Why online education is growing??

[dolly2003]

Distance education of one sort or another has been around for a long time. Correspondence courses helped people learn trades on their own free time, while radio or taped television courses educated students in remote areas. Now, with the rapid expansion and evolution of the Internet, online education has become a reality. What began as a convenient means of offering internal training to employees via corporate intranets has now spread to the general public over the worldwide web.

Online-only colleges and career schools have flourished, and traditional ground-based universities are moving courses and degree programs onto the Internet. It’s now possible to earn a degree from an accredited college without ever setting foot on campus, and more people enroll every year.

[AbhikRana]

Dear Madam Professor,

You are right when you say that the avenues for online and distance education is growing in India and rightfully so considering the fact that it gives working professionals the opportunity to pursue the courses of their choice without affecting the work schedule.

However, what is also a fact is that all the Public sector undertakings (Govt. companies) and quite a few of govt. departments ONLY ACCEPT FULL-TIME DEGREE COURSES (especially the professional courses) for employment purposes.

Hence, if someone endeavours not only has to enhance his knowledge and skills but also to get suitable placement with PSUs and govt. departments (a few), distance/online education would not be the right choice. S/he should rather go in for full-time education.

[DrRajpalSingh]

Distance education of one sort or another has been around for a long time. Correspondence courses helped people learn trades on their own free time, while radio or taped television courses educated students in remote areas. Now, with the rapid expansion and evolution of the Internet, online education has become a reality. What began as a convenient means of offering internal training to employees via corporate intranets has now spread to the general public over the worldwide web.

Online-only colleges and career schools have flourished, and traditional ground-based universities are moving courses and degree programs onto the Internet. It’s now possible to earn a degree from an accredited college without ever setting foot on campus, and more people enroll every year.

Those who have not means to complete regular class room studies or have to leave their courses unfinished due to reasons like getting employment opportunities or due to any other reason and have a determination to go in for higher education, chose this mode of education.

Secondly, the people who have a desire to further improve their suitability and usefulness in their place of work and want to rise in the hierarchy of administration/management go in for full time distance education or blend of part time correspondence courses and part time practical mode of courses offered by different institutes and universities throughout the world.

The latest mode is nothing new but an off shoot of the earlier system with addition of modern gadgets and other IT facilities.

This way of learning is increasing day by day because of its proven usefulness and there seems to be no harm in progress of this system of learning and knowledge sharing.

Thanks

[ssgoyat]

I see title as. Why online education business is growing?

Personally: I see don't see this mode not picking up/popular among student fraternity. Reasons are very well explained by Abhik rana here.

Another reason is: Traditionally Indian Students are inclined towards campus placement than education alone, which is very much right in the Indian job market. One find it very hard to find a fresher's job outside campus. Hence campus education becomes essential for starters.

However for working professionals. Online certification in one's area of domain helps to upgrade knowledge, acceptability in job market as well as results in salary rise.

In Indian context, aspiring students must complete their college education (traditional like Bsc, BTech, MBA, MCA etc) from campus only, so as to be able to land up with job, which should be the first priority. Later they can pick non tradition courses online to upgrade their skill set.

Ex:- SCDL (Symbiosis Center of Distance Learning) i see is a big failure, they don't help in getting students landing up with some job, however they claim so. I don't see it has added any value to my any near/distant friend. Complete waste of resources (time, money). So i rather call it as online education business.

The course contents are very much outdated, prepared (rather cut/paste) by hired third party inexperienced professors, no logical flow of content. No Industry relevance (though flashy/gloomy/appealing online content). Same is the case with other business houses (IMT etc)

Other flop foreign universities have also flown up here, and have opened their center, adding this as another revenue stream for them.

PS: Am i case that had to switch from Online to regular campus mode, after weighing above pros n cons.

Bottom line is don't fell into pray. Weigh your options & be ready for a little sacrifice, for a long term gain. Don't try to run a sprint, run for marathon.

[DrRajpalSingh]

Indira Gandhi National Open University, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi offers many useful courses for in service personnel and also to others at very subsidized rates of fee etc. and thousands of persons have been availing of this opportunity to update their educational profile through this Distance Mode of Education.

Some more Government aided universities are also contributing to popularize this mode of extension education and there seems to be no harm in taking advantage of the facility.

The popularity of these courses is definitely on increase.

But the warning contained in the post of Mr. Goyat added as PS in the above post must be taken note before opting for this mode of education.

Thanks.