillard; filmmaker David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks); avant-artist-hip-hopper Paul D. Miller; and cult-trash film director John Waters (Hairspray, Pecker). "It’s pretty amazing to be reading a book or watching a film and simultaneously discussing it with the person who wrote or directed it," says Heather Kapplow, who’s currently pursuing her PhD in communication and new-media studies at EGS. And not only are the instructors top-notch, but the students bring international perspective: Kapplow has classmates in Madrid, Tel Aviv, Germany, and Canada, among other countries. The three-year MA program ($14,410) and the four-year PhD program ($15,620) combine Internet-based learning with two intensive three-week summer residencies in Switzerland. Each credit is $330; the total cost factors in travel and lodging expenses for the Saas-Fee summer session.

The EGS Web site offers some insight into the type of student it seeks. For one, "it helps if you’re considered provocative" and have a "keen sense of humor." It’s an education for people who are "disenchanted with an academic system more concerned with the past than the future." The curriculum requires students to be aggressively independent in their thinking in an intensely intellectual environment. EGS discourages "the traditional thesis or dissertation," explains Kapplow. "In addition to a text, you’re expected to make an attempt to bring what you’re learning in the life you’re immersed in to your project, be it through film, fiction, an event, or a Web site." EGS "treats things like the production of artwork, music, or social activism as education," adds Kapplow, "as the praxis end of education. And there’s an assumption that your real life is teaching you things that you could never learn in a classroom."

The online MBA program at Cardean University (cardean.edu) also hinges on professionals bringing their working experience to the classroom, and likewise takes advantage of the wall-less world of cyberspace to pool together the faculty and curriculum of five top-tier business schools: Columbia Business School, Stanford University, University of Chicago School of Business, the London School of Economics, and Carnegie Mellon University. Cardean has taken the business knowledge and course content from these institutions "and found a way to make it accessible to everybody," says Edwin Eisendrath, vice-president of administration and operations at Cardean. "We’ve made it accessible without dumbing it down because we’re really good teachers," he says.

Named after Cardea, the Roman goddess of portals who has the power to open doors, Cardean "understands how people learn and how technology assists that learning," says Eisendrath. The school has concentrations in leadership, finance, accounting and information systems, marketing, strategy and economics, and e-commerce.

In students, Cardean looks, above all else, for an eagerness to learn. "And furthermore," says Eisendrath, "we look at our students to see how they learn, and we work to make sure that our program meets their needs." The MBA tuition is $22,500, with each three-credit class priced at $1500 (there’s also an estimated $2000 spent on course materials). Eisendrath acknowledges that being "a full-time student surrounded by other full-time students" is "the greatest thing in the world. Nothing beats being in a community where people are living and breathing" what they’re learning, he says. "But we also know that that’s not possible for everyone." Eisendrath sees distance learning as an important part of the future of higher education. "Being able to learn flexibly and at a high level is an essential part of the future of the economy and the happiness of the people in it. Not that many [distance-learning programs] do it well. We do it well."

If you’re more Rembrandt than Rockefeller, there’s the Art Institute Online (www.aionline.edu). Like Cardean, AI Online — with its focus on practical applications and life experience — is removed from ivory-tower academics. Based in Pittsburgh, AI Online extends education in the creative or applied arts to adults whose lives, location, or physical abilities limit their ability to attend traditional classes. Admission requirements include a high-school diploma, GED, or associate’s degree; access to a computer with Internet connection; and a high-school or college GPA of at least 2.0. The classes are asynchronous, meaning students log in whenever it’s convenient for them, five days a week. Students can sign up for one class — priced at $1035 each — or enroll in an entire degree or diploma program. AI Online offers diploma programs in digital design and Web design, associate’s degrees in graphic design and multimedia and Web design, and bachelor’s degrees in interior design, game and art design, graphic design, and multimedia and Web design.

The undisputed behemoth of online education, the University of Phoenix (onl.uophx.edu), certainly caters to a variety of market groups. The University of Phoenix is the largest private university in the country, and was among the first to offer Web-based degree programs. Like AI Online, the University of Phoenix’s online class format is asynchronous, allowing for maximum flexibility; students participate when it’s convenient for them. And like all distance-learning programs, there’s "an emphasis on the immediate application of learning to the workplace," says the school’s Web site.

Business, management, technology, education, criminal justice, and nursing constitute the primary BA, MA, and doctoral programs. Cost is based on credit hours: $422 per credit hour for undergraduate courses; $518 for graduate courses; and $595 for doctoral courses. To be admitted to an online degree program, you must be at least 23 years old, have a high-school diploma or its equivalent, be employed, and take the University of Phoenix proctored Comprehensive Cognitive Assessment test. Graduate admissions require the same standards, plus an undergraduate degree, a cumulative GPA of at least 2.5, and three years of significant work experience. Students can opt for a program that takes place entirely over the Internet, or for the FlexNet program, which combines face-to-face interaction with Web-based learning. A third of the time is spent on one of the University of Phoenix’s 125 nationwide campuses, and two-thirds is spent on the Internet. (The Boston location is at 100 Grossman Drive, in Braintree.)

For those who prefer Boston-based campuses, there’s UMassOnline (www.umassonline.net). According to Jack Wilson, CEO of UMassOnline, a key aspect of an online program’s success "is the reputation of the institution that’s delivering the program. A reputation for quality builds up over a long time. We have an established reputation. And we top that off with offering students a first-rate delivery system.

"[UMassOnline] draws from the strengths of each UMass campus," Wilson adds, "which allows us to put together a far more complete program." The online program has "the same admission policies, the same curriculum, and the same standards" as each UMass campus. UMassOnline offers undergraduate and graduate degrees and certificates in arts, business, communications, criminal justice, education, health science, hospitality and management, information technology, liberal arts, and nursing. Each sponsoring campus has its own course requirements, fee structure, admission procedures, academic calendar, and admission policy. Fees vary by program, ranging from $600 to $1200 per course; it’s typically $220 per credit for undergraduate online classes, and $250 for graduate ones.

The fear some people have of distance learning, says Wilson, "is that you’ll get a watered-down product." But he insists that a person coming out of the UMassOnline program "will be just as well educated as a person on campus." Distance learning won’t displace the traditional "go-away-to-college education," Wilson says. But distance learning "has earned itself a place at the table in higher education, and that place will continue to get larger and more important."

Kathleen Clemens, director of marketing and membership services at the United States Distance Learning Association, echoes Wilson’s sentiments. Whether Boston-based or in cyberspace, distance learning "is absolutely here to stay," Clemens says. "It all comes back to education, and that’s a lifelong requirement for all of us."

Nina MacLaughlin can be reached at nmaclaughlin[a]phx.com