What You Need To Know About Online Education During a Pandemic
Online education is transforming the world of learning completely for students, faculty, and universities alike. Earlier, online education was even frowned upon in some parts of the world. However, due to COVID-19, online education has gone from being a stigma to becoming a necessity in these uncertain times. The continuous innovation and development in the world of the internet have strong contributions to the growth of online education too. Online education has come really far from its early experimental days almost a decade ago, to its present state in which even legacy colleges such as Harvard and Yale have opted for distance learning and are offering their courses and programs online.
Benefits Of Online Education
A major benefit of online education is that of accessibility. Earlier, an individual sitting in China who wished to pursue his education in one of the ivy-league colleges in the United States would have had to go through lengthy visa processes, long documentation processes, and need a whole lot of money to accomplish his/her dream. However, with online education, they can still pursue their education from an ivy-league school from the comfort of their home. Online education has opened up a lot of avenues for individuals who are limited by their accessibility and has increased the amount of diversity in undergraduate degrees worldwide.
Another advantage of online education is convenience. As explained in the above example, an individual from one part of the world has access to courses and course work material from a university located on the other side of the world. The student can conveniently follow all study material through the ease of their home without having to spend a humongous amount of money on traveling or tuition fees.
Another benefit of online education is flexibility. While traditional and in-person university courses aren’t very flexible and quite rigid in their course timings and other features, online courses are very flexible and hence suitable for all types of students. Students can schedule their work or other commitments around their time of study easily.
The Challenges Of Online Education
A major challenge of online education is that in order to successfully study in an online environment, one needs to be skilled and technology savvy. For instance, if you don’t know your way around Zoom or haven’t participated in an online conference in your life, you might have trouble navigating your way through an online classroom. However, this can easily be overcome by learning a guide to online classes.
Additionally, one needs to be very self-disciplined in order to excel in online course programs. A laid-back attitude will absolutely not get you through your online degree, and in order to successfully complete it you need to develop a strict study plan for yourself.
What is Online University Accreditation and Why Is It Important?
Accreditation is defined as the process of recognition or acceptance of an institution by an official government body with legal powers and endorsing it to have a particular state. Accreditation of a university or college is important as if a university or college is accredited, it shows that they are recognized by their country’s official ministry of education or any other educational bodies.
According to EduRef.net if a student opts for online education from an accredited college or university, they are more likely to fulfill all their educational needs and get financial aid too in case they need it. Additionally, students enrolled in accredited universities can easily transfer their credits to any other university in case they wish to change their college.
Additionally, opting for an accredited university is also necessary because such universities have to follow strict rules and regulations of the educational body they come under and hence maintain their level of quality and delivery in terms of educational requirements.