Online Education

Although there are many advantages of an online education, there are also some disadvantages. The fact that you are working on your own could very well be one of the major disadvantages of taking online educational classes.

Consider the busy lifestyle of most people. Between work and family responsibilities, the average person has little time to dedicate to outside pursuits even when those pursuits could mean a better job, more money and better benefits. Simply finding the time to attend regular classes may be impossible so an online education becomes a viable option. But the same reason that online education is a great option – lack of time – is the very reason that online education is often difficult.

When you’re attending a traditional class, you go to school at a prearranged times. You are expected to be in class and you are forced to keep up with your instructor’s assignment schedule or risk failing the course. With an online education, there is probably no one checking your progress on a regular basis. You may be given some guidance along the way, but you and you alone are usually responsible for working your way through the course. Since you can work at your own pace, some people find themselves putting the work off until they don’t have enough time to finish the requirements.

If there are no time requirements, the opportunities to put off working on the material is even greater. You can literally go for weeks or months (or even years) without finishing the material to get credit for the course. You’ve paid for the opportunity to learn, but a lack of motivation is often the downfall of those who seek out online education.

Another major disadvantage is the lack of interaction. You aren’t in a classroom and don’t have the opportunity to hear questions and discussion from other students. This isn’t always an issue, depending on the subject of the online education course you are taking, but it could be an important factor in deciding whether an online education is the best option when seeking out opportunities for learning new skills or gaining new training.

About the author: Matt Norman is the founder of Easy Distance Learning a website providing information on learning online

Many traditional colleges and universities are now offering online courses, which are the exact same as those taught on campus, to distance learners. Online education is generally taught in one of several ways, including satellite feeds via the internet, correspondence or online reading lessons. This approach allows students to obtain a degree without ever setting foot into the classroom. An online education, assuming that it is from a regionally accredited college or university, is widely accepted as suitable training for any job in the related field of study.

Online education is convenient in many ways, but some students overlook the fact that it is much more affordable than a campus degree program. Why? Because of student housing & meal costs, which can range from $6,000 and up every year. With online education, students only pay for the courses that they are taken and they can often do so on a per credit hour basis.

The type of online education program that everyone should avoid is what is known as a ‘diploma mill.’ In exchange for a fee, which is usually up to $900.00, they will issue a degree for assessed life experience. These facilities often have a very professional website and appear to be legitimate. In fact, they even assure potential customers that they are issuing legal degrees. Upon further inspection of these websites, potential students will see that they can order a transcript with any grade point average of their choice. But for what? No classes were attended and no valid grades were issued, so how is it that these supposed legal degrees are actually legal? If any website claims to issue life experience degrees without an extensive review of the student’s background or some type of test being issued, consumers should be very cautious before handing over big bucks for a potentially phony degree.

The only valid way to obtain life experience credit is to take the CLEP, or similar, test for college admission. This test is designed to see how much the student knows about a particular subject and to determine whether or not he/she knows enough to skip over the relating course in exchange for college credit. In addition, some regional universities offer portfolio assessments, which allows educators to review a personally-written portfolio from the student explaining why he/she is knowledgeable about a particular subject and why he/she should receive life experience credit. These are legitimate ways to earn life experience, or knowledge-based, college credit.

Online Education has been around for a several years and has
been the target of many skeptics. Many skeptics feel that there
is not enough interaction with the teachers and other students
to make a virtual campus as educational as a traditional campus.
They also feel that the material is not as educational. While
this is dying out as a topic on the critics list, because they
are being proven wrong, I felt this was pretty interesting. I
have attended both types of universities, online and
traditional. I have to disagree with all of the skeptics
statements.

I personally attended a traditional campus throughout my
freshman year. During this time, I don’t think I spoke to ten
students and I was never able to contact my teachers. After
sitting through a two hours lecture that they called class, I
usually was so brain dead from trying to soak up all of the
information or too tired to think of questions that I had. So, I
would go home ponder on the lecture and come up with questions.
At this point it was too late to ask them. How does this benefit
anyone? I don’t think it does.

However, when I began to obtaining my online education as a
sophomore, I found there was so much more interaction. I could
e-mail my teachers and get a response from them usually within
twenty four hours. I also found that I was not embarrassed to
ask any questions. As a student, I often wondered if my
questions were stupid or ridiculous. I was always afraid to ask,
for fear that I would get laughed at by other students or that
the teacher would look at me and say, “Duh.” Which never
happened, but it was always in the back of my mind. I have had
discussion through chat sessions, e-mails, and phone
conversation with hundreds of other students throughout my
sophomore year. I personally have enjoyed the experience so much
that I have decided to continue my online education and obtain a
four-year degree.

The material that has been covered in my online education
institute has been as challenging, if not more so, than when I
attended a traditional university. I have had a large increase
in my GPA as an online student. This is mostly due to the fact
that I can review the material as many times as I want and add
to the material whenever I want. In my freshman year at a
traditional university, I spent many hours sitting in a
classroom listening to lectures. After I left the lecture, I had
several questions, as I stated above, which never got answered.
The other problem was that the teachers speak very quickly and
it is almost impossible to catch every point that they make. The
next time I would go to the class, the teacher would have a pop
quiz or a test on the lecture. I did not score very high on
these.

After I thought about my personal experiences with online
versus traditional education experiences, I began to wonder how
others felt that had been in both atmospheres. I began looking
at forums and talking with other students at my online
university. There are hundreds of students that feel they are
getting a better education at an online university than they
were at a traditional university. But I guess the critics have
to have something to talk about.

Online education is not easy. It takes a lot of self-discipline
and responsibility, but it does work. My personal experiences
are proof that you can get a decent online education. Is it for
everyone? No, there are many people out there that need to have
the classroom atmosphere for different reasons. Traditional
classrooms offer a motivated work environment instructed by an
educator. Some people need that in order to complete their
degree program. They need to have someone motivate them. They
need to have a teacher tell them that there assignment is due on
a daily basis or weekly basis. That is not a bad thing. But,
that doesn’t mean that online education is any worse or better
than a traditional classroom either.

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