I teach at two online schools. Students sometimes get alarmed that they are not at the right school.
I tell them about being at Yale and hearing students concerned about not being at Harvard. I said, "Yale has fairly good reputation, too."
Some people knock online schools, but all the universities are online now. The Ivy League also has online classes. In many cases, more can be accomplished online than in person. Even the traditional classroom has gone online, a hybrid, because content is delivered and papers are submitted through the Internet. Paper is over-rated. I would rather grade a Word file and use all the nifty tools available for editing and adding comments.
Here are some cool things about an online education:
1. An infinite amount of material can be made available to students. For instance, I provide lengthy posts about academic success and how to find a job.
2. Participation is required and enjoyable. Traditional classrooms limit the participation due to time. Some students participate, but the shy ones do not. Online students participate as much as they want. I post extra material, so I get a lot more participation and the students enjoy the higher energy level.
3. Online research is so vast, people need to learn how to do it properly. This is the Information Age, based on the vastly expanding Internet. Everyone needs to learn computer technology, how to tame it and make it work for them.
4. All jobs require confidence and efficiency with computers. An online education gives each student a chance to learn computer applications and see their potential.
5. Teams are part of all work assignments, and many of them are multi-national. Online students learn how to work with team members they may never meet face-to-face.
6. Online students are often disabled, but no one knows it. No matter what they claim, a traditional campus has trouble with quadriplegic students or those with noisy, cumbersome equipment. Online education levels the field and makes everyone with a keyboard equal.
7. Online teachers have to do their jobs. Almost no one has tenure. If they do not show up or grade papers, they stop working. Tenure, unfortunately, makes professors take their positions for granted.
8. Pretty pictures, videos, and sound aside, online education comes down to reading and writing. The Information Age requires a greater volume of reading than ever before and clear, articulate writers.
9. Parents of young children benefit from the freedom of doing their work once the children are in bed. I am proud of the many young parents who have been my students. Several Axia students have given birth during the course and still finished with great grades.
10. Many crises hit a large population: medical emergencies in the family, the death of a family member, and eviction. I can be flexible with students.
11. Students come from all over the world and all cultures.
12. Best of all, our military people can complete a degree while serving our country. I have had students in Iraq and on an aircraft carrier. Some have silence imposed on them due to their duties, and the school works around that.
Students have to count the cost of an education. A degree in art history may be fun but the job market is not crying for that diploma. A school may brag about its job placement, but most of that result belongs to the drive of the student and the health of the economy.
I finished six computer certifications, just in time for the dot.com fever to turn frosty. I had one technical writing job after that and became a teacher at my community college. Teaching computer science led me into online education.
The person who got me started at the University of Phoenix said, "I would like to be like you, Greg, working only from home." One of my students said the same thing. At home, rush hour means my wife and I are headed to the coffee maker at the same time.
The economy is moving toward more people working from home. Outside my window, blue jays are feeding their babies. I will watch them for a little while.
PS - Anyone can quote from my posts.
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