Online Education – A Convenience tool for Higher Education & Advanced Courses

Online education has gained immense popularity in the recent years and it has all the reasons to be a TOM (top of mind) concept in the world. It is no different than an on-campus program, except in the way it imparts education to its recipients. The subject modules are conveyed to the aspirants through the Internet and it doesn’t stand a position less than the traditional classrooms. Moreover, the advancements in technology today have made communication between the tutors and students, unaffected by any obstruction which attracts students even more towards exploring Online Education. Online education is always designed with a student centric approach which is why it looks customized to every learner.

How online education works?

Presently, there are a lot of Universities/Online Universities that provide online programs for students. In an online program, the knowledge and information is transferred through different sources like presentations, videos, chat sessions, documents, and many things more. The tutors involved in e-education are experienced lecturers of Universities and colleges. During the duration of the course, they interact with the students through video and audio conferences, chat rooms, multimedia components and others.

In addition to this, there are instructors who provide interactive instructions, guidelines, and support the students through e-mails, chats, and community forums. Mostly, the online courses have a separate user interface which has features like online calendars that help in checking and remembering class schedules, timetables to give a regular overview, and sample tests for students to check their progress from time-to-time. A lot of online programs are customizable as well where the students may fix their time schedules for learning as per their convenience, so that the instructors can provide study materials and presentations on time.

Advancements in online education

Online education is used not only to provide regular education degrees, but also to make available professional and vocational courses. The advancements in IT have accessorized online education thereby making it a real-time experience. Most of the essential downloads provided by the online universities are open sourced and meant for the direct benefit of students. 

Another positive school of thought on online education proposes that online education doesn’t only make learning convenient, but it also cuts down on the paper usage which otherwise, is required in huge volumes to print bulk book material, in the regular education. Also, the scope of learning, researching, and investigating more is much more in an online course since the information is available in vast volumes and for free. The students themselves probe more into the subjects or sometimes the online education providers integrate them with their programs.

It is evident that online education has reached students through newer teaching methodologies enabling Management of Learning. This, in addition, is enhanced through online classrooms, social media networks, and online resources. Most of the online institutes today, offer education with new, reformed pedagogy.

The Statistical Survey report of 2012 in the US, states that,  

“More than 6 million students in the US have taken online courses over regular courses from the Fall of 2011 to Fall of 2012.”

Considering this, there are chances that e-education may overtake the regular education system in the coming few years.

Benefits of online education

• Pursuing online programs is very cost effective. The courses are provided either for free or for cheaper fees with the same degree of accreditation as that of a regular course


• Online courses grab individual attention and satisfy individual requirements by offering flexible time plans as well as learning modules


• These courses are very beneficial for professionals who can take these programs while working


• It is the perfect niche for reinforcing our ground skills & professional talents and pursuing a new career direction


• Web research through online education is effective and efficient and consumes least amount of time


• Online education is full of additional materials and sources


• Many researches can be brought together for better implementation of concepts, in contrast to regular campuses that rely only on text books


• People find more time for thorough learning of concepts and working on them since the class schedules are decided as per their convenience


• Forums and chat discussions, an integral part of online learning, offer perspectives from various experts


• Most importantly, it gives the learners, the freedom of choosing what and when they want to learn

Online teacher courses

 It is essential for teachers to improve their further knowledge to sustain in the teaching profession. Online teacher education plays here, a vital role as teachers cannot invest their time dedicatedly on learning, when they are into their profession.

Teachers who hold their diplomas or degrees can further pursue online higher education degrees. They can choose from the range of online teacher courses available on the Internet. There are some very popular names in providing advanced online courses on teaching. Some of the quality and trustworthy providers of these online teacher courses are

• www.getteachered.com
• www.lead2class.com
• www.teacher2school.com
• www.teacherweb.com

These Websites apart from giving a list of Universities and colleges that offer programs of teachers’ choice, also act as Counselors and guide them in deciding on their right courses.

