Online Education
1
Post University Online Educational Institution
Nicole Thompson
Post University
Online Education
2
There are many benefits for students taking online classes. In this paper, several
factors will be discussed such as the demographic of students that take online classes.
The pros of taking online classes and look into the difference between e-books vs. hard
covered books and the rising cost of higher education. Higher education is needed to
have a successful future and more and more students are looking for alternative ways
than attending a main campus. The fact that hybrid learning and online learning have
become so popular over the past several years, gives more students the opportunity to
pursue a degree. Lastly, the changes that could possibly take place for the future of Post
University and the online educational institution.
Post University: Online Educational Institution is part of Post University, but the
course work is completed online. The online educational institution allows student from
all over the world to complete their degree/education online. The program offers
flexibility not having to attend a campus to take classes, but to be on one’s own schedule
and take courses. OEI offers associates degrees, bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees
to student. OEI offers mostly business degrees with concentration in marketing and
management; but also offer degrees in computer programs, education, criminal justice,
legal studies and human services. Certificate programs are also available for students if
they want to further their education, but don’t want to pursue another degree. The
certificate programs offered at Post University to name a few are in human resources,
paralegal studies, and legal nurse consulting. OEI is an accelerated program, so students
are able to finish their degrees much quicker than going to a main campus. The program
runs six modules a year that are each eight weeks long. This is how student can finish
Online Education
3
their degree much sooner. A typical main campus runs two semesters a year and they run
for about sixteen weeks.
The population of OEI is over 15,000 students from all over different parts of the
country, even the world. The average age of students taking courses through Post
University: OEI is in the early to mid thirties. Students who have started school but
never finished and work full time or have families to take care of. The best part of OEI is
that it is a mixing pot of races; there is not one race that dominates.
Post University: Online Educational institution was first established about ten
years ago. The main campus at Post University was founded in 1890. The university
saw the ever-changing times with technology and opened the OEI program. When OEI
was first established there were ten admissions counselors, now there are over one
hundred and thirty and the institution continues to hire.
OEI started out as a small group of people seeing if online education was the
wave of the future. As mentioned early, they started out with thirty employees. OEI, at
Post University is now rated by U.S. News as one of the top nine top business schools in
the country and in the top one hundred for online institutions.
On the administration side at Post University, the employees use programs such
as CRM. This is a database that picks up when prospective students type in search words
that might pertain to a degree program being offered at OEI. Email, texting and phone
calls are done on a daily basis. OEI has figured out the success to reaching students,
many students are at work all day and can’t answer a phone call, so a text or an email
may get a quicker response. Many students prefer these methods of communication now
days because we live in such a technology driven world.
Online Education
4
As a student at Post University, OEI uses Blackboard as the virtual classroom for
students to pursue their education. Blackboard has been made simple so that students,
who don’t have much knowledge of technology, can quickly figure out how to use the
program with ease of operation. All things that a main campus student can access on
campus, online students can access from Blackboard. There is a link to the main campus
library, a link to the writing center; student can access the bookstore all with the click of a
button from the comfort of his or her own home. Blackboard can be easily accessible by
downloading an app to the student’s smart phone or a tablet, which means taking courses
at Post University OEI is more students friendly especially with busy schedules.
OEI is continuing to keep with the ever-changing time and many of the courses
offered are doing away with textbooks. There are probably over one hundred courses
that are now using electronic course materials, saving students money on purchasing
textbooks. By providing electronic course materials the cost of attending school is kept
lower, which again is enticing to students.
. Currently, the field of education is using futuring all the time, seeing what ways
students learn best, incorporating technology and education and the strongest trend right
now is Common Core. “These learning goals outline what a student should know and be
able to do at the end of each grade. The standards were created to ensure that all students
graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college,
career, and life, regardless of where they live.” (http://www.corestandards.org/about-thestandards/) Is common core going to be the wave of the future or will it be reinvented
into a newer way of teaching? Futuring has been used for centuries in different career
Online Education
5
paths or life in general. Politicians, schools, military, scientist, etc. have all used
futuring to predict what might happen in the future, using the current trends in society
Futuring is important for the field of education because researchers will be able to
follow the trends of the students. In an article written by Patricia Sobrero (2004) she
states:
Futuring in the Extension System should inform programming, shape system-wide
recruitment and staffing, enable new strategic alliances, and be accessible through a datadriven intelligence system available to the entire system. The Extension System has the
tools for conducting quality futuring. Our challenge is to realize futuring is not the same
as planning. Futuring results in environment intelligence, likely scenarios, forecasts, and
issue briefs so that as an Extension System we are prepared to successfully embrace
emerging issues and are flexible enough to prepare learners and communities for timely
action. (Sobrero, P.1)
Sobrero means that futuring is implemented into every aspect of education, from staffing,
to new technology and strategies of how a program could be run successfully and
allowing flexibility to learners and their own individual needs.
