The way people consume information has changed significantly during the last 10 years. Thanks to the internet, quality education has become accessible to everyone with the internet connection. In past, it was not simpler to reach the level of online education that we have today.
In the 20th century, the quality of education that people get is dependent mostly on the status of the higher education institution. People who attended one of the highly expensive Ivy League schools always received significant value together with their degree. On the other hand, in some cases. Ivy League education does not repay and does not always make sense.
Online education is quite a new concept, where as many brick-and-mortar institutions have invested in their reputation for decades. There are employers who do not think that online education should be compared to traditional education; however, their attitude varies.
There is a disagreement between for-profit educational institutions and the principle of providing quality education. Some of the for-profit universities are suspected not to be honest with quality practices, while others face the consequences such as lawsuits.
In the 1990s, many educational institutions offered novel and innovative ways to provide education. In 1997, Western Governors University (WGU) was founded that offered distinct online programs and degrees to students. In reality, WGU was one of the first online education public initiatives of this scale.
In 2002, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) launched its Open Course ware program, which provided free resources for distinct courses. This initiative depicted that quality learning materials can be accessed online without expense.
Today, online learning has proven its efficiency as opposed to conventional on-campus programs. Almost every university and college offer online programs today. Actually, it is simpler to find an institution, which offers online programs than the institution which does not. At the same time, cost-effective resources like Courser, Straighter Line and Khan Academy are competing with the higher education institutions.
Khan Academy does not offer degree programs like Open Course ware, but it offers a large number of free mini lectures, which cover the most major areas of study. Straighter Line offers unlimited access to its programs for $99. Learners have the opportunity to take courses at their own pace without strict schedules and other limitation with Straighter Line courses.Courser was founded in 2012, and it turned into a very popular online education resource. Courser offers online courses offered by colleges and universities across the globe, and many of Courser courses offer verified certificates.
In addition to courses and degree programs, many educational tools, for instance, plagiarism checker are available online. Plagiarism checker checks students’ essays against many resources—the internet, private depositories of files, publications, and pieces of work of other students and shows links to the sources which were used during the writing process and may not be included in bibliography or references. Using such kind of tools can significantly decrease cheating cases of students and make them take their assignments seriously.
It looks like that traditional institutions try to keep pace and provide online learning programs of their own. Many well-recognized schools still have to provide degrees exclusively online. At the same time, some schools offer programs, which merge online and traditional on-campus learning.
Generally, the future of online education is vivid. There are many challenges, which online universities have to overcome, to match the quality of traditional on-campus based program. At the end of the day, online education has one huge advantage that is, minimum expense. Online learning is affordable for students, and online education also promotes the value of independence of students. It will not be a surprise if higher education students opt for online programs over conventional programs.
Author Bio:
Julina Martin is a senior content writer. He has experience of long-term in the Marketing field as a content writer. Mostly, he creates articles on distance learning type like assignment writing service | Assignmentdoer.co.uk , because he likes to aid students. He works in a custom essay writing company where students order an essay to him.