Oregon community colleges are developing distance education programs for some of the hottest degrees. Campustechnology.com reports that the Oregon Community Colleges Healthcare Education Alliance is seeking to expand its healthcare-related degrees -- and it's looking to distance education to achieve this ambition.

The Alliance is calling on Pearson technology to help realize its dream of providing distance learning to Oregon students.

The new online healthcare program is a response to the dearth of healthcare workers in the state. The Oregon Center for Nursing projects that by 2020 one of every two nursing positions will be vacant, and that the demand for healthcare services will grow by 30 percent.

Oregon community colleges plan to deliver training programs through Pearson's state-of-the-art eCollege learning management system, LearningStudio.

Because Oregon is a rural state, this development comes as a welcome addition to the community college system. It will allow students in rural towns to remain in those towns while pursuing an education. Indeed, similar initiatives have taken root all over the country, bringing top-notch education programs to the most distant reaches of the United States.

Oregon students will be able to pursue degrees in pharmacy technology, occupation therapy, diagnostic imaging, and addiction counseling, among others.

Distance learning is giving students all over the country a new lease on their professional lives. And with aid from the latest technology, these new distance learning programs certainly aren't your correspondence courses of yesteryear.