Online Education Forums

[edvadmin]

Do you know what some of the benefits of online education are? What have you found the benefits to be?
http://www.edvisors.com/schools/

[chunkofcheese]

I believe that benefits of online education are rather obvious: flexibility - you can learn at your own pace and customise your studies; career opportunities - you can upgrade your career level without leaving your job; easy revision options - you can return to your audio, video lectures, presentations any time you want; freedom to combine your life, work, family and studies; price - online education is much cheaper than on-campus classes; engagement - you can stay tuned to your tutor and students via forums, chat rooms, webinars, etc;

[laststudent]

Speaking about benefits of online education one should mention its drawbacks as well. IMO the most significant desadvantage of online study mode is the lack of live communication. E-mail, chat, forum are great but they can never replace a live conversation.

[raythomas]

One of the biggest questions prospective students have about online education is how the virtual classroom actually works. While there are similarities between the virtual classrooms used in online education, and the brick and mortar classrooms of a traditional university, there are striking differences as well.

For example, if you attend a physical campus you will enter the classroom and attend a certain course at a certain time that will be designated to last between one and three hours on average. The instructor of the course will likely lecture for the majority of this time, but there may also be some student participation. At the end of the class the instructor may assign homework or inform students of upcoming quizzes.

But in a virtual classroom the structure is much more open, and there is a far greater degree of flexibility in the lesson plans. For example, normally you may log into your virtual class at any time, where you will listen, read and watch videos covering the course material. As a general rule, you may take as much time as you like to go over the material and complete any assignments given. While your course instructor will normally be available to ask questions via real-time online chat, e-mail or instant messaging, they will not monitor your progress or concern themselves with your work habits.

This means that with online education the student has far greater responsibility for their own learning. No one will babysit you, or ensure that you are doing the required work; it is simply presented to you, and you are expected to be responsible for completing assignments and reviewing the information.

This kind of freedom and flexibility fits many people perfectly, but others -- especially younger students -- may crave the structure of traditional campus learning. If your time is important to you, and you are motivated enough to be responsible for yourself, online education could be a perfect fit for you.

[CMU_MSA_survey]

Another downfall of the online system is that you aree out of the "community." For example in a B&M school you have a free flow of information and ideas. In the online community it is not as easy since there is no easy give and take.

A perfrect example for me is the difficulty I'm having completing my data collection for my master. At a B&M school I would have dissertaion services in the area that could help me target better and I could use class email rosters for distribution. Its not the same online, but the sample size is still require.

In fact, if you want to help, please see below.


====================================
All...I'm finishing up my masters and need a little help with the research. I'm looking for folks who work or have worked for a company that uses personality testing to take a quick 10 minute survey. I know there are some educational organizations out there that use them to assist with placement and promotion so I thought I might ask the APC community for some opinions.

If you work or have worked for an organization that uses personality testing, please take a few minutes to fill the survey out at:

www.surveymonkey.com/s/personality_testing

The results can be viewed at:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm= ... EqmMusQ_3d

[johnmarsh]

There are many advantaged of online education. For Example, We can study at our own place, We can study and job together etc....

[MalloryJackson]

There are many benefits of an online education. Pursuing an online degree is an optimal choice for those who have families or just don't have the time to commit to attending class at an offline campus. If you are interested in going back to school to get a degree in a career or trade that you love and are in the SoCal area, consider coming to the Employment Options Expo. The event will provide you with a chance to discover educational opportunities in whatever degree program you choose from business, to vocational, technical or administrative work to being an entrepreneur. The Employment Options Expo will offer dozens of training opportunities, lectures and seminars based on your educational needs. There will also be many representatives from different universities at the event to help guide you in the right direction.

If you have any further questions or would like to receive more information about the event, please email me at employmentoptions.expo@yahoo.com or feel free to respond to this thread.

Thank you,
Mallory Jackson

[ronniewilliams]

The foremost advantage of online study is the flexible study time. In the absence of pre fixed classroom hours online degree students can manage there time what the want in their busy schedule of daily life.

[peterj]

Speaking about benefits of online education one should mention its drawbacks as well. IMO the most significant desadvantage of online study mode is the lack of live communication. E-mail, chat, forum are great but they can never replace a live conversation.

Yes you are right. One more disadvantage of online education is that one can't pay full attention to his studies as regular students. One can't get the answers of his questions immediately as in classroom from the teacher, So it results in loosing the concentration from the problem or the topic.

[ermman11]

One more disadvantage of online education is that one can't pay full attention to his studies as regular students. One can't get the answers of his questions immediately as in classroom from the teacher, So it results in loosing the concentration from the problem or the topic.

Sorry, but I disagree... Have you ever sat in a gigantic lecture hall and tried to get your questions answered? I don't think having trouble getting questions answered is an issue isolated to learning online. Online classes often have a better student to instructor ratio in this regard, and because the communication is through web forum or email, and because direct communication is required as part of the program - I would guess that this problem is more common at big campus programs. I have only done distance learning and I found response rate from my instructor to be satisfactory, as I wasn't in a huge rush because of the nature of the program. But, maybe its different with online learning??? I would doubt it....

I think the biggest benefit of is attending lectures on your computer, when you have the right mind to focus, and if you miss something you can play and replay the lecture - pause and come back to it. I think this is a huge advantage.