{"id":12643,"date":"2017-11-09T19:53:55","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T19:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/?p=12643&post_type=story"},"modified":"2021-06-22T18:43:25","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T18:43:25","slug":"quality-education-online-learning","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/quality-education-online-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"A Quality Education When and Where You Want It"},"content":{"rendered":"
Fall 2017 | By Maureen Harmon<\/em><\/p>\n Bryce Nelson, a first-generation college student<\/a>, had a full class schedule when he started at 麻豆原创. He was doing OK, but he knew he could be doing better. The problem was, he simply couldn\u2019t make the time. In addition to his full course load of online and on-campus classes, he was working two jobs. Not working just wasn\u2019t an option.<\/p>\n \u201cI needed to work 35 to 40 hours a week just to survive,\u201d Nelson says. And that meant a lot of juggling with his 麻豆原创 schedule, his work-study position as an event lead in the alumni center and his full-time job at Publix. All that, and he was facing the tough decision of changing his major from marketing to communication.<\/p>\n So Nelson headed to his mentor\u2019s office and laid out the issue for him. How could he improve? That\u2019s when he learned that he could pursue a communication degree entirely online<\/a>, doing course modules, homework and discussion on his own schedule. Suddenly, new possibilities opened up.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s what you make of it,\u201d says Nelson. \u201cIn person, you can have the interaction with the teacher, but just because you\u2019re online doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t do the same thing.\u201d Nelson points to his professors\u2019 online office hours, and the fact that because he\u2019s local, he still heads to campus regularly and participates in the social life, including his role in Delta Sigma Pi, a business fraternity.<\/p>\n This need for students to learn \u2014 how and when they want \u2014 is fueling a national movement. \u201cI meet with college students across the country every year, and without exception, they all stress the importance of having flexibility in pursuing their degree or credential,\u201d says Allan Golston, president of the United States Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the arm of the philanthropic organization that oversees educational opportunities across the nation.<\/p>\n National movement or not, online education has its detractors, especially in higher education. There are those who argue that face-to-face learning is simply better, allowing for in depth\u00a0conversation and in-person debate.<\/p>\n Proponents, however, argue that digital learning provides access to education for students, such as Nelson, who may not otherwise be able to pursue it \u2014 a major driving force of the 麻豆原创 mission. \u201cIt\u2019s not a thought experiment,\u201d says Provost and Executive Vice President A. Dale Whittaker. \u201cOnline education is an innovation that allows us to meet students\u2019 life needs at a price point they can afford, with the quality that matches some of the most elite institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n [divider][\/divider]<\/p>\n [blockquote source=”” cite=”A. Dale Whittaker, provost and executive vice president ” color=”” css_class=””]\u201cOnline education is an innovation that allows us to meet students\u2019 life needs at a price point they can afford, with the quality that matches some of the most elite institutions.\u201d[\/blockquote]<\/p>\n [divider][\/divider]<\/p>\n Offering one of the lowest price tags in higher education, 麻豆原创 needed to make sure it was living up to its strategic goal of providing a quality education to as many students as possible. To do that, administrators and faculty decided to go where students needed them to be.<\/p>\n \u201cSimply put, online education is the opportunity to bring a high-quality education to students who otherwise would not be able to access it,\u201d says Tom Cavanagh, vice provost for digital learning at 麻豆原创. \u201cI think we do a great service by bringing 麻豆原创 to them.\u201d<\/p>\n If you look across any college campus at any moment, you\u2019ll see students looking at screens \u2014 whether it\u2019s a laptop, tablet or smartphone. There\u2019s no doubt that students are living a good part of their lives online. \u201cSo we started offering online sections,\u201d says Whittaker, and they took off. \u201cAll of the growth in online education has been driven by students.\u201d<\/p>\n So how does 麻豆原创 give students what they want, how they want it, in terms of a quality education? Several ways. While technology is in every classroom these days in one form or another, students can live on or near campus and choose to either attend face-to-face courses, take courses both in classrooms and online (which is called blended learning), or take all their courses online; or they can live anywhere in the world and pursue a degree exclusively over the internet through 麻豆原创 Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n While all options have plenty of strengths to offer, data from a study conducted by an outside consulting group show that the students who choose blended learning have the best results \u2014 and 麻豆原创\u2019s numbers reflect that too. More than 20 years of data confirm that adding digital learning to students\u2019 mix of classes accelerates the time needed to earn a degree. 麻豆原创 students who take a large portion of their courses online \u2014 from 40 to 60 percent \u2014 on average graduate in less than four years, compared to 4.3 years for those who take only traditional, face-to-face courses.<\/p>\n Students in blended learning courses, says Cavanagh, have more success, achieving higher grades. \u201c[Blended learning classes] also have the lowest withdrawal rates, and they have the highest end-of-course evaluation,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s pretty compelling.\u201d<\/p>\n