Online education offers as much (if not more)

David Bornus:

Larry J. Crockett's nostalgic commentary ("Online education doesn't measure up," Aug. 23) reminded me of a critique that might have been made by medieval apprenticeship guilds about the emergence of renaissance universities.

The world is changing; we no longer live in a prewired society where colleges act as "finishing schools" teaching table manners and deportment to impressionable youths. The modern world has become heavily virtualized, and education is no exception. The online medium actually enhances education in a number of ways:

1) No one can hide in a virtual classroom -- all have opportunity to participate and are expected to do so, and everyone has ample time to make contributions to class discussions, to look up citations and compose their arguments.

Class discussion occurs in threaded discussion posts, meaning everyone participates and has time to read and respond to others, cite what others have said, look up reference material, and proofread their statements, all of which generally enhances the quality of class interaction.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 20, 2011 1:25 AM
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