The past year has been a busy one for online education, one that has seen several developments that only continue to dismantle the barriers between a traditional college degree and an online one.

First, Ashworth College, a major online institution, introduced the Ashworth College Student Community. This online forum and gathering place allows students to talk to each other about anything from classes and homework to entertainment and politics. It further allows for communication between students and professors, career counselors, and Ashworth alum. Part Facebook and part student union, the online community was met with widespread acclaim. This month, it won the 2011 SNCR Commendation of Merit for academic innovation.

Also this year, a growing number of traditional universities – including some of the biggest and most prestigious names in the country – ventured into the world of online education for the first time. Perhaps the most recent and notable example is that of the University of California, Berkeley, which announced this month the creation of an online master’s programs for a degree in public health. The program, which will start in the spring, has a tuition tag of $6,000 per semester and will hand out degrees indistinguishable from those offered by Berkeley’s more traditional School of Public Health.

Taken together, these two developments hint at the growing popularity of online education. Although online programs have been popular for years, the moves of traditional schools into online arenas and of online school towards the promotion of a “campus culture” have coalesced to put virtual education degrees firmly into the mainstream. Experts predict that an increasing number of traditional schools will offer online community forums and online degrees in the next few years.

So what does this mean for those of us in the online education field? On the one hand, it gives online educators greater latitudes for instructing students in fields where there are few schools and professionals are in short supply. Public health is one such field. Medical billing and coding is another. At the same time, however, it means increased competition from a wide array of degree providers.

For the student, though, the benefits are almost universally positive. Less disparities between traditional and virtual schools means more opportunities, more programs, and more post-graduate possibilities for qualified students. And the line only stands to blur further in the future; with people forced to work full-time to pay for their education, and with technology permeating every aspect of our lives, the progression seems almost inevitable – and natural.