Online education is NOT for everyone. But there is one niche that online education does seem to especially cater to despite some challenges.
That group is the military.
The special problems that military students face are:
1. Slow connection speeds - being in remote places means DSL or cable is not always/usually available.
2. Frequent disconnects - the student sometimes gets transfered before their materials show up. University of Phoenix has solved this problem by making all texts available online.
3. Large-time zone differences - this is not always a problem unless the student needs a quick answer. A student may post a question about the time his/her classmate and instructors go to bed. When the answer comes, the student is in bed.
There are several Fopros that cater especially to this group of relatively mature students:
University of Phoenix Online - about 17% of UoP's 99,500 online students are in the military.
American Military University - Based in West Virginia
Touro University International - Nearly 2/3s of its 6,500 students are enrolled in this Missouri based school.
Grantham University - More than half of their 11,000 students are in the armed forces - home based in California.
I have had quite a few students in online classes for the university I teach at and they are indeed more mature than many of their classmates.
Thankfully, many of them are in the same classes so as to not ruin the curve - if I could have one.
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I have a friend in the Military (just got back from Iraq), but he wasn't active in College when he left.
I guess I've never really thought about how this would effect students, especially those in the Guard, that get called away.
Its nice to see some schools adapting to the needs of there military students!
Posted by: Kyle Eslick | July 24, 2006 6:14 PM | Permalink to Comment