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The Benefits of Online Education
Introduction
To a degree, all educational institutions have migrated some of their services online, taking advantage of new media and new technologies to improve service delivery, cut costs, and enhance the learning environment. From eBooks to cloud-based collaborative work projects, the online environment adds depth to the classroom and expands opportunities for students from different backgrounds including those with special needs. It is therefore no surprise that enrollment in online education programs has been steadily climbing, with the greatest growth in the private non-profit school sector (Allen & Seaman, 2016). Online learning might never fully supplant traditional in person classroom learning, but it can help educators and students reach their mutual goals. Educational institutions should in fact work harder to improve their online education offerings, to promote social justice goals in education, enhance student engagement, and expand opportunities for a broader client base.
Enhancing Student Engagement
Online learning has the potential to either enhance student engagement or to isolate students due to the lack of social support that comes from traditional classrooms. Some studies show that dropout rates are actually higher in online educational programs because educators and administrators are not doing enough...
On the other hand, online education presents educators and students alike with “opportunities to engage in lifelong learning without the restrictions of time and space,” (Gazza & Hunter, 2014, p. 1125). When online education programs are designed to be student-centered, program retention rates will be high. For example, Kuo, Walker, Schroder, et al. (2014) found that while most types of student interaction with the online learning environment proved essential for overall satisfaction rates, the most critical indicator of student satisfaction was actually leader to content interaction and not learner to learner interactions. In other words, the most effective means of enhancing student engagement in the online education environment is to create programs that have engaging content but do not have artificial means of facilitating social interactions such as through mandatory participation in group projects or forums.
Cutting Costs
Online learning should be incorporated into every educational institution if for no other reason than it helps to reduce waste and cut costs. The online education model reduces waste…
Teachers often make this task easier by using group work or asking students to discuss ideas in partners. Some who believe that online education is not as beneficial as land-based education often suggest that this type of discourse is unavailable in virtual classrooms. This, however, is not the case. Virtual classrooms often have discussion boards on which students can post questions and topics and respond to other students. Just
Persistence (also called retention) is defined as remaining enrolled in the institution, presumably until degree attainment or completion. Online courses can help students achieve this, because they provide options for learning that were previously not available to them (Drennan, Kennedy, & Pisarski, 2005). Satisfying and rewarding interactions with the formal and informal academic and social systems of the institution lead to greater integration and persistence (Tinto, 1975). However, teachers of
Students should consider online education, because there are many advantages to it. Littlefield (2014) notes several key advantages to online education, including flexibility, good networking opportunities, open scheduling, pacing, savings, teaching and testing options, and effectiveness. Several of these are advantages even though they are normally considered positive traits of a traditional school structure. This paper will investigate these claims to provide the reader with a compelling argument that online
As Auburn University notes, online classes are especially appealing to adult learners, because of their flexibility and accessibility. They note, "No more giving up a career; no more driving hours each week to the nearest campus. All you need is contemporary communications equipment and the motivation to succeed in your courses" (Auburn University, 2002). Students who need to take occasional classes for certification or license renewal also have much
Online Learning Since the advent of the Internet, online learning has increased exponentially. Online learning is utilized by K-12 schools, by public universities and colleges, and there has been an explosion in for-profit online schools as well. Twenty years ago, the industry did not really exist -- distance education was usually some form of correspondence course . In 2014, Forbes estimated the industry to be worth around $107 billion in
There is also a socialization that comes with regular classroom learning experiences, e.g., asking questions, listening politely to others that does not occur in cyberspace classrooms. In classroom settings, also, students can enjoy the intellectual stimulation of live lectures and discussions, and these same experiences are not available online. Similarly, students in a classroom can ask questions about and request clarifications of learning materials immediately in class, while online