Ward 1

Nicholas Ward

Mrs. Cramer

Comp Pd. 5

7 December 2018

Online Education: Stealing Enrollment from Traditional

Donna J. Abernathy is an educational author and an editor of Training + Development

Magazine, and she stated that, “online education is not the next big thing, it is the now big

thing,” and she is most certainly correct. As technology spreads, so does the pressure for students

to choose whether they should choose online education over traditional college. This choice is

important to make because education for the student will determine his or her path and

successfulness in the future. Online education is superior to traditional education because it is

more dominant in student convenience and becomes more favorable as it expands.

To start, educators favor online education as the medium grows and becomes more

extensive, and the majority believe the two to be generally equal in outcomes. The BABSON

Survey Research Group is a group from Babson College that has been researching online

education in the United States for years, and they have published their studies in documents such

as, “Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States, 2011,” and “Changing Course:

Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States,” which was published in 2013. In

“Going the Distance...,” the group conducted a survey of educators and asked their opinions on

each education type’s outcomes. Two-thirds of the educators stated that online education had

results that were equal to or better than traditional’s (13). This large majority is stating that
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students are benefitting more from online education than in regular classroom environments. 1

Also included in “Going the Distance…,” they did a study that questioned educators about

student satisfaction with both types of education. The subjects gave results that almost

represented a twenty-five/twenty-five/fifty scenario; about one half of the educators said online

education was equal, and almost equal minorities believed one to be inferior to the other (14).

These percentages indicate that students will be happy with either path that they choose. Now, a

question may be raised: how can these results express online education’s superiority, if the

majority of the time the two education types are rated as equal? Well, in BABSON’s 2013

document, “Changing Course…,” it is stated that, “It continues to be the case that the more

extensive the online offerings at an institution, the more positive their leaders rate the relative

quality of online learning outcomes” (25). Keeping in mind that this document is analyzing data

from over a ten-year period, the analysis created in the quote is saying that, as online education

becomes more developed and more opportunities arise, educators tend to favor it over traditional

education.2 Although educators 3 often say that online and traditional education are equal, as

online education programs expand, this belief tends to shift in online education’s favor.

Despite this idea, some will point out that traditional education’s college tuition is

actually cheaper than online education’s. One person to point this out was Derek Newton, a

writer for Forbes Magazine, and he mentioned a study conducted by CHLOE2 (Changing

Landscape of Online Education) in an article of his that explains why online education is more

expensive than traditional. This study found that seventy-four percent of large online schools

1 Logos – Using the large statistic from the study leads the audience to believe that the majority of students are
benefitting from online education.
2 Hypophora – First, a question was raised, and then an answer was given to the question right after, through the

“Changing Course...” document.

3 Synecdoche – The survey results are being applied to every educator, which means a small part is representing a

whole.
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charged the same amount of money for online and traditional tuitions, and the remaining twenty-

three percent charged more for online education (Newton 5). Newton continues to explain by

stating, “The three main reasons for higher online tuition were, in order, ‘added costs of online

instruction and support services,’ the ‘added cost of online course and program development,’

and ‘added costs of online program marketing’” (Newton 6). The most expensive of these three

components is the online course’s design, and this is because schools are aware of the failure of

the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). This was an incident where an educator, Sebastian

Thrun, tried to create the MOOC, just by simply taking information and digitalizing it, and it

didn’t work (Newton 7; Warner 1). In order to avoid this incident from occurring again, schools

will spend large amounts of money on course design (Newton 8). Doing so ensures that students

can thrive in an online course that was designed to get them the information they need, and get it

to them in an effective way. Although this is true, one idea still stands. Traditional education has

the tuition cost added on to daily commuting costs or campus living prices, yearly class

materials, and more. Daily commuting costs can include bus fares or gas refills in a student’s car,

and yearly class materials can include stationery items and class textbooks. Online education,

however, does not require daily commuting costs or campus living prices (Kumar 2; “Online

Education”). It also doesn’t require yearly materials. It simply requires the base purchase of a

reliable computer, and then students are free to work from home. Therefore, although the tuition

cost may be higher, online education could still potentially be cheaper in the long run due to the

absence of regular purchases.

