Online Community Perspective
There is a large percentage of people who are in full support of the advances of technology and its growing use in education. This community not only supports some implementation of technology but rather technology as the driving force of education. One of the supports of online courses is DeVry University writer, Julie Perrigan. In the OrgSync Blog Perrigan posts about the benefits of online education. She shares that “the number of students taking at least one online course has now surpassed 6.7 million” (para 2). The online learning community is ever increasing and one of the main reasons for this popularity is its flexibility. This stakeholder supports online learning in higher education because it gives students more control over their lives, allowing them to adjust their schedule even more than usual. This community does not need the physical face-to-face classroom to persevere because everything can be done online.
Binh Thi Nguyen, from the University of California, presents support for stakeholders in the online community. He asserts that, “[online] courses offer students 4 of the following remunerations: 1) flexibility, 2) choice, 3) access, and 4) multiple use of web-based technology to enhance the learning experience” (Nguyen 22). These four things are important to students across the board. Online learning can be deceiving. Despite the popular belief of flexibility in online courses, that is not always that case and is more of a time management because of the large responsibility carried within this independence. Additionally, Nguyen claims, “average student grades were significantly higher in the online instructional mode than the blended/hybrid and traditional face-to- face teaching styles” (Nguyen x). With that said, it is important to note other factors that go into play within the classroom and student performance.
A different side of the online education debate is that it is cheaper than your traditional college costs. Simon Dudley, video evangelist for LifeSize, explains “Khan Academy, for example, is a non-profit organization with a goal of providing a free world-class education to anyone, anywhere” (para 4). Such organizations allow any user to learn lessons easily but is it truly equivalent to what one would receive from traditional face-to-face classes.