In what is becoming a growing trend, campus technology officials expect most college course material soon will be accessible on mobile devices -- but IT departments first must make all course web sites readable on the iPhone, Blackberry, and other smart phones prevalent among students.

Louisiana Community & Technical College System and Ball State University were two of the first American institutions to offer courses via cell phone, although not every course was made accessible. Campuses of every size are considering the move to cell-phone-enabled classes, but some IT administrators see the variety of different smart-phone interfaces--from Windows to Google Android, along with others--as a looming roadblock to making cell-phone courses ubiquitous.

"Until things get a little more standardized, it's a real big pain," said Matt Cooper, instructional technology specialist at Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, N.J., where he developed the Mobile Learning Initiative, which lets students in 20 classes complete course work on mobile devices, even without an internet connection. "There's too much to plan for. … [Creating online courses that fit every cell-phone interface] is a pretty high standard to strive for."