Scenarios are a way of forecasting the future they help with indecisive
circumstances. There are five common types of scenarios that futurist like to use “ 1)
Continuation-things will continue much as they are now; 2) Optimistic-things will get
considerably better; 3) Pessimistic- things will get considerably worse; 4) Disaster- things
will go terribly wrong; 5) Miracle-things going stunningly well”. (Kirkwood, Jr Hal, P.
3,) Scenarios are used in everyday activities, whether it be one’s own personal scenarios
Online Education
6
or if it applies to different businesses. Scenarios help best prepare for the future with the
information at this point in time.
Pros of Scenarios
Cons of Scenarios
Better prepare for the future based on
If information is input incorrectly can
information at hand
change the scenario for the future
Creates a common language, for
Time consuming, scenarios do not take
strategic situations
place in a short time, needs to be done
over a longer period of time
Scenarios open one’s mind to the
Looking at not only the black and
unimaginable and unthinkable
white scenarios but looking into the
gray areas as well
Scenarios can find weakness in a
Information and data must be collected
situation, causing the people in charge
from several different groups, which
to rethink original ideas
can also be time consuming
Scenarios helps different groups to
Making sure that participants and data
coordinate as one, to help decision
being collected are suitable for
making process
scenario
Building scenarios can be flexible and
situations can adjust to different
scenarios
Online Education
7
Scanning is observing and collecting data “from counties, states, national and
international and then taking the information collected and turning it into scenarios,
forecasts and issue briefs”. (Sobrero, 2004) The data that is collected for scanning needs
to be easily understood and shows a projection that change will happen in the future at
the same rate of speed as in the present or past. There are many different people involved
in scanning and each should be an observer and learn from the information collected in
order to show that change will occur in the future.
Scanning can be useful because it can help to predict the trend of the future.
Scanning involves many different types of people from all over the world, allowing input
to be global not just national
One challenge of scanning is the extension faculty, these faculty members doing
informal scanning which can lead to inaccuracy. Another challenge is if observations do
not continue over a long period of time, then the results of information collected may be
inaccurate for creating future scenarios.
The “non-traditional” students taking online classes meaning “ those who are
older than 24 years of age and who may have dependents, be financially independent, and
attend college on a part time basis” (Sinclair, 2014, p. 1). Most students wanting to return
to school who are non-traditional, have full time employment or have had full time
employment for some time. These students are looking to further their education
without having to give up their employment or spending time with their family. More
online students are “stay at home moms” who are looking to pursue their education while
at home taking care of their family.
Online Education
8
Non- traditional students enjoy online programs and hybrid learning because of
the flexibility the programs can offer. Students are allowed to make school fit around
their schedule. Since school works around the student’s schedule the thought is that
student’s employment still comes first and school comes second.
Students have a “
desire for immediate applications of knowledge and opportunities for self-direction”.
(Ross- Gordon, 2011,P. 29). With more non-traditional students taking online courses or
hybrid learning, many colleges and universities have had to rethink the way they structure
their programs and courses to meet the needs of the students.
The economic trend that continues to concern students is the rising cost of higher
education. With a college degree “ more than a piece of paper-it must provide the
workers of tomorrow with the skills and knowledge they need to compete in the 21st
century” (Boehener and Mckeon, P. 1). A college degree today is now considered the
equivalent to a high school diploma and is needed to receive a decent job making an
affordable income to support a family.
The Higher Education Act of 1965 was to ensure that there would be federal
funding to help students looking to pursue a degree in higher education. The federal aid
would be dispersed in many different ways, such as grants, loans, and work-study
opportunities. The Higher Education Act of 1965 has given many students the
opportunity to pursue a degree in higher education, but it has also increased the price of
tuition along the way.
For some time now, the cost of college tuition has raised more than a family’s
income.
Online Education
9
“In the 1970s there was little, if any, real growth in college prices. In the 1980s,
the cost of attending college rose over three times as fast as median family income. From
the (1990s to 2003) tuition and fees at both public and private four year colleges and
universities rose 38 percent.” (Boehener and McKeon, p. 6) With the need for a college
education now a days, educators and government are again looking for ways to help solve
the crisis of high tuition. This is something that will take much time and research.
One new educational technology is the introduction of e-books into the
classroom. E-books are books that are easily accessed through a computer or a tablet.
The concept of e-books is not new; in 1971 the first e-book was invented but was not
circulated until 1993 with the invention of the Internet. Many are seeing the switch from
hard cover books to e-books, not only in classrooms but in libraries as well.
There are several advantages to e-books, the first being cost. Hard covered books
can cost hundreds of dollars, while e-books can cost nothing to a few dollars. Hard
covered books students need to go to a bookstore or order online and pay for shipping
and wait for delivery. E-books are convenient! As long as students have a tablet or a
computer they can be downloaded in matter of seconds and students can begin doing their
schoolwork. “ In the future, educational experts predict, e-books will be used more often
in schools and universities than hard-copy books” (Berger, 2014, p.4).
