7 Reasons for the Rising Appeal of Online Courses

Recent years have witnessed a heated debate on the future of higher education, with online forms of education receiving more and more supporters among students, faculty and administration.

As of 2012, 89% of public and 60% of private schools offered online courses. At the same time, we saw the emergence of free online courses by nearly all major U.S. colleges and universities, as well as the growing popularity of course aggregators, with Coursera being the most popular so far. In other words, online forms of education are on the rise and there are many legitimate reasons for that. Here are 7 of them that make the strongest case in its favor.

Whatever they say, it's the money

Naturally, I start with the financial factor and to back that up, here are some more statistics. It is estimated that nearly half of all American families cannot afford to pay for a traditional college education. Nonetheless, 85% of them expect their children to go to college. Not exactly a small gap. Online education is much less expensive and not just in terms of tuition fees, but also because it does not require commuting, housing and other expenses traditionally associated with on-site learning. In addition, taking single courses is free in most places.

Availability

Long gone are the days when Ivy League schools only accepted the sons of the social and the political elite. Yet it is not like it is now a walk in the park to get into Harvard, Princeton, Yale and the like. But all these schools have been generous enough to open a lot of their courses and make their knowledge available to the public. It is no small thing, considering that these schools often gather world-renowned experts in their respective fields. It would be a shame to miss the opportunity to interact with them.

No physical medium

Taking online classes does not interfere with your daily routine as much as going to an actual classroom does. It can be small things like the hassle of finding a parking spot on campus. But it can also be about important things. Learning online saves you a lot of time. This is great for students who wish to work full-time, those who find it hard to juggle between appointments or simply those who would like to spend more time with their loved ones.

Time management and flexibility

Online learning really encourages you to be more organized. If you are given all the flexibility in the world, you are bound to learn some time management skills. Of course, if you are anything like me, it can also encourage you to procrastinate, stay in your pajamas all day and put off your work even more than the traditional way of learning. If you want to complete the course, however, you will eventually learn how to schedule your time.

Degree programs

Even if you are not officially enrolled anywhere, online colleges still offer a variety of classes for which you receive a certificate upon completion. That can be very handy for working professionals who need a little additional specialization. We can not put aside four years each time we need to learn something new, after all. And it's a great alternative to going to evening classes, exhausted from work and unable to focus. Now I realize why my French is so bad!

Transferring credits

Luckily, choosing to pursue a few online courses does not put you in a either/or situation. Accredited online courses you took at another school (over the summer, for example) are usually fully transferable to your primary college. You can enjoy a great summer (or a great day of wearing pajamas) and work towards a better-looking diploma at the same time.

Diversity

No college could possibly offer all the courses that you might be potentially interested in. Simply open up Coursera and you will find hundreds of courses you never thought could exist, but which all sound really appealing. Now you can take classes from schools around the world from the convenience of your home. Just do not do like me at one point. I signed up for so many Coursera classes that I ended up not finishing any of them. So much for Intro to Programming and Principles of Obesity Economics.

The verdict is still out on whether the world is moving towards an all-digital education or not, but one thing is clear online courses are increasingly becoming a practical and convenient solution to our educational needs. Long live the free flow of information!

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