Virtual Education And The Educational System

As technology became more accessible, the diversification in student populations developed hand-in-hand with more diverse course delivery methods (O’Malley and McCraw). Today, online courses are offered at most colleges to fit the needs of their diverse study bodies, and students who otherwise, would not be able to take these courses. A study published in US News reported, more than six million students took at least one online course during the fall 2010 semester, which is an increase of over ten percent from the fall 2009 semester (Lytle).

Online degrees are becoming an ever more trendy method to receive a college education and many students are switching to online education due to the quality of material, ease, and the level of flexibility in distance education programs. Recently, the internet has developed into a reliable capital of information for college seekers. Everything from applying for financial assistance to taking a course can be done online. Now, a student can even obtain online degrees from one of many schools offering online education as a practical choice to a traditional classroom education. There’s a load of information regarding online education, and distance education is becoming increasingly popular for students everywhere.

The authors analyzed statistics of online learning to determine what they mean. They looked at the growth of online options in institutions. They also compared online learning with traditional learning to determine if it was as effective.

Due to that, the use of the VLE has increased and most of schools and universities now have a functioning Virtual Learning Environment as a part of their teaching and learning programs. For instance, even in primary and secondary schools the Internet-based activities are generally added to enrich presently learning activities.

The University of Florida’s (UoF) realization that brick and mortar schools no longer serve as the only means to attaining a higher education established an institutional paradigm shift (Kuhn, 2012) on education delivery. The university’s evolution of an online education developed alongside the growth of technology (Blocher, DeMontes, Willis, & Tucker, 2002) and the needs of the community (University of Florida, Distance Learning, 2016). For the UoF, online programs began transforming as early as 1947 when challenged to adapt during world events such as the need to deliver GED home study courses to nearly 6,000 immigrants (University of Florida, History, 2016). In years that followed, an increasingly competitive environment (Volery & Lord, 2000) led to the video taping of lectures in 1991 and to the online courses and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that initiated in 2013. In its early development MOOCs were housed under the Coursera website since it provided an opportunity to test online courses (Coursera.com, 2016; College Factual, 2016). Today, the UoF houses both MOOCs and online programs within the Division of Continuing Education (DCE), which the university established in 2009 and dedicated full-time faculty to it due to the steady growth of online education (University of Florida, Distance and Continuing Education, 2016).

Many things that before were harder and almost impossible to accomplish are now a piece of cake thanks to the new innovations that technology has provided the world with. Academically speaking, it can be said that students of different ages have benefited, since the use of the Internet provides several tools that help the academic development. Steve Lohr, who was a foreign correspondent for The New York Times for a decade and served brief stints as an editor, in his article “When the Alma Mater Ends With '.edu'”states that “Internet schools look sweet indeed. At Virtual U., there is no need for costly land, buildings or roads. There are no books, no protests, no students griping about food, parking or surly roommates. And space is never a problem. In cyberspace, there is always room for more” (1). Here, Lohr talks about the change from the limit space classrooms to the unlimited cyberspace that now is available to students. Now, anyone can choose the best time or day to take classes without worrying so much about the time it is going to take to get to an educational facility in order to obtain

Alisa Stern’s article discusses the boom of online learning in higher education institutions and the major challenges an instructor faces with these online courses. According to Stern, the most challenging thing about an online course is replicating the same learning environment a student would get attending a regular face to face class. She discusses how technology has pushed online learning to become more collaborative and less isolated. Furthermore, Stern has experienced teaching an online courses and discusses the different tools that helped her recreate a conventional learning environment in an online course. Stern mentions that communication played an important role in the way she taught her courses and students felt as if she was interested

With the advancement of new technology, more students enroll in online courses (Spring), but this action alarms some who do not agree with online education. College Sophomore Alexander Spring’s editorial, “Online Learning: The Ruin Of Education,” argues “Online education turns a center into a diploma factory.” However, he experienced online education for only a brief period of time. Instead of providing statistics to support his proposition, he based his entire article on his own negative personal experience. Furthermore, Spring merely presents the harmful aspects of online learning, without acknowledging the benefits online education possesses. In his argument, he said this about his experience, “I had the horrific opportunity to experience online learning for a few weeks.” Contrary to Spring’s beliefs, online learning possesses many positive advantages.

It’s no wonder why millions of students from all around the world opt for online degree programs or take at least one college course through an online platform. Online learning has to be the greatest revolution in contemporary education. It made a huge change in the system and opened great opportunities for everyone who wants to learn

With this article “Technology and the Commodification of Higher Education” published by Monthly Review Press, David Noble argues that higher education in the United States is performing like business-style education instead of nonprofit education. Higher education now makes use of technology to provide distance education, but students do not really learn from it. Therefore, students need to know that taking online classes may not the best idea to gain knowledge. Moreover, students should be aware of how their tuition fee brings distance education extra money to universities, making distance education a business.

In today’s society, so many people are continuing their education beyond high school. We realize that in order to make a decent living, a degree is most likely a requirement. In some cases even a bachelor’s degree is not enough to qualify for many positions. Nevertheless, thanks to technology, we now have the option to learn online or in a traditional classroom setting. There are very few differences between the two, and students need to understand that as much time and energy will need to be devoted to the online courses as on a campus. “A 2010 meta-analysis and review of online-learning studies concluded that online learning was as good as or slightly more effective than traditional face-to-face instruction” (Mendenhall, 2011).

Computer based learning, as it stands, has plenty of disadvantages, but many in business and educational arenas remain optimistic about its future. There are two indisputable truths about computer-based learning, or e-learning. First, it will revolutionize education and second, such a future is just around the block. Educational experts agree that most types of study are not yet effective when delivered purely online, mainly because of bandwidth limitations, expensive set-up costs, continued resistance to the medium and a shortage of quality course content.

Education has undergone significant changes because of the development of information and communication technology over the 21st century (Lin & Jou, 2012:2). As a convenient and inexpensive way to gain knowledge while pursuing higher education, online learning, a form of training or teaching that takes place over the Internet, has been considered as an alternative to traditional classroom learning (Zhang et al, 2004). This essay will argue that even though online learning has benefit such as flexibility which could outweigh traditional learning, traditional classroom learning might still not be entirely replaced. This essay will discuss positive and negative aspects of online and traditional learning in terms of four criteria:

E-Learning is trying to provide a more individualized, self-paced, self-directed learning experience (Clark). A survey by a Sociology Professor at CSU-Northridge showed that students in his virtual class performed 20% better than students in his traditional class (Clark). On the other hand, issues concerned with E-Learning includes the fact that students may not be as motivated since, another survey found out that only 66% of the students involved with E-Learning earned credit with a passing grade for their classes (Washington

In many schools, online classes are becoming more available to students. Recent studies show that the use of online classes has been rapidly increasing over the past three years. Currently, there are a total of 6,700,000 students enrolled in all different variations of courses