In addition, online education’s strongest area happens to be student convenience. First of

all, students are able to work at their own pace, rather than have to complete assignments along

an educator’s schedule (“Online Education”). This is perfect for students that are constantly busy
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with their jobs, families, or other activities. It also is nice for when students are flustered with

other school assignments, since the assignments that are due the day afterwards can be

completed first, then the online assignments can be completed at a better time. The flexibility of

online education allows students to complete assignments whenever they are free, rather than

have to possibly cancel something important to get an assignment done. Adding on to the

convenience, students are able to easily access their courses anywhere that has a computer and

internet access (Purdue 4). Since technology becomes more important and widespread every day,

computers are easily found, which, in turn, adds to the convenience of online education.

Traditional education requires materials that can’t easily be accessed online, such as textbooks,

and due dates that can’t fit everyone’s lives, but online education frees students from these

constraints.

In retrospect, one of online education’s weakest areas is that it does not contain nearly as

much student communication as traditional does. Rather than communicating in a face-to-face

manner, every student is behind a screen. However, through the technology provided with online

education, students are able to communicate with other students from around the world through

various platforms, which allow messaging through emails and such. In addition, platforms, such

as Skype, allow students to video call each other, which eliminates 4 the need for a wait on a text

back, and, in a way, adds a face-to-face communication aspect to online education. Lastly,

according to Purdue University Global, a college that utilizes online education, they mention a

study that focused on group projects among students. In online education, although responses

between students might have taken longer, the feedback contained in messages was more in

4Diction – The word, ”eliminates” is stronger than a term such as “gets rid of” and gets the point across to the
reader better. Other examples of diction in this essay include, “developed,” “perfect,” and “utilizes”
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depth and detailed, and student communication in general seemed to be more consistent, as

compared to traditional (3). This was because students didn’t have to schedule a meet up time or

rely on class time to interact with one another. Instead, all they had to do was use an electronic

device to communicate. Moreover, communication behind a screen has less opportunities for

bullying over race, gender, or other characteristics that a student may possess (Kumar 3). This is

due to the fact that a student’s body or face doesn’t have to be shown online. Although online

education’s student interaction isn’t face-to-face, it allows students to talk to other students

around the world through a variety of platforms to perform tasks, and boasts the benefit of less

segregation.

To recap, traditional education lacks the convenience and preferability of online

education. Since students don’t have to go by their teacher’s schedule, there is more room for

assignments in their potentially busy schedules. The majority of educators believe online

education to be better than or equal to traditional education, but the favorability tends to shift as

online courses expand. The pressure to choose between online and traditional education will

continue to develop as more students must decide which type they want to partake in. Clearly,

online education is the way for upcoming college students to go.

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Works Cited

Allen, I. Elaine, and Jeff Seaman. Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in

the United States. Research report no. 10, Babson Survey Research Group, 2013,

www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/changingcourse.pdf. Accessed 29 Nov. 2018.

---. "Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States, 2011." Going the Distance:

Online Education in the United States, 2011, pp. 1-39. ERIC,

files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED529948.pdf. Accessed 29 Nov. 2018.

Kumar, Dhirendra. "Pros and Cons of Online Education." Pros and Cons of Online Education,

pp. 1-4. Google Scholar, www.ies.ncsu.edu/wp-

content/uploads/sites/15/2015/08/Pros_and_Cons_of_Online_Education_by_Kumar-

1.pdf. Accessed 29 Nov. 2018.

Newton, Derek. "Why College Tuition Is Actually Higher For Online Programs." Forbes, Forbes

Media, 25 June 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/dereknewton/2018/06/25/why-college-

tuition-is-actually-higher-for-online-programs/#308da758f11a. Accessed 29 Nov. 2018.

"Online Education: Does online education help students?" Issues & Controversies, Infobase

Learning, 17 Oct. 2008, http://icof.infobaselearning.com/recordurl.aspx?ID=1959.

Accessed 29 Nov. 2018.

Purdue University Global. "Classroom vs. Online Education: Which One Is Better For You?"

Purdue University Global, Purdue University Global, Inc., 15 May 2018,

www.purdueglobal.edu/news-resources/classroom-versus-online/. Accessed 29 Nov.

2018.
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Warner, John. "MOOCs Are 'Dead.' What's Next? Uh-oh." Inside Higher Ed, 11 Oct. 2017,

www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/moocs-are-dead-whats-next-uh-oh.

Accessed 29 Nov. 2018.