Online Education

How about studying the most difficult concepts in Physics of the luxury of sitting in your cozy room? Sounds interesting! If this entices you enough to try your hand at online education, hold on! You will be happy to know that this is only one of the several benefits of online education. There is a lot that online education has to offer to school students in terms of the quality and quantity of subject specific study content and a host of other related benefits.

To elucidate on the benefits of online education to all you students in school out there studying under various boards such as CBSE, ICSE, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Matriculation Board, here are a few points.

• The anywhere, anytime factor! Unlike tuition classes which have fixed hours, students can study online anytime, as per their own convenience. All that a student needs is a computer and an internet connection. Once the necessary hardware components are in place, students can start surfing their way through the plethora of information available online. The advantage of round-the-clock availability of interesting study content has indeed made more students get inclined towards this medium in addition to using other conventional study mediums and methods such as books.

• A Student-centric teaching approach! Unlink the regular classroom teaching at schools and tuition centres, the online education follows an approach that is more student-centric rather than being teacher- oriented. Students not only have a say in the timing of their study schedules but are also equipped with the power to decide their own pace of learning. While studying online, students are under no pressure whatsoever to complete their studies within a stipulated time period. Online education is especially a boon for students tend to learn at a pace slower than most others in the class, as they can take as much time to understand and learn a concept well as they wish to. While studying online students need not feel shy in asking questions and wanting to read the said study material over and over again.

• Involvement of multiple media! Studying from simple black and white text is no more a compulsion for students studying under CBSE, ICSE, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Matriculation board. Online education offers a lot of interesting and innovative methods in teaching concepts to these school students. Apart from the regular study material, students can study using videos, animations, multimedia enriched puzzles etc. There are various websites that provide curriculum aligned study content for these boards using multiple media that can make studies very interesting and learning easy.

• Low cost! With very low cost involved, online education will not burn a hole in the pockets of students. Unlike study courses at tuition centers that involve a hefty monthly or a yearly fee, online education is a comparatively low cost affair. Apart from the subscription costs, there is no significant cost involved in studying online. Studying using online education, students can save a lot of money and time that is saved in doing away with unnecessary commuting to and fro schools, colleges, tuition centers etc.

I am positive that all these benefits of online education will help you understand and use this medium better and will also help you with your studies in school.

Online education is fast becoming acceptable because of its great advantages over traditional schools. According to National Center for Education Statistics – NCES and U.S. Department of Education, distance learning enrollments has risen from 3.1 million in 2001 to 12.2 million in 2006. The online education trend is constantly growing at a rate of 19% which is expected to result in 18 million online degree enrollments by the year 2010.

Following are some of the benefits that will make you understand the value of distance learning.

Self paced Study

Do you want to learn at your choice of time? This is now possible with distance education. One can study at its own convenient time; the online education lets you study wherever you are in a mood or motivated enough to easily get hold on your course/subject.

Economical education

Are you looking for economical education with accreditation? Online education is far more economical then campus based education because the online universities don’t have to pay for electricity usage in class rooms, per lecture fee for professors, staff salaries, and at last the online universities don’t have to maintain and manage complete university which is real expensive; in short the online university expenses got reduced while providing the same quality standards and accreditation. Because of less expenditure, they offer courses and degrees at lowers fees as compared to campus schools.

Accredited Degree

Degrees offered by online universities are always accredited with higher authorities, those which are not could be scams (be aware of them) or will bring you no benefit. Some of the accreditation authorities are International Accreditation Agency for Online Universities (IAAOU) for United States, United States Department of Education (USDE) or Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Before opting for any online degree or course, one have to make sure that the online institute in accredited with USDE and CHEA.

24/7 Availability of Lectures

Online education facilitates self scheduled study plan because online lectures are available 24/7, one is not required to be in class at specific time to attend the lecture. This has also increased study to time ratio, means to increase grasping power because study plan is not dependent on strict university schedule where students have to be in class whether they can grasp or not, on the other hand, online learning facilitates learning at time when the student wants to learn. However there are certain level of constrains e.g. to submit assignment on time, achieve certain marks to pass the course etc

World Wide University/Course Selection

Distance learning is another sign of global village; the growing trends of online education can be assessed by the stats that 96% of the colleges and universities within U.S are offering distance learning courses and degree programs. Among them are the world’s best universities including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Yale University.

Student Interactivity and Discussion

Online education also facilitates student’s group discussions through forums, chat rooms, and discussion boards where students around the worlds can contribute to and participate in and start group discussions. There platforms are managed by the online universities to keep discipline. These platforms also support teacher and student discussion where students can ask their teacher about problems and concerns.

The online learning environment has been gaining a lot of following from students, teachers, and career persons, to the average Joe who is looking to for ways to improve. More people are realizing the benefits of online education because it allows mobility, flexibility, and a new set of teaching methods that can’t be introduced through classical education.

Online Education and the Flat Earth

In an ever changing paradigm of wealth management and financial freedom, information dissemination is the key. That is why free online education courses are flattening the world of information sharing and putting motivated people in a level playing field. Internet based education is an effective tool in dispersing the tenets of 21st century education.

The benefits of online education are endless. While the most important feature of this is time and geographical flexibility, it is also the factor that is taken for granted. This allows businessmen to sit down during their low hours and learn. Meanwhile students are given the incentive to apply for home schooling. For highly mobile people like tourists and business travelers, as well as soldiers or any jobs that require global travel, online learning is a friendly tool to keep improving. People who feel that they are stuck in a grueling 9-5 job will finally have an outlet where they can learn. Thus, kind of education puts knowledge and information from the center to every peer students.

Online education is also a “user-friendly” approach to information management. In this way, the student gets to have more leverage to assess the information for him and make his own impressions rather than be forced under a classroom structure set by the faculty. This allows students to feel a sense of accountability because they are encouraged to learn the way they choose.

Online learning does not require students to keep with the current pacing of the course. In this way, faster students who want to go ahead can do so, while students who prefer to study every material carefully without embarrassment can do so. This education puts the onus of interaction to the student instead of an environment moderated by the teacher. Students are therefore more susceptible to interact with the material and with the instructor; In addition to that, the democratic setting allows students and teachers to meet in a less intimidating setup. With this type of learning, camaraderie between students in online forum is emphasized and informal communication makes instructors more approachable.

Online Education and the Student Appeal

This student-centered approach allows students infinite flexibility while encouraging the creation of more convincing online education journals. Thus, we can say that the quality of information improves a lot under the online environment.

One of the many benefits of online education is its availability of education materials. While traditional learning requires the library and endless number of paper readings, this type of education puts the materials online. Thus, everything that is needed to learn is found online. Even better, the range of materials is limited only by the imagination of the instructor or the student. Web based education materials can take the form of journals, videos, podcasts, forum discussions, audio books and e-books. This method is an infinitely more personal and more organized form of 21st century learning.

The value of internet based education today is staggering. It represents a cultural shift and a change in attitude to classical education. Thus, the medium given by the benefits of online education allows revolutionary ideas like 21st century education to be formalized without the need for institutional approval. The internet has broken the classical structure and thankfully more students are seeing it that way. Online education and 21st century education is a perfect marriage indeed.