Online services are made up of university services and information, that are all accessible though the internet.
Below is a survey showing the online services provided by universities:
Key findings

•  A majority around 87% of universities in Australia have internet access for all of their students and 70% offer access from off campus. 

•    Most universities let students gain online access to their school handbook and calendar which is a nice free resource.

•    Around 90% of universities let students browse their library via the internet and most of them also provide students credited journals, magazines, and case studies.

•    Today, because the internet speeds up the process for teachers and students, most schools use an online course management system such as WebCT and Blackboard which allows students and teachers to post and submit homework, assignments, and discuss certain topics.

•    Online class registration is used at most universities.

•    Universities also offer different types of online support.

Studies such as Management, Health, and Commerce Technology are great examples of courses that would be fully available to take online. Some postgraduate studies have all course work conducted online because the students also participate in full-time work or internships.

Studies such as Physical Science, Creative Arts, and other laboratory work would not work well with online learning because they need to physically conduct their work and create sample products, demos, plays, etc.

Australian universities are rapidly progressing with the online resources made available to students and teachers. We have seen a huge increase and an upgrade of quality in library access via the schools’ online portal.

Online courses allow for students to complete assignments, read lectures, post work, and interact with professors and other students via the Internet.  This allows students to do their work from anywhere they feel most comfortable and at a time that is most convenient.

Important facts

The results of a survey discovered that there were 207 courses offered online from 23 Australian universities. Of these courses, 65 of them (31 per cent) were taught exclusively online.

Most of the online courses (90 per cent) are from the postgraduate level. Typically, the majority of postgraduate online courses tend to focus on specialized courses instead of the more general ones.

More than a quarter of courses being taught online came from the field of Management and Commerce (55 courses).

There are 35 courses from the field of Education and 32 from Health.  

The 85 remaining courses range among the following:

o    Creative Arts
o    Agriculture
o    Society and Culture
o    Engineering and Related Technologies
o    Natural and Physical Sciences
o    Environmental and Related Studies
o    Information Technology
o    Mixed Programs

Online units

Online units are defined as the subjects or courses that have at least some course content through some of the interaction with the professor and other students performed through the Internet.

The fields of study that offer the most fully online units included:

o    Management and Commerce
o    Education
o    Information Technology
o    Health

The fields of study that offer the least use of the web included:

o    Food, Hospitality and Personal Services
o    Creative Arts
o    Society and Culture

Information Technology has the highest use of the Internet when compared to the other fields of study.