How are Online Colleges Different from Traditional Colleges?
Now in this age of the internet, students are faced with making the decision of pursuing their degree at an online institution or from a traditional university. In the first instance, they must consider their personal condition and then compare it with the various pros and cons of each type of institution. Although both institutions now receive the same type of accreditation, there are still some distinct differences between online and traditional universities, so this should make the job of choosing a little easier.
Traditional Universities
The educational characteristics of traditional institutions have been established for thousands of years. Under this model, student must go to the source of the education to become educated. As a result, students must be prepared to relocate and establish themselves independent of every mom and dad physical support. This in itself can be a plus for these students as they are able to establish their independence and personality.
Another plus for traditional universities is the personal contact with their lecturers. Through this personal contact, teachers are to impress upon students various character building advice that will help them throughout their professional career.
For subject areas that have significant practical input, traditional universities are at a significant advantage. Supporters of online institutions may argue that this practical experience can be had through work experience. However, the fact that the homogenous practical training received at traditional institutions makes it easier to establish standards for courses and learning standards.
We are now seeing a trend of retardation in the increases in the tuition at traditional universities. This is as a direct result of the rising popularity of online universities. Traditional universities have had to take these measures to remain competitive as the acknowledge the additional cost of boarding and travel are now making the product uncompetitive.
Online Universities
Online universities have totally revolutionized the educational system. No longer is it a requirement of students to travel or relocate to centers of educational excellence to gain an education. Instead, under the module of online education, this quality education is brought into your homes via the internet. This education may be in the form of live or delayed streaming or in the form of hard copy material shipped to you. As a result, students are allowed to study at time of their convenience without disrupting their regular routine. This has been a hit with working professionals who want to improve their educational stock without having to stop working.
One main attraction of online universities is the savings realized through the non-requirement of travel. There are no boarding fees, relocation cost or fuel cost associated with online education. Although now there is no significant difference in the basic tuition fees between traditional and online institutions, some institutions that offer both traditional and online degree programs now charge a technology fee to online students to compensate for the cost of transferring their course work material to digital media forms.
Online universities offer their students more flexibility in the duration of their programs. Many institutions offer accelerated programs that allows students to reduce their course time based on their educational capabilities and time available to invest in the program.
Tags: online colleges, Traditional Colleges
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 4:19 am and is filed under Online College. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 27th, 2010 at 6:22 am
Online education is becoming popular these days. It is quite flexible like-degree can be earned at your own pace, no need to make adjustment with your ongoing schedule, reduces the overhead expenses like commuting expenses. You may refer http://www.thedegreeexperts.com to select an appropriate course as well as
the concerned university and earn degree in the comfort of your home.
February 4th, 2010 at 6:21 am
Online education is gaining importance among professionals because of its flexibility. Link provided by Mike is quite useful for online education seekers.