Distance Education Is Much More Popular Today

Distance education is much more popular today than it ever was in the past. The Internet has allowed people from all over the world to study at home and juggle their education around their careers and families. Because of that, more people are able to get the education they always wanted. That will allow them to move forward with their lives in more ways than just their finances.

Is distance learning for everyone, though, or are there only certain subsets of learners who should be involved with distance learning? Research into distance learning in general can help to answer that question. Distance education is becoming a popular alternative way for graduate students to learn and, although there are drawbacks, the literature shows many students believe that distance learning is an effective format that has great advantages for them and represents an important way to reach their educational targets.

Before the Internet, there was only mail as a way to learn via distance. Correspondence courses were helpful, but they did not allow the student or the instructor to provide almost immediate information to one another - and that became problematic. According to Tomei (2006), it is very important to focus on the size of the classes where distance learning is concerned. Many students are worried about that, for obvious reasons.

When one cannot see how many other students are in the class, there is no way to gauge whether the students will have enough of the instructor's attention. Theoretically, there could be no upper limit for how many students are in a distance learning class. There may be 20, 30, 50, or more - and that would put a lot of stress and strain on an instructor who has to keep up with that many students.

Distance learning classes need to have the same kinds of requirements for student numbers as classes that are conducted in a classroom setting (Tomei, 2006). When classes are handled that way, the instructor is able to keep up with the class properly, and each student gets the attention that he or she needs in order to be successful. Distance learning can be a wonderful way to learn and grow as a student, as a worker, and as a person, but the class size and individual attention is crucial to success (Tomei, 2006).

Students who are involved with online education and distance learning must remember that the instructors are working just as hard as they are, and that proper instruction cannot usually come from teachers who are overworked or who have large class sizes that they are unable to keep up with or follow up with when there are questions from students. Tomei (2006) is not the only researcher who is concerned about and interested in the state of distance learning today.

Other researchers have begun to examine various aspects of the distance learning experience in an effort to determine what is best for students and teachers - and how things can be changed in an effort to improve the experience further. One of the ways in which distance learning can be made more viable and more interesting for graduate students is to incorporate "real life" into the work that is being done.

A study by Annetta, Murray, Laird, Bohr, and Park (2008) addressed the use of video games as part of a science curriculum. The study was not about allowing students to play video games, but rather about the design and creation of those games from a science perspective. That provided the students with the opportunity to see how their science education could be transferred to something that was "outside the box," and that helped the students become more focused on all that they could do with their education.

The more a student knows about what can be done with his or her degree, the more that student will be likely to complete that degree and to focus his or her sights on the future. In addition to the class sizes and the ways in which students can be shown what they are able to do with their education, the preferences of the students must also be considered.

Teaching students in a way to which they do not respond is not going to help the students learn what they need to know for their future. While learning cannot be all "fun and games," it certainly must be presented in such a way that the largest number of students are able to receive the biggest benefit. By studying different groups of graduate students and what preferences they have regarding education, Livengood and McGlamery (n.d.) found that students were most likely to use and enjoy articles, videos, and websites.

The students found these to be the most effective for providing information to them, and therefore they were the most interested in what those tools had to offer. Livengood and McGlamery (n.d.) also speculated that these tools were the most popular because they were the most familiar to the students.

Tools that were not commonly used by the students in their personal or professional lives were not ranked as highly when the students were asked about effective tools for their online learning needs, indicating that instructors may be wise to stick to using tools that the students like and with which they are more comfortable. Overall, distance learning provides a great opportunity for graduate students and other students.