Online Learning Is Growing By Leaps and Bounds!

The Internet is a giant archive of useful and not so useful information, all there at the ready, a click away. I am taking a sociology course at American International College in Springfield. It is an online course, which I enjoy because it gives me the freedom to do the work late at night in my pajamas rather than have to show up at a scheduled class session. 20 years ago this type of learning would have seemed unimaginable. Today, it is used at just about any college or university you can find. There are limitations of course. There are still hands on and technical training courses that require physical presence in a lab or classroom and it is difficult to facilitate lectures (although the ease of video these days is making this less of an issue), class participation (Skype anyone?) and administer exams via online instruction, etc. However some subjects lend themselves to the approach well.

According to the education research firm Ambient Insight, in 2009, 15 million college students took all of their courses in a traditional classroom setting, while about 11 million took some online courses and only a little more than 1 million took all their coursework online. They project that by 2014, only about 5 million will be taking in classroom courses exclusively. They predict that over 18 million will be taking a blend of classroom and online courses and that about 4 million will take only online courses. So clearly the trend toward online learning is growing at a very fast rate.

I have taken about four online courses so far and really appreciate the flexibility it allows me. You still have to be disciplined and do the work and there is that tendency to wait until the last minute, just like with traditional classroom courses, but all in all, I would recommend online courses. Particularly for those of us who work during the day or can’t commit to 2 nights a week for 5 months at a time.

This example points up a wider discussion about the Internet, as it continues to change our daily lives in so many ways, sometimes dramatically, but most often subtly. There is certainly some wheat and a whole lot of chaff, but it is our responsibility to recognize the importance of keeping it free and unfettered.

Jason Burkins