Are online educational programs common today due to the growth of technology or globalization?

Global

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by Kris Kennedy

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Global Cause expansion of Online Education

Distance education always existed especially for your military. Many are living away from where the potential student can attend college so distance education needed expansion. The internet made it possible, but globalization provided the need.

Previous Programs

The University of Maryland had been the prime distance education program for the Military. Soldiers living abroad could take classes through mail services. Other mail order programs were vocational programs marketed in magazine articles and on matchbook covers. In the seventies, some Universities had limited classes available but very few programs leading to a completed degree.

The need for programs where people existed prompted some states to expand their campuses. In Washington State, the two major Universities built branch campuses. At the time, Washington State University started it branch campus they had many satellite classes with the home campus. Many students felt disconnected from professors and as secondary students. What made the expansion of programs in every community?

Society

The Feminist movement of the sixties and seventies promoted the movement of woman into the workforce. Woman wanted the skills to succeed in her jobs. The problems that existed were that the family might live in a city without a University or without the programs necessary to succeed in the career choice of the woman. The internet made it possible for a woman to train in the field of choice.

Adults have changed the demand for education. Colleges and Universities have witnessed a change of the demographics to mature adults. They are living, working and going to school in the same city. Today, college demographics rarely are the freshman arriving immediately after graduating from high school. The adults comes with challenges

In the past when we lived within extended families, adults who wanted to extend t educational opportunities had childcare for the children. In the past, the senior members of the family cared the children while the young males and females completed the physical work to support the family. Now families live away from the other family members. To take a class at brick and mortar colleges meant someone would need to hire care for the younger members of the family. Internet programs made it possible for the students to study where the parents care for the children.

Needs

With community need reflecting choices at a college, a student's choices could be limited. If there was an interest that was not in high demand for the community, the local university might not offer the program. Community leaders might offer financial or political support for programs, which met the industries' needs. With the internet, all options are available with no regard to what the community needs.

No longer does it matter where someone lives for education. People live everywhere so education needs to be everywhere.

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