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ruby.mein

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Feb 26, 2010
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What are can you say about online education? What are its advantages and disadvantages?
 
The advantage is that you don't need to come to school for causes,which is more convinience and comfortable.The disadvantage is that online education cannot be as livly as in the class,which cannot ask question as in the class.Do you think so?
 
Advantage of online education is that it is not so costly and disadvantage of online education is that not all courses of study are easily available online. If you're interested in a more unusual field, you may have difficulty finding a source for online education.
 
Any experience with online education in Canada?
 
Suin said:
Any experience with online education in Canada?

I took a course with Mount Royal University online. Mt Royal's staff is awful and uninformed. They never posted my grades. (Really!) They caused me to waste money and time. I quit their program and moved to a US school. (I'm a US citizen.)

I love the school I'm with now. Most of the staff is much better than Mt. Royal's.

Biggest disadvantage to online education is the limited number of programs. Some you cannot take online (like nursing) and others are only offered by some schools (like Psychology). You have to be careful too. Some are ridiculously expensive. I had one quote me a fee of $30,000USD for an associates degree (2 year diploma)!!!! University of Pheonix has a lot of programs, but takes 5 years and costs over $50k USD. Absolutely ridiculous!

Athabasca University is the "premier" online school out west for Canada (at least according to my friend who takes tons of classes online because she's disabled and bored). They offered degrees, diplomas, and certificates. I'm considering getting a post graduate diploma from them after I graduate from my US school so I can upgrade to Canadian standards (i. e., learn Canadian business law). When I do it will largely depend on when I get my PR, because I'm NOT paying international tuition! :P
 
Just a personal experience about online education. It requires lot of discipline. In regular class room lectures, you know that you have to wake up at certain time and be there at certain etc. You are automatically forced to spend some time on the stuff.

But in online courses - there is no force - no schedule - its literally on your desk. And cuz its so near to you and literally 'on demand' - one gets the illusion that its always doable - hard to put aside a specific time for it..as its always accessible. And before you know, you start to slide from the schedule and realize you are not able to give any time to the course.

The other thing about online courses is that usually, you get piled up with lots of info in small amount of time. Cuz its just one sided - the instructor is just speaking in the cam or its a recorded video. Not interactive which slows down the pace of instructor.

Lastly - though some may not agree - but in an online course you do miss out that collaborative team work. Yes you can make online friends and then meet some place every week for a study group, but its usually tough to meet up.

So think about it carefully before you spend the cash on an online course. If you know that you will be able to dedicate some time every day, are already into the stuff - then yea, its great. Otherwise, if its a completely new thing never go for online .

Just my opinion.
 
I happened to take an online course at U of Massachusetts once and it was pretty good. It was actually not related to my field and took it only for the purpose of maintaining a full-time status in the last semester. Although, most students who take online classes as well as faculty agree that they are more difficult and demanding. It requires much more time for self-study. Of course taking just one course and completing the whole degree online are completely different things. And there are only a few degree programmes offered online.
 
University of Calgary has lots of online certificate programs. Good if you need a certain qualification for a job.
 
Korea2Canada said:
University of Calgary has lots of online certificate programs. Good if you need a certain qualification for a job.

Does this have a lot of + feedback w/ regards to their program?
 
lovekoto said:
Does this have a lot of + feedback w/ regards to their program?

Yes it's good. Not too expensive. Take 8 courses to get a certificate in something you want to work at in Canada. Can be online or on campus part-time.
 
Students are given the opportunity to choose from various schools, programs and courses which are not available in the area where they live in.Another benefit of taking online courses, and probably the most popular one, would be that it offers flexibility to students.
 
I am doing an LLB through the University of London online. The advantages are that you can study completely on your own time and often the tuition is much cheaper than regular university.
Also, it allows you to travel as you study because you can keep up with your work as long as you have an internet connection.
The big disadvantage for me has been keeping myself disciplined and productive when being at home. There is a lot of distractions and you have a certain sense of 'freedom' that can make procrastinating a problem (if you are prone to that). Also if you study from home I highly recommend setting up skype sessions or even conference calls with other students as engaging in conversation and studying with other people really helps with comprehension and retention.

Good Luck :) !!
 
Students who are taking online education can also socialize, interact and discuss things that are not related to the course through "chat rooms" which are usually offered by most online institutions.