Do online students get the same value of education as in the traditional classroom?
Recent advances in technology have made it possible for large numbers of people to get their degrees online. This brings rise to a number of questions such as; Are online degrees considered the same as a traditional degree by employers and do students learn better in an online or traditional setting? Ongoing studies by organizations such as The Sloan Consortium and ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) show that not only is online education growing at an increasingly large rate but that online students are getting equivalent or in most cases better scores in their evaluations. The statistics show that online learning, especially with advances such as streaming video and IM, is giving longer retention rates and better overall scores in related course materials. This also leads us to the long term questions like; Will online education eventually replace our traditional brick and mortar schools and how will this affect our society socially as the lack of interpersonal communication starts to fade? In today’s world, distance education is being used for K-12 as well as higher education and the number of online students is growing at an almost alarming rate. Would you have traded your high school and college experience for an entirely online education?
One of the reasons for such a large increase in online enrollment is the lack of time in our daily lives. Most people today are juggling not only a full time job but children and a family as well, this makes it hard to either start or continue a higher education in the traditional sense. Online education has made it possible to achieve your degree while still working and raising your family because the classes are more easily scheduled into a hectic life. Most surveys indicate time constraints as the number one reason for people using online education.
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