Sheila Samuelson pulled up stakes and moved to San Francisco from Dubuque to earn a master of business administration in sustainability management, a degree that was little offered at that time.

For the founder of Bright Green Strategy in Iowa City, the move several years ago was a good one. Demand for sustainability consulting services are growing, Samuelson said, as companies respond to demand from regulations, customers, shareholders and even employees.

But moving to costly San Francisco to attend the Presidio Graduate School?

“It was a big risk,” Samuelson said.

Sheila Samuelson (Brian Ray/ The Gazette)

The chance to work in real-world sustainability projects and meet luminaries in the sustainability field made it rewarding, but it definitely wasn’t cheap or easy.

Today, Samuelson would have no difficulty finding a sustainability management MBA program online. She’s extended her sustainability consulting practice to coaching, and someday may branch out further by offering web-based instruction.

Today’s knowledge-based economy requires Corridor residents such as Samuelson to quickly obtain degrees and certifications that are in high demand to meet changing needs.

In a knowledge economy, knowledge itself is one of the most valuable products. The term was coined by economist Fritz Machlup and popularized by management expert Peter Drucker in his book “The Age of Discontinuity.”

Nearly 30 percent of all college and university students enrolled in fall 2009 were taking at least one course online, according to the 2010 Sloan Survey of Online Learning. The number of students enrolled in online classes increased by more 1 million from the previous year, the largest increase recorded by the survey.

Early providers of online classes were mainly private, for-profit colleges such as Kaplan University and the University of Phoenix that served students seeking more convenient access to educational offerings.

Today, online learning’s rapid growth is driven more by a change in learning preferences, according to Todd Hitchcock, senior vice president of online solutions and business development at Pearson, which has operations in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.

Hitchcock said online learning can be tailored to meet various learning styles — such as visual learners, audio learners and those who learn best through interactivity.

While it may run counter to widespread perceptions about online learning, the students who prefer it have stated in surveys that they find it much more personalized than a location-based class.

A typical college classroom, after all, might consist of 35 students, each competing for the instructor’s time during the class period.

“In person, it’s one-to-many,” Hitchcock said. “Online, it’s one-to-one.”

Pearson Online supplies online universities and schools with online education modules that can be customized or added to by the institution. They include a series of online courseware called Course Connect, a product called My Labs that allows students to create personalized study plans, and a online tutoring service called Smart Thinking.

At least some of Pearson’s online learning products are used by virtually every online college and university, although some of the larger ones such as University of Phoenix and Kaplan University develop their own courseware, Hitchcock said.

Designing a course for the online classroom is different from a location-based course, he said, taking into account the range of learning styles and the ability to validate answers to online assessments. Pearson uses blue-ribbon panels to help it develop education modules and tests them on real students to determine their effectiveness and user-friendliness.

The company operates a “usability lab” in Chandler, Ariz. Virtual work teams develop the courseware from different locations scattered across the country.

Hitchcock says working remotely helps Pearson’s development teams relate better to the experience of the students who use Pearson’s products.

Pearson spokeswoman Susan Aspey said it’s vital for educators to offer students the learning platforms they prefer.

She noted the Apple iPad was the No. 1 graduation gift for high school students this year. Pearson has recognized the market’s embrace of the iPad, and provides its offerings for the iPad platform.

Employees already established in the workplace increasingly will turn to online offerings to keep their skills fresh, with offerings from companies such as Police Law Institute in North Liberty and QuickServEdu in Coralville.

Police Law Institute researches state law changes in Illinois, Florida, Missouri and Ohio.

“We’ve got about 10,000 officers that we do training for,” Police Law Institute President David Oliver said.

David Oliver (Brian Ray/ The Gazette)

Customers range from a police chief in a small Illinois town to a risk-management group that works with many different law enforcement agencies.

Oliver said the product enables law enforcement officers to take law updates on a wireless laptop computer in their patrol car, or even via their smartphone.

Oliver and a partner have grown the business since acquiring it about one year after it went online, and doing “a complete turnaround” on it. Oliver more recently participated in the start up of QuickServEdu, which is attempting similar success in the restaurant industry, providing employee training in customer service.

Police Law Institute is a virtual company that has its headquarters at Oliver’s home. It has six full-time employees and five more part-time consultants, Oliver said, most of them working in the states where Police Law Institute provides its service.