Educational Landscape Changes through Online Universities: Past, Present & Future

Theodore Cacciola TCacciola LLC January 22, 2014

The Disadvantages of Online AP Classes

Although its not definitive, within the Washington region, University Professors are dismissing high school teachers as being unsuited to teach college-level classes. That being said these same collegiate naysayers believe AP classes have made high school more challenging but the largest problem is that with the influx of students taking online AP courses colleges have found themselves competing for AP students.

Another problem with Online AP Classes is that AP programs are losing recognition (all while gaining attribution) but overall losing recognition within the accredited collegiate academic system because colleges are withholding more & more credits.

When you think of it the problem truly lies within the fact that each University has something to the likes of a common core coupled with an independent curriculum and teaching style which is making more and more Professors question whether the way in which Online AP Students are being taught within the principles of the delegated AP course

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professors merits and not the merits of the University in which the student wishes to attend.

Advantages of Completing Entire Degree Programs Online

There are many benefits of completing online degree programs completely online. The two things which have become the essence of the online University are flexibility along with advances in technology. Although we will focus on the two aforementioned key aspects, there are other critical aspects which make online degree programs efficient for many students. One thing in which I have found online degree programs to be very flexible are the 5 or 6 semesters within a year rather than simply a Fall & Spring term which physical Universities offer. For example if a student gets sick or is unable to attend class they can easily skip a semester for personal or family reasons. Personally, I chose an online degree program because of this feature of the Online Term Schedule. This is because in almost all Universitys students have to take classes sequentially. Sometimes 7 or 8 sequential semesters prior to graduation.

This has increased the amount of time it takes a student to graduate drastically. According to Yahoo.com in 2014 the average student takes six years to acquire their undergraduate Educational Landscape Changes through Online Universities: Past, Present & Future | Page 2 of 7

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diploma, the online university is not only flexible and uses technology to its advantage but for someone like myself who has a large number of credits but wants to switch degree programs the five to eight week semester has allowed students to not only graduate sooner, but has also increased the overall graduation rate.

Flexibility is a key aspect of the online University. Online courses can be taken wherever you have Internet access. This makes getting a degree very accommodating. A student can go on a vacation for example and still complete his or her work respectively because in the age of 21st Century technology internet access is practically everywhere. Not only is there the flexibility of location but there is also the flexibly in the hourly work schedule. Although quite obviously there are due dates which have to be met, there is a great deal of flexibility as to when you can complete assignments when studying online. Think about the ability to go onto Blackboard, the standard for Online Education but to go onto Blackboard and interact with students under discussion boards. This is very convenient for Online Degree seekers, students can complete their online work and receive feedback when their classmates are available to complete the feedback, all simply using most typically oneweek deadlines.

Technology has truly driven the online university landscape forward in a number of ways. Of course virtually anyone can access a computer whether they are rich or poor to complete their work but more importantly is the emergence of online-books. The website and company Scribd, the self-proclaimed Netflix of Books is one key resource in the emergence of online books. Any student paying around $8 per month can access a virtual library at their fingertips. That along with the fact that PDF e-Books and ePubs are available at a lower cost from a variety of different companies such as Amazon, Barnes & Nobles Nook, & Google Books.

The final advantage within this text touching upon technologies role in the advantages of online degree programs & Universitys is the use of online-resources. We aforementioned things such as the Kindle & Nook but many of these Online Universities are granting students access to entire online libraries directly from their computers. This allows the

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student to not only attend classes through things like online webinars but also do quality research on their own schedule. The benefits of an online degree are enormous.

The Future of Online Universities

Technological innovation may now be changing the way that Universities teach & students do their coursework. Online Universities are implementing refined learning-management systems and the creating the opportunity to collaborate with other students in doing research projects in a similar fashion to that of the 19th & 20th Century University but while embracing available technologies which allow students to receive a full education on a convenient schedule. Not only did 63% of Professors asked agree that the innovation of technology will influence teaching methodologies but technology is already beginning to attract students along with corporate partners for the for-profit online Universities.

