Many people think that online college could give them significant flexibility and they are able to obtain a degree with much less costs. However, there are reasons why online college may not be suitable for you. As an example, students could prioritize on having good social interaction in college. Standard college education ensures more intense social interaction. In fact, many students find long-time friends and spouse at the college. Direct interaction with lecturers and professors could also be more appealing for some students who are eager to learn from a real person. There’s social interaction in online college, but it takes a different form. Distance learning often involves forums, social networking, virtual classroom software and others. In many cases, these interactions don’t extend beyond that and some younger students could end up feeling lonely. There are no friends that they can hang out with in the evening or during weekends. Students also often have questions and ideas that they want to share with other students in an informal setting.
Flexibility is often cited as one of the biggest benefits of online college. But it still means that we need to efficiently schedule our time. Distance learning requires a degree of discipline. The lack of real-life peer interactions will make it harder for many students to sustain enough discipline. Even if there’s no direct pressure, students will need to complete assignments and rigorously study the materials. There will be a lot of regular assignments to keep students of online college occupied. They have a big responsibility to complete any material required and submit the assignments. So, people who can’t maintain discipline for years without peer motivators, they should consider choosing regular colleges instead. Another factor that we should consider is that online college education requires certain computer skills. Older people who want to extend their education with online college may consider whether they have enough computer skills to cope with the learning process.
In many cases, students of online colleges dropped out due to lack of motivation. As a solution, they may need to choose accelerated online degree. However, such a program can be more intense and require more effort. Students will spend more time studying and for those who can’t sustain enough discipline and motivation for a longer period of time; it’s better to choose these accelerated programs. Some people prefer education programs that flow at slower pace, such as regular colleges. So, it depends on personal preferences on how well students are able to cope with online college education. Many online college students also need to deal with obligations at home and workplace, so they need to make sure that their online college program won’t hamper their progress. Ome programs are less demanding than others, so we may need to choose them instead. Students should be able to decide the pace of their progress when deal with the rigor of the online college load. These factors are important to consider to succeed in online college programs.