The higher education industry is changing; and opportunities
are opening up in colleges and universities. Workers who were too busy, did not
have enough money, or were in far flung areas can now enroll for additional
degrees, thanks to the explosion of the number of online courses offered. However,
before you enroll for the online courses, here are a few pitfalls you might
want to look out for.
1. Realize that many
employers still have a hard time accepting online degrees.
Your future employer will have a hard time figuring how you
attended classes without a lecturer being physically present, or how you did
exams without someone actually supervising you. What schools and universities
do is ‘credentialing’, i.e proving to the employer that you actually attended
classes, and got the
skills- in this case measured in terms of grades. So, at
least in the initial stages, be ready to meet blank stares from hiring managers
and recruiters when you explain that you got your degree, diploma, or certificate
online.
2. Realize that
online education is suited for some courses and not others.
There are some courses where one to one interaction with the
teacher or instructor is of vital importance. For example, a teacher would be
indispensable for a successful lab experiment, something that an online degree
wouldn’t confer. Sure, there are online learning aids such as the Khan Academy,
or Coursera, which have done a pretty good job in online education, but the
importance of a teacher or instructor, cannot be overemphasized. An online
degree in business or an Arts program would probably be more acceptable, than
say an online degree in a medical science or engineering discipline.
3. Online education
does not offer social interaction.
Whereas we all go to school to gain papers and academic
knowledge, the interaction with fellow students is what influences our lives
most. Interacting with individuals from diverse backgrounds, many of whom are
already talented in so many other different fields, opens a student’s world in
so many ways. Perhaps, this is the great disadvantage of online education, in
that it doesn’t foster an outside of class interaction between students, and between
students and lecturers.
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