People love to knock online education. Many see it as an alternative for those who cannot handle the classroom setting or are attempting to ‘catch up’ when they fall behind their peers at school. Others see it as a cost-effecting shortcut into university credentials. However, this is often not the case, and online education is grossly misrepresented in the mainstream. Here are a few vital advantages to seeking traditional and extracurricular education online.
The first advantage is, of course, the convenience of online education. The idea that you can receive the same training and access to information at home in front of a screen, compared to a university campus or public library, is simply amazing. Plus, the sheer amount of options when it comes to online classes and programs today parallels, or even in some cases surpasses, the options available at your local community college of four-year university. Originally, online school was created to give access to those who could not physically attend class on a traditional campus due to a lack of transportation or situation nearby a college. Now, a person sitting on campus can either take online classes exclusively or combine an online class with in-person teaching and sessions to complete their required course load and fit their schedules. Many also pursue online degrees, certificates, or GED programs because they also pursue full or part-time work to survive. These types of students are obviously not catching up; if anything our hats go off to them, as they’re most likely getting ahead.
Online programs are also often self-paced. This means the student dictates the speed at which instruction happens, all leading up to a predetermined deadline. Sure, homework will still have a due date, but that doesn’t mean the student has to keep up with a class full of other students or learn at the pace dictated by a professor in front of a chalkboard. Students can maximize their schedules and continue to meet requirements, on schedule, while also giving their minds time to process and bank information learned in their online courses.
Plus, online classes also tend to go through thousands of iterations based on feedback, simply because they’re easy to gauge via analytics and algorithms. In an online course, developers can see how long students take to go through each unit of study, and tweak the course to cater to areas where students do not perform as well. In turn, these courses tend to be even more intuitive than their in-person counterparts, with data on their success being more concrete and quantitative. As computer nerds who love data at Rocky Mountain Computer Specialists, we love this aspect of online education.
Offerings online also stretch beyond traditional areas of study. Using the Internet people can essentially learn anything about, well, anything. And we think that’s pretty cool. From free YouTube tutorials to paid one-on-one instructive classes, the limits of online education, at this point, do not truly exist. Some university professors are also catching on to the benefits of filming lectures and making them available online as either public or premium educational content. The possibilities are truly endless when we’re all connected!
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