How online education has grown, a must-read for potential distance learners
For those of you who are reluctant to admit that online degrees are maybe, just maybe, as useful and as valuable as the degrees that students earn in actual classrooms, humor me and read this. It seems as though a lot of people are loving distance learning these days, and honestly, what’s not to love? It’s accommodating, it’s convenient, and it’s a necessary alternative for busy, budget-conscious adults who want a professional degree.
The article I linked to above is from the online edition of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, so it includes specific references to colleges and universities based in the New York area. Aside from that, this article is relevant to all potential online learners.
Some of the primary statistics cited in the article are from the Sloan Consortium, which is an online education advocacy group. According to a report from the organization, 3.5 million students in the U.S. were enrolled in at least one online course in the fall of 2006. Based on these numbers, the country’s participation in distance learning has more than doubled since 2002. The Sloan Consortium’s CIO, Jeff Seaman, explains that whereas online education was still being proven as a valid learning method a few years back, it is now just another reliable tool that colleges and universities use to educate and assist their students.
The Sloan Consortium also found that two-year schools have the highest growth rate among online institutions, already accounting for more than half of all online enrollments in the nation. For the most part, distance learners are undergraduate students, while schools with more than 7,500 students account for 63 percent of all online enrollments. Despite these majority numbers, smaller schools continue to gain strength in this industry, and online master’s and doctorate degrees are offered in hundreds of fields.
The availability of degrees over the internet and the number of students who opt to learn this way are both expected to trend up in the future. With more and more children being exposed to online resources and virtual learning at an earlier age, experts predict that the newer generations of students are going to expect to be taught in non-traditional ways.
What’s more is the fact that employers are reacting differently towards online degrees than they were a few years back. According to the Boston-based education consulting firm Eduventures, 62 percent of the 500 employers it recently surveyed considered online learning to be equal to or better than face-to-face instruction. With the quality of online education improving dramatically over the past decade, companies are now encouraging their workers to earn a degree over the internet. Many employers view distance learning as a way for employees to work a normal schedule and better their skills at the same time, and some organizations are even collaborating with local schools to create online programs specifically geared towards their employees.
Overall, the Democrat and Chronicle’s article says only good things about online learning. We all know that there are some cons to bypassing the campus experience, but for those students pressed for time, an online degree is the easiest (and probably the smartest) solution to their dilemma. It is beneficial to do a little research in your field before you commit to a specific program, as some online institutions are better for certain professions than others. Collegecourses.com links to a variety of online schools with hundreds of degree programs, so if you want to learn about what’s out there in terms of online education, be sure to request more information from a few of these colleges.