Online Learning: What Next?

Link to Article

EDU 6240: Distance Learning (Professional Reading #1)

          There are countless benefits of classes moving to an online structure. For example, online learning courses offer students more flexibility when it comes to time and place of learning - students can now take classes at any time of day or night that they choose. While many chief academic officers at colleges and universities were skeptical of online learning at first, now more than 70% of them say it is critical to their long-term strategy. They've found that outcomes of distance learning courses are equal to or better than those of traditional, on-the-ground courses. Today, more than 5 million students (25%) of all college and university students are enrolled in distance education courses, 11% of students are enrolled exclusively in online courses, and 14% are enrolled in some traditional and some online classes.


          Almost all schools with enrollments of 5,000 students or more, and 80% with enrollments of fewer than 5,000 students now offer distance education. Many of these institutions are adding these courses to help diversify their revenue streams and earn profit with little to no financial risk. What also makes these courses so unique is that they provide institutions with the ability to expand their curriculum, they allow easy access for students to new majors, and they allow students who wish to study abroad a chance to complete required courses from their home campuses.


          One thing that stuck out to me while reading this article was that it didn't mention anything about course subjects for online courses. While I believe some courses apply themselves greatly to being taught online, others do not. For instance, I teach 7th grade math. After I read this article I asked one of my classes if they would like taking an entire math course online instead of me teaching it and all 23 said no! Granted, they're only in 7th grade and this article focuses more on colleges and universities, but I think even at that level math courses would be pretty difficult to take and understand in an online format.


          Another thing I liked is how this article talked about studying abroad and the benefit of online courses. In this case, I think distance education is an awesome thing because not only can students take their required classes to graduate in a whole other country, they can be learning new customs and traditions they wouldn't normally be exposed to while they do it. On the downside, this also made me a little upset with myself that I didn't think about studying abroad when I was in college :(..