Andy Steele lives just a few blocks from Black Hills State University in Spearfish, S.D., where he is a senior business major. But he doesn't like lectures much, isn't a morning person and wants time during the day to restore motorcycles.

So Steele has been taking as many classes as he can from the South Dakota state system's online offerings. He gets better grades and learns more, he says, and insists he isn't missing out on the college experience.

"I still know a lot of people from my first two years living on campus, and I still meet a lot of people," he says. But now, he sets his own schedule.

At least 2.3 million people took some kind of online course in 2004, according to a recent survey by The Sloan Consortium, an online education group, and two-thirds of colleges offering "face-to-face" courses also offer online ones.

At some schools, online courses — originally intended for nontraditional students living far from campus — have proved surprisingly popular with on-campus students.

A recent study by South Dakota's Board of Regents found 42 percent of the students enrolled in its distance-education courses weren't so distant: They were located on campus at the university that was hosting the online course.

Some schools have students mixing and matching online and "face-to-face" credits. Motives range from lifestyle to accommodating a job schedule, to getting into high-demand courses.

Still, the trend poses something of a dilemma for universities.

They are reluctant to fill slots intended for distance students with on-campus ones who are just too lazy to get up for class. On the other hand, if they insist the online courses are just as good, it's hard to tell students they can't take them. And with the student population rising and pressing for space, the colleges may have little choice.

Many schools, such as Washington State and Arizona State, let individual departments and academic units decide who can take an online course. They say students with legitimate academic needs — a conflict with another class, a course they need to graduate that is full — often get permission, though they still must take some key classes in person.

In fact, the distinction between online and "face-to-face" courses is blurring rapidly. Many, if not most, traditional classes now use online components — message boards, chat rooms, electronic filing of papers. Students increasingly can "attend" lectures by downloading a video or a podcast.

At Arizona State, 11,000 students take fully online courses and 40,000 use the online course management system, which is used by many traditional classes. Administrators say the distinction between online and traditional is now so meaningless, it may not even be reflected in next fall's course catalog.