Online education has become a viable alternative to pursue an education in the present scenario. The trends show that online education has gained huge popularity in the last five years due to the ease of access. Now students need not go to those traditional brick and mortar institutions to continue their studies, they can do that with a computer and an internet connection.
The flexibility that online education provides has made it even more lucrative. As technology is growing widely, the efficacy of online education will surely improve. Studies show that 2/3rd of prestigious universities and institutions across the globe have implemented online education due to its high demand.
Online Education Advantages:
The advantages that online education offers are countless.
- Among others, the most primary advantage is the monetary gains that one can get from these degrees. The cost that you incur for a specific degree may reduce to one third with an online program. A report suggested that you can save up to $60 only on text books with web-based learning that you would have otherwise spent with a regular course. In total, you can save a huge amount as many other expenses such as fuel, hostel accommodation, food, etc. automatically reduces with these programs.
- You can expect the same standard of education in virtual classrooms as you do in regular programs.
- Individuals who can’t go to their dream universities due to some reasons may apply and study with online courses sitting back at their homes.
- Through these courses, one can study at his or her own pace.
Online Education Facts and Figures:
Google’s trends show that there is a rise of about 50% in the search volume of this specific keyword as compared to other education keywords from the past five years. Another valuable estimate comes from Taaza’s education portal studynation.com according to which 125% more people searched the “online education” keyword for the last six months.
This estimate gives a clear idea of how rapidly the popularity of online education is increasing. Online education has emerged as a great platform for professionals to pursue higher education without sacrificing their jobs.
Institutes and Organizations Leading to Innovative Online Education:
Many prestigious organizations and institutions have been emerging as key players in the field of online education with the mission of making it a better experience.
- Organizations such as Educomp in India have blended this innovative way of education with corporate training that helps students gaining knowledge at a wider scale. These organizations provide partly free or fully paid courses that would help them in becoming job-ready.
- Even some renowned institutes have launched many innovative online learning courses such as MIT Opencourse. It includes all educational materials from the undergraduate and post-graduate courses at MIT for free or partly free for everyone around the globe.
- Some other examples are Khan Academy and Open University in London. In 2004 Salman Khan records instructional YouTube videos to help his cousin with maths. The overwhelming response leads to the foundation of Khan academy. Salman Khan with grants from Gate foundation and Google has recorded over 21,000 lecture videos, which have been viewed over 41 million times. The Open University of London which teaches the majority of its courses online has become the largest university in London with a strength of around 2,50,000 students.
Contrary to what most people think, online programs are as effective as other ways of education. Online degrees are a great way of receiving a world-class education. With advancements in technology, online education has become the center of attraction for almost all students and hence the number of students enrolled in these courses has increased tremendously.
The future of online education seems bright as technologies available for its support have disapproved of all the myths.
