One of the main problems that many people looking for higher education stress about is the cost of the degree or the student loans that they will have to pay back, which will cause many people to not continue their higher studies. So here comes online education with a solution that could satisfy a large number of people, distance learning tuitions are far less expensive than traditional on-campus learning, and this is for many reasons. On the first hand, according to Sonya Krakoff, students will cut many expenses by not using any kind of transportations, as the fuel prices are not cheap in most of the countries which impact negatively all kinds of public transportations, no more need for books where most of the materials can be found online in open sources which are “free of charge” like web videos from Khan Academy, and the instructor created content as mentioned by “Tamara Butler Battaglino, Matt Haldeman, and Eleanor Laurans”.Furthermore, people that live far from the university will have to rent dorms because it will not be practical to travel this distance every day, and this comes with additional expenses on food and many other need which can disappear with off-campus learning where those people will attend the courses from anywhere they want virtually online. On the other hand the university itself will cut many costs if they adapted the distance learning method where less equipment from pens, boards, desks ,dining halls ,electricity which is high-priced in Lebanon for example .”Tamara Butler Battaglino, Matt Haldeman, and Eleanor Laurans “also claims that education saves around half a million dollars 'per school of 450 students per year 'by diminishing the number of educators and employees by eliminating an assistant principal position for example, offices by replacing many classes by online Learning labs , and extend the student-teacher ratio where instead of an instructor teaching 25 student per class he will teach 35 or 40 students in online classes ,so they could invest some of this many to hire the level of education and reduce the tuition fees to nearly the third over the traditional learning costs which is proved by the article “Online Learning vs Traditional Learning” where it is shown that the average cost for an online degree is approximately 30,000$ whereas the traditional degrees are around 85,000$ .
The question that can be asked is, how flexible is online learning? In short words, more than we can imagine. Who thought that anyone from around the world can one day access his courses anytime, 24 over 7 while maintaining a balanced life between work, education, and family commitment? Well, online education gives all the people this opportunity, as mentioned by “Will Erstad” this comes in favor for a large number of people from working students in restaurants that have am and pm shifts and full time working employees, which gives them the chance to learn at any spare time in the schedule of the student where they can study during work breaks, at night, and on the weekend, and “Dave Tomar “ comes to support this statement in his article where he shared the experience of many working busy people and one example is Russell, studying for a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice Case Management from American Intercontinental University, explains that “The flexibility of an online college is its greatest perk. Being a non-traditional student automatically entails that I am working for a living. That being the case, it would have been impossible for me to further my education at a traditional campus college.”, in addition to all the life experiences shared by how distance learning helped employed students complete their degrees, “Maureen Hannay” confirms in a study done on 217 students who chose off-campus learning that 88% of them chose online learning because they have other commitments. Between the age of 18 and 25 are the best times to party and live life the most, but after a long night people are not able to get up early to catch university, add to this category the people that like to study at night, that is not a problem anymore with online learning, party addict, night owl or an early riser, online courses are accessible in the morning and at night 24/7 as stated in the article 'The Advantages and Importance of Online Learning”.In addition, according to the article” 'The Advantages and Importance of Online Learning” people can access the online material anywhere, using the laptop, phone or tablet while sitting in a comfortable chair, laying on the bed, in a cafe, in the house which is a quiet and better environment for studying. This comes with positive energy for the students where “Che Nidzam Che Ahmad, Saidatul Ainoor Shaharim2 & Mohd Faizal Nizam Lee Abdullah” mentioned: “Therefore, comfort is the key in encouraging learning effectiveness. A comfortable learning environment which meets the needs of students will encourage active participation and enhance the understanding of the concept”. This flexibility is useful for parents so they can watch their kids at home while watching courses instead of hiring a babysitter to attend the university, if kids need food no problem pause the video prepare the food, and then continue, it is possible to divide the course into many parts take as much time as wanted with any part, take breaks between the parts and then continue, whereas in traditional learning there is a syllabus that should be followed and finished in time.
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Another advantage of online learning is the possibility to enroll in accelerated courses that can resolve the problems of many students that need to make money as fast as possible and this is confirmed by “Findings from the Call for Evidence on Accelerated Courses and Switching University or Degree” article that states many advantages statistics :“Benefits of accelerated degree courses include reduced overall costs for students and taxpayers, increased value for money for students” , 73% of suppliers who replied detailed seeing request from students and employees stating that they want to learn and train in a quicker way with the accelerated courses compared to what regular traditional degrees can offer in order to enter the labor market to support their families can enroll in accelerated courses, and this in a very effective way because in this same article 86% of the providers state that accelerated courses would be suitable for most of the material they offer, students on accelerated courses are more concentrated and propelled to finish their degrees than those on traditional degree program, all this with the same assimilation and understanding of the courses and very close results in the exams,in addition students seeking multiple degree as fast as possible to satisfy their love of education and improvement should choose accelerated courses where they can finish the same number of degrees in half the time according to many universities as was stated in the article “Fastest Accelerated Online Degrees” like in B.S. in California Baptist University where courses such as Public Health, B.S. in Computer Information Technology, B.S. in Criminal Justice can be taken in 16 months instead of 36 months, add to this master’s and doctoral degree that are also available ,like in “The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill” one of the most prestigious online schools and it offers multiple accelerated degrees including physical therapy, which can be completed in under two years, Nursing DNP, which can be completed in 24-36 months and must more other universities.
Interaction has a great impact on the student's overall motivation and their success in the courses, the instructor is responsible for creating an atmosphere where students can feel more comfortable speaking and interacting instead of being nervous and shy to ask questions. This will higher the student's interest in the course and therefore think critically and analyze instead of memorizing without understanding. Some readers might claim that there is no interaction in online learning between the participants. Undoubtedly, that can be true, if the instructor didn’t follow the proper methods to build a great online interaction with his students mentioned by “Cindy S. York” that include: First, course structure factors like activities, the professor can for example create a competition where the first student to solve a particular exercise will get an additional grade on the test which will challenge the students to try as hard as possible to win or another way could be writing the name of the chapter that they will learn today and instead of immediately begin explaining, the instructor could ask the students what do they this chapter will talk about. Swan a professor at a university who gives online courses and on-campus classes stated regarding the online students: “We found that the greater percentage of the grade that was given to discussion, the more satisfied the students were and the more they felt they were learning.” Second, feedback where the students would discuss with the instructor what the students did like and what they would modify in the way the course is taught which shows “personal reflection” and the interest of the students in the course, in addition, the instructor can evaluate the progress or lack of work of the students by sending compliments to the hard-working ones and advice to the others highlighting where they didn’t work enough and many other methods could be used like discourse techniques and facilitation, etc. Moreover, as mentioned by” Maureen Hannay” shy people will participate more in online courses or they can ask questions in private to the professor, in a study done on 217 students a large number chose distance learning because they felt nervous speaking in traditional classes and they claimed that they felt more confident participating through the online discussions “so they felt more involved in the class”.
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