In the unchallenged world leadership in online education, the United States features hundreds of distance universities, with thousands of courses offered. But the country is not only a leader in quantity, but also in learning models. Prestigious North American universities offer at least one online course. Some even created master’s and doctoral programs. Now Internet has spread among education fields. Not only online courses but also online helps. When I want to ask someone to do my programming homework for me, I just need to contact him online. This is an example of how all aspects of education are inseparable from the Internet.
Going back to the numbers, already in 2011, according to the consultancy Sloan Consortium, about 6 million students in the country attended at least one virtual program. To estimate the level of greatness, that meant one in three students enrolled at the top level at the time.
Current data indicates that, in general, enrollment in online courses in the United States is already overlapping that of on-campus higher education. The phenomenon makes 65% of American higher education institutions today claim that investment in distance education has become a critical part of their strategies.
Currently, the spread of distance education in our country has become a reality. Due, for example, to the difficulties encountered by students in taking a face-to-face course, this alternative provides ease and practicality – but also a series of challenges.
To establish themselves in the market, educational institutions must offer education focused on quality. In addition, it is interesting to positively transform the experience in the virtual environment, in order to retain more and more students.
Understand the situation of distance education:
Access to the internet and social media, in addition to the exponential growth of technology, allowed various activities to be carried out remotely. This made it possible to increase access to education and the popularity of distance learning across the country.
However, this type of modality still faces several difficulties. They are largely related to an extremely challenging market. This is because, in recent years, a new paradigm has been able to offer innovative, democratic and student-focused approaches. Thus, it is understood that learning happens all the time and, mainly, that technological advancement is a valuable and beneficial tool for education.
Discover the main challenges of distance education:
With a market full of challenges, distance education faces numerous difficulties. In many respects, for example, the more traditional formats, which have teachers in the classroom, are considered by most people to be safer or more reliable.
Professional and technological training:
Over the years, the ways of learning and teaching have undergone transformations that have brought much more dynamic approaches. As a still recent phenomenon, distance learning often requires specific technological skills and resources to establish efficient methodologies that respond to the demands of students and the labor market.
Lack of investment in research:
A problem (also found in traditional education) is the lack of investments in scientific research on the teaching-learning process. The lack is also felt in virtual learning practices – characterizing difficulties for the modality to establish itself with credibility in the country.
Prejudice in relation to the quality of courses:
Many online courses offer high level quality, training professionals fully trained and able to deal with innovations. However, the prejudice mentality makes many people believe that distance education does not transmit the same weight as a face-to-face diploma.
Market distrust:
Some companies believe that students trained in virtual environments are “lazy”, although the dedication and discipline required are striking features of the reality of distance learning – which even gives the student a differentiated load of responsibility in the learning process and in conducting their training . Even so, there is sometimes distrust with the curriculum and the qualifications of jobseekers.
In order to overcome these difficulties, distance education can benefit greatly from strategic educational management – through efficient management solutions that meet the demands of the legislation and have tools that respond to the specificities of the niche, both in terms of administrative and academic aspects contributing to the increase of its credibility with students and the market.
