What Is Online Education?
"Moving from the one-room schoolhouse to the one-world schoolhouse is now a reality." -Cisco Systems
Ever since internet access became cheap and easily available to vast numbers of the population globally, many things that were previously time consuming or expensive are now available at your fingertips. Education is just one of these new age conveniences that we can thank the World Wide Web for! Online education also known as distance learning, e-learning or e-degrees is now an industry that is constantly evolving to serve its consumer market i.e. online students.
Online Education: “A classroom without walls”
To put it simply, online education is when a student and teacher are separated by physical location and/or time and the medium used to bridge these gaps is the internet.
Online education simplifies logistical issues of distance and time by providing online interaction between the student and teacher.
There are two broad distinctions within online education:
Synchronous online education requires real time interaction between a group of students and the instructors. This can be done through web conferencing or internet chatting. It is the creation of a virtual classroom where students and teachers are connected in real time through the web.
Asynchronous online education provides the student with more flexibility. With this method, there are no joint online study sessions: you can work on an individual basis with the instructors within times frames that you choose.
Courses, Diplomas and Degrees
Depending on your availability of time and finances, online education can mean multiple end results. It is not only limited to enrolling for a complete graduate or undergraduate degree.
You can be a working adult who wants to scaffold an existing degree with further training or to attain further education via a professional degree online at your own pace.
Alternately, as a full time student elsewhere, you could enroll in extra classes to improve your knowledge in any number of subjects; pick up a language you always wanted to learn but never found the time to pick up in high school; earn extra credits in college by taking an advanced course; learn a new skill through a diploma or simply learn something new without having to stay in school for longer hours!
Components of Online Education
There are many mediums of student-teacher communication in online education:
- Web Conferencing (audio and/or video)
- Web Chatting
- Communicating via Email
- Interactive websites with options to download lectures, upload assignments and confer on forums
- Social communication aids such as Facebook, Dipity and Twitter can also be additional means of keeping in touch with assignments and changes in schedules.
From Paper to Bandwidth
The roots of online education go as far back as the early 19th century when universities would educate those who were unable to enroll (women, disabled, etc.) through the post. Technological advances like the radio and television proved to be ancestors of online education when in 1930s educational programmes could be broadcasted to millions of viewers and listeners. Imagine sitting in front of a transistor, taking notes or tuning into the radio to listen to a lecture on horticulture!
Fast forward to the 90s, and we saw companies initiating online training through the internet. New employees were trained through online seminars and workshops. By 1994, this trend evolved into one of the first complete online curriculums offered by a distance learning educator called CalCampus, where 3.5 million students were enrolled in at least one online course by 2006!