Online Education

After writing this mornings blog I find myself wondering whether or not an online Education is the same as going to college. While I don’t think there ever will be a substitute for leaving home and going away to a college that your parents can’t easily visit, there are certainly benefits to the online track. Having taken many classes online I can easily say that in many respects I like them better for mundane and technical courses. Mundane gen ed courses I can fly through without looking around the room and calling anyone an idiot, or if I do no one hears me do it. Employers don’t seem to mind online degrees either. They know that someone who did most of their coursework through online courses can be trusted to do a job without a lot of prodding. I still think that there is something that is lost by an online education only. Call it a sense of social engagement, which as a former employer I wanted in my employees. Speaking up when questioned by a customer or knowing how to give a good presentation is just something one doesn’t learn with a keyboard in front of you. So for me, online education is good, but a total online education is not so good.