Student enrollment for online classes is steadily increasing. Is this because students prefer online studies? Or is lower cost the motivating factor? The Prospector, student news from University of Texas at El Paso, released an article viewing both sides of the spectrum.
Institutions are just like any other business; they want to continually grow. Online courses are the new way of learning, but colleges are not widely spreading this outlet. Steve Varela, senior instructional consultant at UTEP Academic Technologies said, “People [online administrators] are still trying to figure out how to manage that many students and make it meaningful.” Availability of courses is not the bottleneck for MOOCs; validating their value in the academic world is the challenge.
Without the confidence of the universities, problems have come to surface. This has caused less than optimal options for students interested in virtual courses and restricted providing the student credit upon completion. Colleges not providing online services are not offering lower cost options to their students.
Technology that is being developed will innovate this way of learning, through online identity verification. With verifying the students identity while taking an online class will increase the value to that of a face-to-face course credit. This is what ProctorFree is hoping to accomplish, so students can have more options without sacrificing the value of their education.
Have you ever taken an online course? What was your experience like? Would you recommend an online course to your peers? Leave us a response and let us know how you feel about online classes and if you would do an online class again.
