Is Online Education Good or Bad Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Is Online Education Good or Bad - Essay Example As the essay stresses learning is a basic constituent in a person’s general personal as well as working life. In the past, students would attend ‘bricks and mortar’ classes to attain an education before entering the workforce. While this is still the main trend in the acquisition of education, the latter part of the 20th century has seen more students take advantage of courses that are offered online. There are many universities today that offer lectures online for students who may be unable to attend classes for one reason or another. There are also online based colleges that promise degrees for a much less price than traditional bricks-and-mortar institutions.  This discussion highlights that  the online courses offered by bricks-and-mortar institutions are, for the most part, genuine because they identify with the recognized universities that offer them. Moreover, there are the online-based universities that offer all their lectures online. Many of such ins titutions are not usually accredited. The online environment provides numerous opportunities for people situated in different parts of the world to be able to benefit from various educational courses. Indeed, its original objective was to provide a more cost-effective way for people without the financial resources required by traditional colleges to be able to benefit from a college education. Moreover, there are people who have established universities online that claim to offer courses to all people at cheaper prices than those of bricks-and-mortar universities. For most such institutions, the delivery of high quality education is not an important objective. There are different factors that illustrate concerns about such institutions. Some of these include: The Role of Commercialization in Online Education. Lectures from online-based institutions are not appropriate for students because these institutions are mainly concerned with benefiting from commercialization, and are, thus, quite self-serving (Anderson, 45). Even though it is not a fact that is admitted often by the chief academic officers of online-based universities, most officials of such institutions are mainly concerned with the bottom line. This is because they get rewarded for creating policies that result in higher enrollments, greater retention of registered students, and higher levels of success. According to Noble, â€Å"universities are aware that they can get and keep more students by offering online courses which are cheap in comparison to traditional classes†, (Noble, 26). This is why they charge more for the introduction of newer courses which they then add to the curriculum. So far, online education from online-based institutions is the fastest growing industry in the for-profit sector (Donaldson, Agra, Alshammari, Bailey, Bowdoin, Kendle, Nixon, and Wressell, 49). It has also been aggressively promoted by for-profit universities and colleges. It is marketed because it saves cos ts by delivering lessons to thousands of students simultaneously, thus decreasing instructional costs.