The Rise of Online Education

The age of the Internet has made serious impacts on almost every facet of the world. In the late 1990´s, the dotcom industry actually caused an economic crisis in the U.S. However, one sector on which the Internet has had a seemingly novel impact is the education sector.

While the standard university model of going to class, taking notes and taking tests is still the prevalent model of higher education in most of the world, the Internet has become so ingrained in the education system that online colleges, although still not as prestigious as classic universities, have become part of the main stream. The University of Phoenix has locations all over the world, a very competitive marketing campaign and even bought the naming rights to a major NFL football stadium.

How this came about is somewhat of a "chicken or the egg" question.

The use of the Internet is an absolute part of any higher education program, whether it is that of a local community college or an Ivy League University. Departments have websites for taking applications, advertising events and staff directories; almost every professor uses the a website or e-mail to make announcements for class and even post the class syllabus and lecture notes sometimes; perhaps most telling is that in just a few years, many major universities have progressed from offering a limited amount of Internet classes to developing complete programs for online degrees.

Seemingly as major universities were embracing the Internet, online university and college programs started becoming more than an afterthought for people who´d run out of options. Mainly by focusing on specific niches, such as technical education, and targeting adults who did not have time to go to class every day, online universities gained popularity.

The fuzzy part of the equation is how online institutions went from something looked down upon to legitimate educational institutions. It is likely that a number of factors contributed to the development. For one, the development of different sectors of the Internet has made online education more practical, which is part of the reason major universities have become receptive to it. And as major universities began integrating the Internet and online courses into their infrastructure, a lot of the stigma associated with online degrees evaporated. And as the online institutions gained popularity and resources, they became more equipped to hire better faculty and provide better education, and therefore earned legitimacy.

It seems logical, but at the same time, though, there are those who would argue that the rise of online education institutions forced major universities to adapt for fear of losing potential students to online institutions.