How many hours are left in the day after work? Is it enough to go to college?
Maybe not if you have to commute, but if it simply meant logging on to your school’s website, you could complete a simple reading assignment in the amount of time to watch a television show.
An estimated 6.1 million college students take online courses, according to a report by the Babson Survey Research Center. The flexibility of online education has allowed working individuals to rise ahead, procuring a better position at a current company or even transitioning into a better working environment.
Online education has really changed the game for military families and single parents as well. For these students, taking courses over the Internet really saves time and even money.
Students Arrange Their Own Schedules
The major benefit of online courses is you have no strict time to be online for a lecture. Working students consider this to be the real amazing quality of online school. The only deadlines that you really have are when to turn in assignments. However, you can decide when to study and complete your regular class work. Exams will usually have a time limit for completion, or if you are taking a hybrid course, you may to visit a campus to take the exam, which you will know about in advance with a syllabus.
Courses Taught Online Give You More Freedom
In the time it takes you to drive to school and get to a classroom, you could have already completed an assignment online. That’s the major benefit that students see when they first sign up for courses. Online classes take out the commute, adding more time to actually learn. However, classes also focus more on solitary work and learning without an instructor-led lecture.
Although it’s becoming increasingly more popular for professors to post lectures online with videos for their online students. An online instructor may also be more accessible than a professor with office hours at a college. There are also more degrees being added to the online education forum.
(YourDegree.com has an updated list of the bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees that are currently being offered at several schools online.)
You Receive Feedback And Grades Faster With Online Courses
Once you turn in an assignment, such as a quiz, it can be graded immediately and you receive your score, so you know exactly how well you did. In a physical classroom, you’re going to wait a week or two to get back any test or quiz. Students basically take out the inadequacies of some teachers with online assignments.
They can study, turn in homework, and receive a grade simply. Most online courses come with a simple-to-use interface as well, complete with e-mail, discussion boards, assignment page, profile pages for other students, video tutorials and news updates. Some schools even integrate interfaces with Facebook, so you know exactly when quarter grades are posted or when you have a new assignment.
You’re in charge of doing the work, so you have to be self-motivated and organized. This will save you more time as you continue to work online. Students need to set up a planner and keep separate folders on a computer for online classes to hold assignments, quiz grades, syllabi and other important documents. You are also in charge of asking for help if you do not understand an assignment or reading, so make sure that you can talk to your professor when you have time.
One of the drawbacks for online school is if you do not have your own computer or stable Internet connection. You won’t save as much as time if you do not have your own online access at home. However, even if you take your classes at a cyber café or public library, you can still create your own schedule. There are many online schools that will also offer financial aid to help pay for a laptop.
Many institutions are adding new online courses and degree programs, finally understanding the plight of working students. Online courses have attributed to higher enrollments with 65.5% of chief academic officers calling online education “critical” to an institution’s long-term strategy. As more colleges recognize the needs of their student body, working students can take advantage of their free time and earn a degree.
Photo Credit:
Shutterstock
