In the overall landscape of education, one more small college campus in remote Wildwood isn't exactly a game changer.

But Lindenwood University's opening last week of its 11th extension campus is yet another example of how a rapidly changing collection of public, private and for-profit schools is making a grab for every available student.

Enrollment is up almost everywhere, boosted by record numbers of high school graduates. But schools here and across the nation also are increasingly targeting older adults looking for advantages in a tough job market.

From their schools, these adults want weekend and evening classes. They want online classes. They want campuses close to home or work. They want predictable schedules. And they don't want to spend years working on their degrees.

"This is the have-it-your-way generation," said Carol Aslanian, a vice president with research firm EducationDynamics. "And they need a ticket to the next level."

Attracting these students is, more than anything, about making the education experience as convenient as possible.

Campuses like Lindenwood's Wildwood extension represent one way that's happening — and the school has been adding new sites every 18 months or so in recent years.

"We sort of look to the outer edges of our service area and keep pushing out whenever it makes sense," said Brett Barger, dean of evening admissions and extension campuses.

It makes sense for Lindenwood and others because it's a chance to attract students both from the army of nearby residents who never completed college and from those working professionals eager to add something new to their résumés.

It was just the thing for Dennis Peterson, 34, who is set to resume work next month on his master's degree in business administration.

"I can basically walk there or ride my bike," said Peterson, who started at Webster University but grew discouraged by the long commute between work, home and school.

Married with four children, he represents the type of student who wants to return to college, as long as it fits around his other obligations.

"Our students need to work. We hear a lot about the need to juggle family and school," said Ray Cummiskey, president of Jefferson College, which just announced plans to add a new campus in northwest Jefferson County — in the former Cedar Hill Intermediate School building.

The college had 5,800 students last fall and has been growing at a rate of nearly 17 percent a year for several years. Much of that growth is driven by older adults. Colleges offering weekend or evening classes for this particular group of students is nothing new. But schools are going much further today, creating programs aimed squarely at offering the easiest way possible to gain new degrees.

That's why Fontbonne University — which hopes to offer an online MBA program soon — introduced sweeping changes late last year to its 18-year-old Options program that targets nontraditional students. It now has a more structured format, with five eight-week semesters each year. Before that, students would have to wait for a class to fill up before it started, creating an unpredictable class schedule.

"It's a very competitive market. You have to constantly be looking at your programs," said Linda Maurer, dean of the College of Global Business and Professional Studies at Fontbonne. "It's not that the old system wasn't working. But it was time for a change."

Experts say it's also no coincidence that the strategic shift by traditional institutions has followed a rise in the popularity of for-profit colleges, which specialize in easy access and emphasize degree programs leading directly to careers. Their willingness to offer online courses, in particular, has forced traditional institutions to follow suit, experts say.

Colleges like the University of Phoenix, Sanford-Brown and Brown Mackie have aggressively expanded across the nation in recent years, with enrollment at for-profits soaring to 1.8 million in 2008 from 550,000 in 1998, according to federal data.

Brown Mackie is one of the newest to enter the St. Louis market, opening its Fenton campus in February. With only 127 students, the school is small, but it is planning for a steady expansion that will more than triple its enrollment within a year or so.

The campus, which sits near the intersection of Interstate 44 and I-270, is making a run at atypical college students such as Margarie Lutes, a Cedar Hill woman who was cast adrift last year when Chrysler closed its St. Louis North truck plant.

Lutes, who's backed by a federal aid package that will cover her education, is sort of the ideal student for schools such as Brown Mackie. She has a world of family responsibilities. And at 51, she wasn't terribly enthusiastic to be surrounded by the eager young people found a typical four-year university.

"I was really dreading coming to school and the idea that I'd be sitting in classrooms and doing homework," said Lutes, who's studying information technology.

As it turns out, that part of it hasn't been so bad, with Brown Mackie — like other schools catering to the adult market — offering a low-key atmosphere. There's also considerable emphasis on course work that's done away from school.

Consider the so-called blended classes the school will begin offering next month on a limited basis. The online/classroom hybrids will allow students to spend six hours a week in class and six hours online.

"We're always looking for ways to eliminate the need for students to drive to campus," said Terri Leap, president of St. Louis campus.

This move away from the traditional college experience may have some potential drawbacks, particularly as traditional students begin to take advantage of the same types of classes. The college experience, after all, is about more than just the time spent in a classroom, said Kathleen Sullivan Brown, associate professor of education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

"At what point are you trading off so much of the substance that's behind the degree?" she asked.

For-profits are also facing scrutiny from federal officials, worried over the fact that students of these schools account for a disproportionately large share of loan defaults on the $20 billion they receive in federal aid.

And there have been headline-grabbing incidents in which for-profits were accused of recruiting students from homeless shelters, and even prisons. Critics also complain that too many graduates are saddled with thousands of dollars in debt, and unable to find well-paying jobs in their degree fields. That has prompted some legislators to call for a so-called gainful employment law that would tie student loan levels to expected earnings potential of a given degree.

Some education experts, however, suggest that the problems are limited to a relatively small piece of the sector.

"There's a temptation to tar them all with the same brush. But I don't think it's warranted," said Guilbert Hentschke, education professor at the University of Southern California.