Online college studies have become the latest trend with many students preferring to enroll for courses in these colleges as opposed to attending the conventional classes. Most people benefiting from these colleges are home staying mums, distant learners who live far from colleges either in the country or abroad and people who are just too busy to find time for class. There are many strengths and benefits of an online college.
One of the main benefits is convenience (Dunham par. 1). One can take an online course for any place provided there is internet connection. With the availability of Wireless connection almost everywhere accessibility is easy and most people find it comfortable.
Downloading reading materials can be done anytime and accessing research documents is also simple since one only needs to have the course outline and very little assistance from the tutors. There are no set time limits on which to complete the course and so it is liberating, in addition there is no fixed time for enrolment so one can start college anytime they want.
In case a person cannot continue with a course to completion there is always the possibility of terminating the course and continuing with it later without the fear of being discontinued from studies and so one is able to learn at their own pace.
Most online colleges do not have a formal online exam that all the students have to sit, since the grading is done using the marks gained in the course assignments and incase there are supervised exams there are always taken at the students convenience.
The other main strength of on-line exams is that there are no age limits and older or more mature students can comfortably participate without feeling out of place or having to sit around classmates who are half their age. Some colleges have student chatting facilities and so they can socialize and exchange ideas on the courses they are taking (Dunham par.5).
One of the main areas that should be improved is the assessment of online courses, their quality and evidence of desired and excellent outcomes. The colleges need to assure students and other stakeholders that they provide and maintain high academic standards to equip their students effectively for the responsibilities they undertake afterwards.
According to (Carmel par 1), quality assurance, systematic and procedure assessments which ensure that quality products and improvement are achieved should be implemented. This can be done by evaluating institutions of higher learning to make sure that they have the capacity to maintain quality education especially in online learning.
Online colleges have an opportunity for growth in this day and age of wireless connection and centralized global communication. There is an opportunity for students from even other countries who cannot afford travel and living expenses in foreign countries to enroll for their desirable courses and benefit from the reduced costs as the online courses are competitively affordable.
The greatest challenge that online colleges will face in future is student follow up and assessment of education quality. As the students increase there will be a challenge of following up students who are not at close proximity.
Cheating, copying and other methods used by students to succeed and pass especially in their assignment might not be easily detected and so on-line colleges might be sending “half-baked” professionals into the corporate world.
Works Cited
Carmel, McNuaught. Quality assurance for online courses: from policy to process to improvement? Learning Technology Services. Australia: RMIT University. 2001. Web.
Dunham, Jordan. Online college courses – benefits and advantages to an online education. EzineArticles.com. October. 2005.25th March 2011. http://ezinearticles.com/expert/Jordan_Dunham/18024