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The Benefits Of Online Education

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daniel88

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The significant advantage of web based programs is you have no tight a chance to be on the internet for a session. Operating learners consider this to be the actual awesome quality of on the internet university. The only work deadlines that you really have are when to convert in projects. However, you can choose when to research and finish your frequent category work. Examinations will usually have an occasion period restrict for achievement, or if you are getting a multiple course, you may to check out a university to take the examination, which you will know about in enhance with a curriculum.
 
daniel88 said:
The significant advantage of web based programs is you have no tight a chance to be on the internet for a session. Operating learners consider this to be the actual awesome quality of on the internet university. The only work deadlines that you really have are when to convert in projects. However, you can choose when to research and finish your frequent category work. Examinations will usually have an occasion period restrict for achievement, or if you are getting a multiple course, you may to check out a university to take the examination, which you will know about in enhance with a curriculum.
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If this post is an example of the outcome of an online education then, IMHO, it has failed you completely.
 
From what I could comprehend of that post, I'll stick to my-self driven continuing education that mainly consists of trips to the University library and class audits.

There are benefits for some to the online universities, but you really wouldn't know it from that post, lol.
 
I suspect that the OP is not a native English speaker and is using one of those online translation services. Years ago my son found one of those and typed in something like "my balls are hairy" and translated it to spanish and then back to english and the double translation came back as something like "my monkey's name is Harry".

Anyhow, my son is taking an online class this summer offered by our local community college. It has it's good points and bad points, and could be improved quite a bit. It basically is just lessons in the form of a powerpoint presentation, no audio, and a few links to some news videos which don't always have anything to do with the lesson.

People could definitely learn from a class like he is taking, but it's not really much difference than just buying a textbook and reading it, other than they do get college credit for the online class. Personally, I think that computerized learning should be much more than just reading a textbook or a powerpoint presentation. It should be much more interactive, and maybe even with high quality documentary type videos on each lesson (like something that you would see on the Discovery Channel or History Channel).

On the positive side, it does require a few writing assignments, which are submitted on a forum (much like this forum), but each student can see what everyone else wrote, thus all the writing assignments submitted are virtually identical as all the students are doing is reading what others wrote, and then just slightly changing them.

I believe that a heck of a lot of online students have the same problem that my son does with this class. It's just outright boring, and he is not really mature enough, or at least doesn't have the desire/motivation to take advantage of all the learning tools that it offers, especially since it doesn't force a student in any way to use all of the learning tools (like the ungraded sample tests it offers), and doesn't really present a logical sequence for utilizing the tools that it does offer. It's more or less like "just learn this stuff and take the test, you figure out how to do the learning part".

He has already missed the turn in deadline for several of his assignments, and it is mathematically impossible for him to get an A in the class now. He is also taking a traditional classroom course at the same community college this summer, he has close to a 100 average in it. I'm kind of regretting that he took the online class now.
 
imagep said:
People could definitely learn from a class like he is taking, but it's not really much difference than just buying a textbook and reading it, other than they do get college credit for the online class. Personally, I think that computerized learning should be much more than just reading a textbook or a powerpoint presentation. It should be much more interactive, and maybe even with high quality documentary type videos on each lesson (like something that you would see on the Discovery Channel or History Channel).
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Like this.
 
imagep said:
I suspect that the OP is not a native English speaker and is using one of those online translation services. Years ago my son found one of those and typed in something like "my balls are hairy" and translated it to spanish and then back to english and the double translation came back as something like "my monkey's name is Harry".

Anyhow, my son is taking an online class this summer offered by our local community college. It has it's good points and bad points, and could be improved quite a bit. It basically is just lessons in the form of a powerpoint presentation, no audio, and a few links to some news videos which don't always have anything to do with the lesson.

People could definitely learn from a class like he is taking, but it's not really much difference than just buying a textbook and reading it, other than they do get college credit for the online class. Personally, I think that computerized learning should be much more than just reading a textbook or a powerpoint presentation. It should be much more interactive, and maybe even with high quality documentary type videos on each lesson (like something that you would see on the Discovery Channel or History Channel).