Honestly, I see no optimistic future for the for-profit online Universities while I see online Degree Programs like that of which Southern New Hampshire University & the University of Boulder which non-profit institutions are emerging as the benchmark for the online learning environment. While it is encouraging that for-profit Universities, these Public Educational Landscape Changes through Online Universities: Past, Present & Future | Page 4 of 7

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Corporations are being backed by Corporate Sponsors the non-profit institutions with regional or physical campuses are the ones which will succeed in the long-run.

When a person applies to a University, any University, they want that institution to be there for them and not only support their education but have a pro-active and well-established and have a reputation for success. These Corporate Universities are luring in applicants to become prospective students but in the long-run these for-profit online institutions will dissolve as their graduates deal with extensive student debt. One thing I do see coming about due to the Online University which is already happening is online-learning centers for students to have in-person tutoring & mentoring on at least a national scale. I believe that these Campus Centers will, in the future be different than the current Campus Centers. Currently, Online Universities have essentially remote campuses which are dedicated towards only the specific online institution.

What I see in the next five to ten years is large corporations looking to expand their technological infrastructure such as Microsoft, IBM & Apple establishing local learning centers to which are somewhat already in place. These learning centers will be generic & very wide-spread, with learning centers every thirty to forty square miles. This will be an enormous transition for the non-profit. Advocates of the for-profit online University like Donald Trump (Who also established his own for-profit private school) will help establish learning centers in some sort of generic fashion which are free-to-use for Online Degree Students. While this concept is very feasible there will be some major changes to the Common Core or prospectively the Liberal Arts core which every University offers. Courses will become more stream-lined between Universitys and Collegiate Institutions. Here is one thing which I assure you will be put into place by the online-institution;

Universities will be forced to offer similar classes, even similar corecurriculums. Each Learning Center whether funded by Microsoft or JP Morgan Chase will have its own cloud-based infrastructure in terms of relational databases. These universities will share information & courses while top-tier institutions delegate the names and books to which each course is named. No longer will the Student have to transfer from Institution
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to Institution looking for the right fit, there will most-likely be a 24/7 chat service which helps students choose their type of institution, then go onto specifics.

One final way in which the online University will thrive is within a world-wide scale, in tense, both foreign along with domestic students will have access to the same educations. While this is a long-ways down the road think about the doors in which it would open-up. While it would make concrete sense that education costs would be determined on a national level or within some sort of floating-currency calculation, the largest and most important advancement in which will propel the Online University to success, especially the nonprofits; is the ability to lower the cost of education. Simply think of how many Doctors & Lawyers come from Overseas, more importantly doctors. Think about the doctors you see, they are more and more frequently foreign, most typically Indian. This is due to the cost of Education in foreign countries. Not only will the online institution thrive but it will make healthcare in general on a global scale not only more affordable but more accessible. The future of the Online University also corresponds with a new global education system where standards & merits are not determined by States or Governments but by global leaders.

Finally, these foreseeable online education enhancements will remove educational competition between countries. Its quite literally obvious that when the entire world goes by a single set of web-based educational standards while this will never become some sort of global communist initiative it will increase working capital in like-minded pro-active nations and reduce not only the income gap but also the poverty level.

This paper might be hard to believe now but simply wait, education is changing rapidly and although the third section is mostly speculative, this writer guarantees that you see many of these changes in the near future.

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Copyright Notice:
While these ideas are free to be used, more-so this papers contents is encouraged to be shared. TCacciola LLC & its affiliate attorneys insist that you may not take credit for this work of that it is of which your own. This paper is available for free but is Copyright 2014 by TCacciola LLC & was written by Theodore Cacciola. All Rights Reserved. The ideas & concepts within this essay are the intellectual property of Theodore Cacciola and any person or persons obtaining this thesis who use it as their own are subject to the United States intellectual property laws.

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