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Online Learning Has Earned its Permanent Place in Higher Education

Online learning is now a permanent part of higher education and will continue to expand its market. The ease and convenience of online education is changing the face of colleges across the country. As a modality of learning, it allows students to connect to their class and professor at times that are more convenient for them. Traditional education is face-to-face and requires the student to be present in order learn. This leaves out many people who balance families and careers. Besides, those who live in rural areas, or out of a university’s geographical area, will be cut off from higher education. A selection process not based on actual skill or ability is bad news for the economy. Employers require highly skilled employees who continually update their knowledge to stay competitive with the market. Those who are most likely to capitalize on higher education are left out of the mix. Online education will likely continue to grow and become a standard, possibly superseding traditi

Online Education Encourages Stronger Scholarship Cultures

One of the greatest advantages of traditional education is its ability to create knowledge based cultures through face-to-face communication.  It is believed that on-campus social interaction creates norms, values, and expectations that lead people to higher forms of scholarship.  This is not always the case when negative cultural influences restrict the ability of students to be successful.  New research shows that online courses help to enhance the scholastic nature of colleges by countering some of the destructive norms in society that limit intellectual growth. When people interact and socialize with each other they create social expectations that can either lead to more scholastic behavior or lessen that behavior. For example, cultural norms can encourage greater research and knowledge sharing or it can socially restrict the transference of knowledge. When negative cultures are developed in face-to-face environments they can be extremely difficult to reverse. Online education

Why Industry Experts Won't Turn Their Back on Online Education?

Professionals wont turn their back on online doctorates because it provides them one of the only feasible ways to obtain a terminal degree. People with decades of experience don’t often go back to get a doctorate because of the years of time and investment that would pull them away from their business duties. Online doctoral education can marry professional experience and theory in ways that would be difficult for traditional schools to fulfill. Online doctoral education has four purposes (Radda & Mandernach, 2013).: 1.       Prepare the doctoral community to develop knowledge and skills for the 21 st century. 2.       Capture the collective intelligences and knowledge of individuals. 3.       Deepen scholarship and practical application of that scholarship. 4.       To further the interests of scholar-practitioners. Online education has come a long way over the past 20 years and research has shown that the modality is growing in terms of benefits and effectiv

8 Ways Online Education will Help Balance University Budgets

A sound college degree is expensive and the cost of managing universities is continuing to put pressure on stretched state budgets. Online education entered the market in the past few decades and is disrupting the traditional system. Despite this feather ruffling it also will bring a few new things that may help both universities and states become more cost effective. The legal design of the institution (for or non-profit) is less important than the actual quality of education provided. To that end, traditional land based universities have come grudgingly to accept the merits of online education in both terms of cost and learning quality. Online education will change the cost structures of universities (Cowen & Tabarrok, 2014): Using the best professor and content creators to teach more students. Save time with less repetition and commuting costs. Flexibility in when and how lectures are viewed. Greater productivity improvements as software substitutes labor. Addi

Why do People Enroll in Online Education?

All students have hopes, goals, dreams and desires; some are more realistic than others. Each is limited in their available time and resources to make those dreams a reality. Higher education affords the opportunity for people to achieve parts of their dreams and find ways of moving up the social ladder. Unfortunately, life has many different types of roadblocks people must navigate to achieve their goals. According to a study in the Journal of Educators the students who choose online education do so for scheduling purposes (Fontenot, et. al., 2015). Many of today's students are older than those of the past and the ever changing market requires them to be adjustable while continually learning new ideas and concepts. That new knowledge can come from informal and formal sources. Education is one of those formal educational processes that leads to a degree that can be used to apply for job openings. People don't always go to college right out of high school nor do they have

The Readiness Characteristics of Successful Online Students

Online education is now a popular educational medium and online students have certain characteristics that set them apart from traditional students. Academic achievement and student satisfaction during online programs can be a major predictor of student retention and success. A study in the Turkish Online Journal of Education Technology helps highlight five factors of readiness that predict online student success (Kirmizi, 2015). Computer/Internet Self-Efficacy: The ability to be confident in the use of computers and the internet. Students that use the Internet on a regular basis will feel more confident in online courses when compared to non-computer users. Self-Directed Learning: Those students that enjoy learning, reading, and managing their own learning process are more likely to be successful in online education programs. Learner Control: Those students that desire more control over their educational experience, time, and curriculum will enjoy online education more.

Has the Internet Spawned a New Generation of Professors?

The Internet is rapidly changing the nature of professorship and offers a whole new academic lifestyle. With the growth in virtual education, and the slow but steady adoption of online coursework by "traditional" universities, the creation of a new type of professor becomes apparent. Virtual professors live in a world where multiple responsibilities are balanced by integrating technology into their lifestyles. The new age of technology has spawned a new type of professor. To be a strong virtual professor requires high technology and high pedagogic knowledge of the subject matter (McAnally-Salas, Lavigne, & De Vega, 2010). Low technology skills and high pedagogic knowledge didn’t work well as professors couldn’t share or express their knowledge. Likewise, high technology and low pedagogic knowledge limited depth of explanation. Both technology and knowledge must blend together to create effectiveness.  Online professors don’t have the same level of wiggle room t