On the positive side, it does require a few writing assignments, which are submitted on a forum (much like this forum), but each student can see what everyone else wrote, thus all the writing assignments submitted are virtually identical as all the students are doing is reading what others wrote, and then just slightly changing them.

I believe that a heck of a lot of online students have the same problem that my son does with this class. It's just outright boring, and he is not really mature enough, or at least doesn't have the desire/motivation to take advantage of all the learning tools that it offers, especially since it doesn't force a student in any way to use all of the learning tools (like the ungraded sample tests it offers), and doesn't really present a logical sequence for utilizing the tools that it does offer. It's more or less like "just learn this stuff and take the test, you figure out how to do the learning part".

He has already missed the turn in deadline for several of his assignments, and it is mathematically impossible for him to get an A in the class now. He is also taking a traditional classroom course at the same community college this summer, he has close to a 100 average in it. I'm kind of regretting that he took the online class now.
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On the whole, students don't do as well online as they do in the face to face classes. I'm not saying there's no place for online education, but it has not reach the place where it's an exceptional avenue yet. Many professors aren't very good at setting up these courses, and many students are very good at doing all that is necessary.
 
Here are some out line of benefits of online education..
1 Save Time
2 Save Money
3 Get CEU and College Credit
4 Add Flexibility
5 Increase Accountability
6 Bring Education Theory to Life
7 Promote Transference of Learning to the Workplace
8 Create Excitement About Learning
 
ashiol said:
Here are some out line of benefits of online education..
1 Save Time
2 Save Money
3 Get CEU and College Credit
4 Add Flexibility
5 Increase Accountability
6 Bring Education Theory to Life
7 Promote Transference of Learning to the Workplace
8 Create Excitement About Learning
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I'm not sure of those are true. Some places charge more fir online learning and not less. Most take just as long. Accountability? More fail than don't, so I'm not sure where you see accountability. So I would need to see more behind your thinking here.
 
daniel88 said:
The significant advantage of web based programs is you have no tight a chance to be on the internet for a session. Operating learners consider this to be the actual awesome quality of on the internet university. The only work deadlines that you really have are when to convert in projects. However, you can choose when to research and finish your frequent category work. Examinations will usually have an occasion period restrict for achievement, or if you are getting a multiple course, you may to check out a university to take the examination, which you will know about in enhance with a curriculum.
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Let me try to help you out here. I take online classes and here are a list of some of the benefits:

1. Flexible Schedule
2. Work from home.
3. Less expensive
4. Watch lectures over and over.

Just to name a few.
 
Boo Radley said:
Many professors aren't very good at setting up these courses, and many students are very good at doing all that is necessary.
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That's been my experience.

I've taken online classes that were top notch, and I've taken others that were a complete waste of time.

Online learning is still a very new field and it hasn't even come close yet to reaching maturity.

It revolves 100% around the instructor's ability and apptitude for teaching online and the manner in which the class is developed and conducted.

In my "good" class there was a 45 minute weekly video lecture, a God-awful amount of reading, required online discussion (almost exactly like we discuss stuff here), a God-awful amount of writting submitted online, and required submissions to a sort of Pinterest-like site that allowed for sharing of web content related to the class (Competitive Intelligence). We also had to do two "group" projects that pretty much required the use of Skype (or some other VOIP service) and some kind of online collaboration software (we used Google Docs).

In my "bad" class it was a bunch of reading and writting. Period.

Basically, students get out of it whatever instructors are willing to put into it.

If you're looking for a diploma mill I'm sure there are plenty of fly-by-night online "universities" you could attend and you'll get a degree that you can tack onto your resume at a reasonable cost.

If you're actually looking for an education, even some of the better schools (my grad program is ranked #3 in the country) are still cutting their teeth on online learning and you're probably better off just using it as a suplement to brick and mortar schooling.
 
soot said:
That's been my experience.

