The education revolution: an introduction to online learning

The education revolution

Distance Learning is an established and popular method of learning, delivering education to millions of people all over the world. In essence distance learning is when students are able to learn at a distance from the learning provider. In recent years the demand for distance education options has grown exponentially. This is a result of the introduction of new instructional technologies that are revolutionizing the student learning experience.

Distance learning offers a perfect combination of quality and convenience. A recent study indicates that the majority of employers, learning institutes and academics are invested in the opportunities distance learning brings to their employees or students. Demand for distance learning courses stems from several audiences, including all spectrums of society: professionals, adult learners, school leavers, and school students.

Indeed, Adult Learners (aged between 25 – 80) are the fastest growing education demographic. Statistics from the Census Bureau and the US. Department of Education show that almost 40 percent of all people enrolled in courses are over 25, with an average age of 30, and these numbers are steadily increasing.

Regards school students - the Sloan Consortium has released the results from a survey of US School District Administrators indicating that the adoption of online learning in schools is increasing too. For example: Almost two-thirds of the public school districts sampled have an online offering. Over 60% of school districts offering online courses are anticipating their online enrollments to grow. Over the next two years public school districts are predicting online enrolments will increase by 19 percent. For the report see: K–12 Online Learning:  A Survey of U.S. School District Administrators.

How the internet has impacted on Distance Learning

Traditionally distance learning materials were delivered by paper materials, books, and CD-ROMs.

In recent years the popularity of distance learning has exploded. The internet has enabled course content to be delivered by video, audio, Flash and animated graphics, and other interactive means. Plus students can interact in real-time on discussion forums and chat rooms. This all means that a lot of the major components of the delivery of learning are catered for online - something that traditional distance learning lacked.

The internet has also increased the accessibility of distance learning, resulting in its significant growth.

Growth of Online Learning

Distance learning via the Internet (known as online learning) is one of the fastest growth areas of education. Widespread enthusiasm for the increased uptake of online learning has been vocalized by respected journals and online publishers. About.com has suggested that the impact of online learning will be as powerful as the effect the railroads had on the US in the 19th and 20th century. John Chambers of Cisco Systems, an advocate of online learning, suggests the delivery of education over the Internet will be vastly popular. He once prophesied, "The next big killer application for the internet is going to be education. Education over the internet is going to be so big it is going to make e-mail look like a rounding error."

The development of online course delivery has enabled distance learning to grow significantly over the last five years, overtaking the growth of campus-based courses over the same period. The Sloan Consortium (a body which researches the growth of online learning in the U.S.) has conducted annual surveys of the online education industry since 2003. The most recent survey, Online Nation: Five Years of Growth in Online Learning, reports that the number of students enrolling in online courses has increased from 1.6 million students in Fall 2002 to 3.48 million for Fall 2006, representing an annual compound growth of 21.5 percent. Additionally, nearly 20% of all higher education course enrollments in the U.S. were for online-based courses.

Access to education from anywhere

In summary online learning is becoming a mainstream delivery method in education. This offers a very existing opportunity, for all those people who in the past may have missed out on education: working moms, busy professionals, people in remote parts of Africa, senior citizens...the list is endless!

Also see: Pros and Cons of Distance and Online Learning.