by Jacob Mack

Created on: October 27, 2008

Nowadays, many traditional Universities, some Ivy league offer an immense number of quality online courses and even completely online degree earning college programs. I personally attend Ashford University,a college that is based in Clinton Iowa and I plan on attending a number of courses through Harvard Extension Program of Distance Education. The same grammar skill requirements, (oftentimes even stricter ones, as in my case) exist in the enrollment process for accredited online colleges or oline based course work from traditional universities. Furthermore, all the requirements in general education, general competency and the actual majors are identical to on campus colleges. As long as the online college courses are regionally accredited, the online course must comply with general college, minimal standards.

Online college courses and degree programs offer students a great way to obtain an affordable education without giving up their lives: rushing from work straight to school, hiring a babysitter to watch the kids so they can get to class, or giving up vital work hours to attend school to name just a few examples. When I went to a traditional college, I had to show up for all classroom discussion for attendance purposes and to take notes, at specific times, now in online college applications, I can log o anytime day night and comment on that week's subject matter, read the guidance from the professor, answer a multiple choice test, (which reinforces and fosters learning) find the assigned readings, and stay up to date on writing assignments.

Some online course offerings and schools offering them, are of better quality than others, however, it is the individual's responsibility to discover those that are just as it is for a traditional college student. As a Bio-psychology major I can attest to the quality of both traditional and online modes of college education presentation. Some people make the claim that plagiarism is more serious of a threat in online colleges than traditional, however, the onlline professors make use of anti-plagiarism soft ware and are just as well trained as traditional professors in assessing written work, whether they are essays, research papers or a Master's thesis.

Many online schools also require some face to face interactions between student and teahcers and even taking some courses on campus to provide a well rounded college experience. For those people busy working and raising children, online college courses provide more flexibility, save money on traveling expenses and enable them to obtain a higher position or new career. The applications of online schooling is equal and sometimes greater than the traditional college setting as more employers look for more self motivated and disciplined workers; online education provides these potential employees, as they filter out students who lack motivation and self direction to do well in the ever increasingly more complex and difficult course work.

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