What is Online Education?

Online courses and degrees have become a best friend to adults and working college students. They allow freedom from the traditional classroom, have many of the benefits of a traditional classroom, and cater to the needs of busy students with other responsibilities and obligations.

What Are Online Courses?

Colleges and universities have offered print-based, self-paced, distance-education courses for some time, so the advantages of the Internet made online courses a natural progression in our ever-increasing technological world. Unlike print-based courses, online courses offer students the opportunity to experience much more of the ‘college experience\'. Online courses provide education in real-time, mirror the traditional classroom with lectures, peer and instructor interaction, and assignment deadlines.

Taught over the Internet on software platforms such as Desire2Learn or Blackboard, online learning transports students to a virtual lecture hall in the form of a message board. The message board provides students with a forum to discuss current lessons, current events, or assigned lessons. Each week, textbook reading is assigned, and lectures are delivered. Completed assignments are submitted to the professor through e-mail or a “drop box” on the learning platform. Only the student and professor have access to the assignment. Participation is key to online classes, and in many classes participation in discussion forums weighs heavily on the final grade.