This content is brought you by 

Read More

The Prevailing Education System in the USA

The current status of education in the US has a lot of scope of improvement. Most of the teachers in the US do not undergo any teacher training other than holding their degrees. They just focus on the students’ assessment and teach in a simple manner without following standardized teaching practices and procedures. Moreover, students undergo their education programs under such teachers with the intention of just passing the exam and with lack of encouragement & enthusiasm to gain knowledge of the subject. This makes the overall quality of the schools not up to the standards in the US.

The teaching quality, just like in any other nation, needs improvement and this cannot happen just by compelling students to get prepared for their exams, but actually making them learn and improve their understanding and knowledge of the subject. There is a major need of focusing on further education for teachers in the US.

Level of Education System

The existing education system in the US includes school education, community college education (both Associate’s and Academic degree), University education, and technical education. Performance tests in high schools and others, rate the level of learning and the overall school performance, excluding other factors. These tests hold high impacts on the performance of teachers and the students. Hence, teachers focus more on retaining their positions rather than nurturing the minds of the learners.

"The statistical data ranks the United States 12th in the countries, based on the marks scored by students in Mathematics and Science (data belongs to the year 2008–2010). Presently, school dropouts account for about 40% in the African-American communities and 27% in the natives. About 54% of the US students end their educational life with school education itself. Furthermore, dropouts are on a great rise Y-o-Y."

In general, people in the US are said to be fragile in general academic skills, especially in a subject like mathematics and the same thought has alarmingly vibrated to the educators of the country, who, now, are working towards changing this perception of the world by offering higher education online. Teachers are now molding their students through improved teaching methodologies to ensure successful outcome from students, not only in terms of academics, but also to bring them out as globally recognized graduates who would come forward as future-ready renowned academicians, knowledge specialists and educationalists.

Quality of teaching

The quality of teaching in America is on rise and improving every year. The strategy behind this improvement is development of proper job prospects in teaching. Most of the teachers in the US hold their graduation degrees or diplomas than a Ph.D required. The level of teaching recorded so far in the US is not up to the mark. This leads to a situation where teachers utilize this little knowledge of theirs and focus on just holding their jobs somehow. However, looking at the current trends we get to understand that qualified staff inspiring students are in high demand in the US education industry.

Certain key points have been devised to focus on improving the job prospects in teaching:

• The diploma holders amongst the teachers can undergo further teaching courses
  
  
• They can also take online teacher education while teaching at schools. This improves the way of specializing on how to improve teaching skills


• Teachers can go for a Masters degree or some technical course for the further specialization of their subjects
 

Merits of further education of teachers are:

• Teachers will establish a professional way of teaching


• They would be able to focus on students since they would be relieved of stress about their own education


• They would be able to encourage and enhance students’ creativity


• Teachers will be able to inculcate this amazing sense of critical thinking into the students


• All of this would benefit them so much that they would become passionate about enhancing their knowledge through their own teaching experience


• Teachers would be able to handle students in an effective and productive way


• Students would get a new dimension to their pace of learning through this paradigm shift in teaching

And most importantly, teachers and students will become more confident and knowledgeable that they could not have been without proper teaching mechanism

All of this would eventually lead to a fall in the number of school dropouts and additionally would help cleaning off the low IQ image of students in the US. For teachers too this would be of great benefit. However, the public schools should not reject them on the basis of over-qualification and look basically for their interest level in teaching. Schools should also give aspirants positions in their academies and help them find a permanent position as well.

Improving teaching

Teaching in the US can be improved not only with further education but also by informing the teachers to implement some standardized teaching procedures. Teachers should take up teaching with a student-centric approach. They should instruct students not to elicit the concepts only to produce them in exams but to focus majorly on learning.

Students too should develop a broader perspective towards creative learning. The grading tests should be conducted in the US schools for realizing the level of learning based on inspiration, thinking and acquaintance of concepts.

The current US education market seems to be at risk. However, further education for teachers, job prospects in teaching and online teaching education come out as few important points of improving the education system prevailing in the United States of America.

Read More