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The internet has made learning and obtaining a college degree much easier. Whereas a busy professional seeking an advanced degree in the past would have needed to juggle a packed business-day schedule to attend traditional courses, a busy professional in today’s society has many more learning options. The internet has made courses available to such professionals at any time, and professionals can fit a class into a lunch hour, an evening, or a weekend, making advanced degrees more readily attainable to professionals with traditional nine to five jobs.
The Courses
In most on-line colleges, courses are recorded by the professor and placed in the student’s queue. The student can choose to watch the class at any point in time. Also, any other information referenced in class, like photos and videos, can also be uploaded for the student’s later viewing. The option of viewing the course and related materials at any time makes learning and advancing one’s degree an obtainable goal.
Feedback
Of course, it is very important for students to be able to communicate with a professor one-on-one, so it becomes essential to students that such communication is possible. For this reason, many on-line professors offer alternative office hours for phone conversations, continual e-mail communication, and a webpage for inter-student communication. For example, the professor’s office hours may be six p.m. to nine p.m. and/or weekend hours, and an e-mail policy of answering questions within one day may be implemented to make the professor-student communication more effective. The webpage for inter-student communication can be used by students to communicate ideas, and the professor can log on to add any clarification or additional ideas.
Even though students in today’s on-line colleges are not able to communicate thoughts, questions or ideas to the class or the professor face-to-face, the internet has made communication possible. The internet has also encouraged students who would not have been able to attend traditional courses the opportunity to pursue degrees through on-line learning.