I've taken online classes that were top notch, and I've taken others that were a complete waste of time.

Online learning is still a very new field and it hasn't even come close yet to reaching maturity.

It revolves 100% around the instructor's ability and apptitude for teaching online and the manner in which the class is developed and conducted.

In my "good" class there was a 45 minute weekly video lecture, a God-awful amount of reading, required online discussion (almost exactly like we discuss stuff here), a God-awful amount of writting submitted online, and required submissions to a sort of Pinterest-like site that allowed for sharing of web content related to the class (Competitive Intelligence). We also had to do two "group" projects that pretty much required the use of Skype (or some other VOIP service) and some kind of online collaboration software (we used Google Docs).

In my "bad" class it was a bunch of reading and writting. Period.

Basically, students get out of it whatever instructors are willing to put into it.

If you're looking for a diploma mill I'm sure there are plenty of fly-by-night online "universities" you could attend and you'll get a degree that you can tack onto your resume at a reasonable cost.

If you're actually looking for an education, even some of the better schools (my grad program is ranked #3 in the country) are still cutting their teeth on online learning and you're probably better off just using it as a suplement to brick and mortar schooling.
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Most of this I would agree with.
 
I don't think my Medical School or my PhD advisor would like that. I'll stick to my laboratory and being "on-campus" thanks.
 
Making connections at school is still important.

A friend of mine become good friends with a professor that hooked him up with an impressive hedge fund job out of college.
 
Honestly, teachers shouldn't have to set up individual online classes. The beauty of computer software is that it can be created once, fine tuned and tweaked, and then duplicated over and over again. No need to reinvent the wheel every time, just make improvements as resources allow and as technology improves.

Even if we spend ten million bucks to develop a super-duper online course, it would be a bargain if it was used by a hundred thousand students a year. And the same basic framework for that super-duper course can be utilized for similar type classes, reducing the cost of inventing them from scratch every time the developer starts developing a new course. It's really very much like franches and chain businesses are. You find a system that works, then you duplicate that system over and over again, for a small fraction of the cost of coming up with the original system.

The online class that my kid is taking is "Intro to Macro Economics". this is a class that should pretty much be the same at all colleges. I mean is the introductory class for macro econ really any different at Harvard than it is at community college? No reason that if one person (or company or group of people) developed a great online Intro to Macroecon class that this same exact class couldn't be used by every online college. Heck, it could even be made available as an online tutor for classroom classes. It might could be cost feasible for something like $50 per student, which would be a bargain compared to a $160 textbook.

Thats why I keep saying that I think that colleges aren't really understanding the best usage of computerized learning. The software replaces the need to have instructors give the same lectures over and over and over again. The roll of the instructor in online education shouldnt be to present the info, it's to be a mentor to each student.
 
It largely depends on the class/degree program. I think all the colleges in my area now have a whole host of online only classes. They have been moving in that direction ever since the creation of Blackboard as a classroom extension. Sometimes, it is just a pain in the ass I had classes where we were required to post on Blackboard discussions when there was no point to it other than to create use.

I consider learning at home classes and online only classes legit enough for the purpose of fulfilling people's desire to learn. They are only as good as the people taking them. Someone who studies and works it can learn more than someone who sleeps through their 8 am bricks and mortar class because they have maxed out their cuts and are still drunk from the night before.

That said, having 14 billion college credits, I can say I have run the gauntlet in terms of traditional classroom experiences. By far, the most challenging ones I have ever taken in a good way have been writing intensive classes that require a ton of outside the classroom work. The strangest one I ever took was we had a syllabus of books we would be covering, and a required reading list of about 30 books we would not be covering in class. The professor would come in, sit and the desk and say "Well, what do you folks want to talk about today?" every class. We had a massive paper to write for the final having been given virtually no direction other than "Something having to do with this course would be nice." and the rest of your grade was based upon the professor's opinion of the quality of your contributions to the conversations we had every class. That was it. Talk about puckering waiting to find out your grade......
 
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