Online Degrees Just Make $ense (Cents)

Online Degrees Just Make $ense (Cents)
Michael Turner

If you have gone to school in this wonderful country of America, you know that it is not very friendly on the pockets. When you think about getting a degree, you think about needing it, not being able to afford it. Higher learning after high school is just a mandatory thing in this country to make it. It has become a necessity and the schools realize this, so they start to charge more and more by the year. One way that students are fighting back is a switch up in the way that they learn. Online degrees and learning through the Internet has become the way to strike back. It is a way to get the same level of education while saving money. They are more affordable in almost all cases and there are many other benefits to the Internet's new classrooms that are popping up all over the web.

Sam Dillon of the New York Times recently looked into this phenomenon and tried to figure out why this form of learning is becoming so popular. One student he talked with was having trouble affording the commute. With gas prices flying through the roof in the past year and the price in the future being very unpredictable, Ryan Gibbons, the student Dillon reported on, had recently gone from a Chevy Blazer to a more gas savvy Hyundai. After has continued to increase and the economy was hurting, Gibbons went the online route to eliminate commuting altogether.

This trend increased enormously this past summer. Some schools reported the online classes that they provide have gone up 50 to 100 percent this summer. With people's pockets hurting now more than ever, this trend will probably not go away anytime soon. During the Bush Administration, they noticed this trend and acted on it. Congress passed a bill that no longer requires students to take more than half of their classes on campus rather than online to qualify for federal aid.

It is advancements like this that make the average student think twice about why they are spending so much money for classes on campus that they never wake up for and cannot consistently commute to. The benefits to most students are overwhelming. The class is available 7 days a week 24 hours a day. You do not have to attend a class when you are far to tired to be able to comprehend what is being taught to you. You can look at the website whenever you feel ready to work on the class. With the online class, you do not have to leave the house at all. You do not have to worry about paying $4 for a gallon of gas or taking a bus to campus.

Even kids at the middle and high school level are getting involved in online learning. Charter schools are being made available for students to start using the internet to learn at a younger age. With schedules getting busier and busier for the young, online schools are becoming more popular by the year. There are currently more than 50,000 kids enrolled in Florida Virtual School, it is the largest in virtual high school in America. The education is the same and the instructors are just as available as they would be in any class.

Online schooling allows people to go to school that would otherwise not be able to do so. It allows the student who is not able to make the commute to campus the availability of going to class while not leaving the home. It allows the student who does not like waking up early or has a schedule that does not match that of normal campus classes to be able to get work done what ever time of day it is. If you are a night person, work on homework for the class at night. The benefits are plentiful and the students are starting to realize this. The degrees are just as legit as face to face education and it allows a new and improved way of learning. These positive aspects of internet classrooms should not go ignored. In the future, look for even more advancements in what is available through internet schools and even more people interested in giving it a shot. The classrooms of the future are here and to find them you do not even have to step out side your own home.


Reference List:

Dillon, Sam. "High Cost of Driving Ignites Online Classes Boom." New York Times 11 July 2008.

Halcom, Chad. "More are studying online; Programs expand in scope, draw from outside state, country." Crain's Detroit Business (2007): 14.

Dillon, Sam. "Online Schooling Grows, Setting Off Debate." New York Times 1 Feb. 2008.

Dillon, Sam. "Online Degrees Recieve a Boost from Congress." New York Times 1 Mar. 2006.