Online education gets a bad rap, and there are a few reasons why.
Most notably, online universities are still relatively new, having only been around for 20 years or so. Second, it鈥檚 true that many online universities have, on the whole, been of a lower quality than traditional options. They鈥檝e historically offered courses which consist of little more than PDF packets or, worse, courses which amount to little more than scams. Additionally, there鈥檚 a general disconnect when it comes to the difference between online universities and online education at large. MOOCs (massive open online courses)鈥撯�搇ike those offered through Udacity, for example, which consists mostly of long videos without support, faculty, or peer interaction鈥撯�揹eliver on something entirely different than online universities. Yet people typically think of them as one and the same.
Finally, society, too, plays a role in sustaining this stigma. Some folks tend to look down on or disregard people coming from an online university. That perception, however misguided, still persists today.
Whichever way you look at it, the perpetuation of this false conception of online education is bad for students, as it contributes to a common fear amongst prospective graduates that an online degree simply won鈥檛 help them in life. The result? Many folks who could benefit from it end up not pursuing a graduate degree at all鈥撯�揳nd that decision ends up damaging not only students鈥� lives, but also the health of society as a whole.
Right now in the U.S., only a third of adults have 4-year degrees鹿. If online universities were less stigmatized, that number would be a lot higher, as the number of students pursuing degrees online would grow even faster虏.
It鈥檚 time to dispel this myth.
The truth is鈥攆or working professionals, especially鈥攐nline universities today prove a lucrative, logical option for obtaining an advanced degree.
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Sure, students attending online universities will miss out on certain social experiences that come with living on campus, like being able to go grab coffee with your peers after class. And some degrees鈥撯�搇ike nursing鈥撯�搑equire in-person practice. But there aren鈥檛 any tangible advantages to traditional institutions from an actual learning perspective as it pertains to most disciplines. In fact, most online universities in the U.S. today are held to the exact same standards and regulations as traditional universities.
I鈥檝e experienced this first hand as the founder of an online university, 狼友社区. When I was researching how to lay the framework for 狼友社区, I discovered the process for obtaining a university license is the same for an online university as it is for traditional universities.
For many people, in fact, attending an online university is likely to prove more beneficial than taking out loans to attend a traditional university.
Here are just a few reasons why.
In an online setting, students enjoy greater access with faculty members. This may feel like a paradox, but it鈥檚 true.
Students can email their professors at any given time, for example, or chat with them online. Better yet, if students are reading course content, say, and they don鈥檛 understand some aspect, they can pause, email, or even chat with their professor and wait until they have the opportunity to affirm that bit of essential foundational understanding before moving on. If the online university in question provides proper support, never will a student in that setting be forced to proceed through a course conflicted by confusion.
In traditional universities, on the other hand, where students are forced to sit through entire 鈥渓ectures鈥� and maybe get the chance to see professors after class during their often-packed office hours鈥撯�搘hich professors, in fact, sometimes hold days later!鈥撯�搕hat lack of understanding happens all the time.
Online students are able to access their content where they want to, when they want to.
They can take more time when completing assignments and internalizing course content.
If you tend to process new information at a slower pace than other students, for example, this means you can take the time you need to go at your own pace. For many students, that can mean the difference between earning a passing grade and failing.
Similarly, if you鈥檙e a student who鈥檚 perhaps more advanced than your peers, you can proceed through your course content faster in an online environment than you would be able to traditionally.
In fact, in traditional settings鈥撯�揳 90-minute lecture class, for instance鈥撯�搃f 80% of your classmates don鈥檛 understand the content and they鈥檙e constantly asking questions that you already know the answer to, you as a student have no choice but to sit there, bored.
Online universities allow you to use your time to more actively pursue and complete your degree.
Online universities assemble students from all over the world鈥撯�揳nd there鈥檚 an immense benefit to opening yourself up as a student to a variety of cultures and perspectives.
Even though we only launched 狼友社区 six months ago, we鈥檝e already enrolled learners from over 20 different countries.
In addition to making new connections which might help you later in life, learning more about different kinds of people makes students more empathetic and culturally aware. It also makes you more averse to the perils of groupthink.
Students of online universities can test the relevance of what they鈥檙e learning in real-time by applying what they鈥檝e learned in their actual life. This helps the content 鈥渟tick鈥� more easily, especially in comparison with the way people learn in traditional universities. In traditional settings, you learn in something of a four-year silo of isolation, separated meaningfully from the real world. The result of that, often, is students forgetting much of what they learned.
The online model also, however, instills in students an appreciation for the importance of life-long learning鈥撯�搒omething that will only increase in importance in the future. Just as software developers are constantly studying new programming languages to stay ahead, soon, too, will professionals across industries need to invest in re-skilling.
In fact, this is already the case. According to the , employers are increasingly insisting upon hiring 鈥渒nowledge workers鈥� who re-skill in order to create 鈥渙riginal knowledge products.鈥�
Finally, students of online universities don鈥檛 need to quit their jobs to attend school, which means the experience is easier to pay for and doesn鈥檛 necessitate putting your life on hold.
The importance of this cannot be understated. For many professional learners, the need to take out loans or quit their job for four years is precisely what precludes them from attaining higher education. They need that flexibility of completing a course or obtaining a degree in smaller chunks and at their preferred pace. students in the US today are employed.
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Because of these benefits, the stigma that holds people back from pursuing an online education route will vanish within 5-10 years.
And online education more generally will become mainstream in 5.
Ultimately, the ascent of online education into the realms of universal respectability will mirror that of other industries鈥撯�搇ike banking or credit cards, for example鈥撯�搕hat once faced resistance transitioning to an online model. And once it happens, we won鈥檛 think twice about it.
It鈥檚 simply too logical and lucrative an option for too many people. In fact, I鈥檇 venture to guess that soon, all traditional U.S. universities will offer an online option. As more success stories emerge, and if the cost of attending a four-year physical university doesn鈥檛 decrease鈥撯�搃f it doesn鈥檛, will be bankrupt in 10 years鈥撯�搕his model may even become the norm.
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鹿https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/us-census-bureau-americans-are-more-educated-than-ever-before/4546489.html 虏https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/11/07/new-data-online-enrollments-grow-and-share-overall-enrollment