Online Education, Future of Education
Jennifer Nguyen
Online education, or distance education, will clearly be an integral part of the future of education. In a 2006/2007 study, the U.S. Department of Education reported 12.2 million enrollments in online education courses. Through the same study, the Department of Education also reported that 66 percent of two and four year universities offered distance education. What's more, 97% of public, 2-year institutions provide online courses. This information clearly implicates the use of distance learning in the future of education.
Distance education is defined as:
Distance education is planned learning that normally occurs in a different place from teaching and as a result it requires special techniques of course design, special instructional techniques, special methods of communication by electronic and other technology, as well as special techniques of course design, and other technology, as well as special organizational and administrative arrangements." (p. 2, Moore, M G., & Kearsley, G.).
There is no question that as technology improves and becomes more readily available, so too will distance education. In addition, the current economic downturn has left many consumers jobless and looking for higher education. Several states have introduced No Worker Left Behind programs, encouraging the post-collegiate bunch to hit the books once again.
With this, students from both past and present are looking for the most accessible education possible. In order to find the "right" school, a student must likely do endless searches in an effort to maybe discover that "right" place of higher education. But what if this process were easier?
CommunityCollege.com has arrived to improve this process. CommunityCollege.com offers the world's most comprehensive listing of community colleges, universities and online education programs. As stated previously, 97% of the 1000 public, 2-year universities (better known as community colleges) offer online education as well. By providing a portal to not only distance education, but also other institutions, students are able to quickly find and submit information to colleges of all types.
As the nature of learning changes (whether online or otherwise),CommunityCollege.com is designed to provide the greatest amount of information to the greatest number of people. The difference is knowledge!
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