A Pandemic : The Wind beneath Online Education’s Powerful Wings

The world might be amidst a pandemic with deserted streets and shut shops but Online College Education has never seen as much growth as it has now.
The lock-down following the onset of the global pandemic has speeded up the process of making college education internet-friendly by the presence of many online education platforms. University programs ranging from pre-university to post-graduate degree and diploma courses have made the switch to online platform modes in order to facilitate continuous learning. In India alone, this translates into around 751 universities, with about 35,539 colleges under them having to upgrade their technology infrastructure and switch to complete online learning platform instead of traditional offline methods.
Nation locks down, Learning buckles up!
Before the pandemic, online college study was an option targeted mostly at older students who preferred online degree courses to balance work-life-family better. Only the most tech-savvy universities from around the world with courses accredited especially for the internet medium had ventured online but in an age where social-distancing has become the ‘new norm’ of the day, all colleges, irrespective of their infrastructure, have had to drastically enhance or create their online learning platform without compromising on the quality of education. This means that the audience in search of the best online college programs available are growing in leaps and bounds too.
With the changing audience for online degrees, the expectations from these schools offering them have changed too. Unlike the older audience who attended college online because they weren’t willing to commit to a full-time degree program, new students on the lookout for online degrees are full-timers who are looking to find the best online substitute for their in-person classes. This means that the quantity of content available has to be increased to accommodate full-fledged education like one would expect to encounter in traditional college courses. Secondly, the tools of communication available for colleges going online should be optimized in a way that students who are used to offline education find the switch to online courses/ online learning platforms comfortable.
Looking for 1 good reason to make the switch? Here’s 5
Apart from the obvious advantage of providing uninterrupted education, online college courses / online learning platforms have the additional advantage of being time-flexible and cheaper in terms of tuition fees. When degree courses are conducted online, they tend to have shorter terms than traditional courses. And because the college has to bear fewer expenses, online college tuition fees are most likely lesser than on-campus courses. This broadens the access to good education and overcomes geographical constraints, allowing students from around the world to access best online college programs from around the world.
In a world where the future of education is predicted to be increasingly online and on ‘online learning platforms’, it will come as no surprise if a college’s ability to conduct courses online will come to determine its global ranking. Soon, the capacity of colleges to provide online degrees & tuition to make education completely accessible from students’ homes will not only determine the best online college but the best college to study in altogether.
If you are a student, Click Here for tips on attending online classes.
If you are a teacher, Click Here to learn more about conducting online classes.
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