There is the question of online courses vs. face-to-face courses and receiving an
equivalent education. There was no significant difference in grades between students
who took online classes and students who took face-to-face classes. Students who took
classes online had more study time than students in face-to-face classes. Both students
were both technologically capable. Both students were satisfied with instructor’s
Online Education
10
interaction with students, both sets of students felt equally safe to ask questions to the
professors if need be. The only major difference between online students and face-toface was peer interaction.
Online students felt they had less interaction with their peers
vs. students in face-to-face courses.
How can Post University plan for change for their online education institution?
Some ideas include but are not limited to; offering master’s degrees on campus for
students who may want to be hybrid students, offer more courses to use electronic course
materials, continue to keep low tuition and no fees, reach out to high school students
about online degree programs, and have main campus and OEI form a new team just for
hybrid students.
Over the years Post University has begun to add more electronic course materials
to the program, offering ECM allows the students to easily access readings. No student
can say they could afford the textbook. ECMs are easily accessible on blackboard,
students can print and make remarks on the materials and it keeps the cost of textbooks
down for the students.
Post University should continue to keep the cost of tuition low and have no fees.
This is enticing to many students the fact that there are no registration fees, application
fees. Today, very little is offered for free, and people like to feel they are getting some
type of additional benefit. The low cost of tuition keeps students enrolling into Post
University; many schools have astronomical cost for an online education. Students want
to continue in higher education but cost is a factor for many.
Post University should begin reaching out to high school students in the local area
and talking with them about the online degree program and the hybrid program. There
Online Education
11
may be students that live in the area that need to work right out of high school and did not
know about the online program at Post. This is an outlet for students who may need to
work to help support their family, but wants to continue their education at the same time.
Post University should consider forming a hybrid team of administrators, those
including some from main campus and some from OEI. Both have great things to offer
again reach out to those students that are scared of taking all online classes and tell them
the benefits of hybrid learning. Hybrid learning allows students to take classes online, as
well as attending the main campus one a week for one on one instruction for the
professor. Students who may think they would struggle in a specific class online would
most likely utilize hybrid learning.
In conclusion the call to action for Post University is to reach out to high school
students and job fairs and explain the benefits to online learning. By reaching out to
high school students, one can explain to students who many need to work directly out of
high school that taking online course, you can still work and attend school. So while the
student may need to help support the family, they can continue their education for the
future.
Sending admissions counselors to job fairs would be beneficial because many
people are out of work and looking for new ways to obtain that job. Some unemployed
people have degrees and other do not, explaining the benefits of having a degree in
today’s society would be beneficial for some unemployed potential students. Being able
to explain to potential students that by taking some classes and furthering their education,
it may help them to land a job in the near future.
Online Education
12
References:
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/distance-learning/the-benefits-of-blended-learningexplained/
www.timeshighereducation.co.uk
Berger, Adam, (2014). Print vs. Digital Media, Points of View. .1-5
Boehner, John & McKeon, Howard, The College Cost Crisis: A congressional
analysis of college costs and implications for America’s Higher Education Systems. 23
Horspool, Agi & Lange, Carsten, (Feb. 2012). Applying the scholarship of
teaching and learning: student perceptions, behaviours and success online and face-toface. Assessment & Evaluations in Higher Education, Volume 37, No.1 73-88
Kelly, Wayne & Shale, Doug, (May 2014). Does the rising cost of tuition affect
the socio-economic status of students entering university?, 1-20
Kirkwood, Hal Jr, Futuring, Reference of Business, Encyclopedia for Business,
2nd edition
Online Education
13
Mietzner, Dana and Reger, Guido, Advantages and disadvantages of scenario
approaches for strategic foresight, Int. J. Technology Intelligence and Planning, Nov. 2,
2005, Volume 1
Nicholas, Sinclair, (2014). Nontraditional Older Students. Research Starters
Educations, 1-13
Ross-Gordon, Jovita, (Winter 2011). Research on Adult Learners: Supporting the
Needs of a student population that is no longer traditional. Peer Review, Vol. 13 Issue 1
26-29
Sobrero, Patricia, The steps to Futuring, June 2004, Volume 42 Number 3
http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/
Online Education
14
Appendix:
Teacher
Student
Relationship
Home
Communit
y centers
Communit
y College
Real life
experiences (job)
Library
Social
Media
Famil
Exper
(Learn
family
Learning
Museums
Classroom
S
Game
inspired
Learn by
doing
Education
(Books,
resources)
Project
based
Digital
Media
Technolog
y enabled
Online
Cost
effective
Learner
driven
Universities
Nicole Thompson
Unit 1 Mind Map

Purple represents ideas of learning after watching “The Future of Learning” video

Red represents ideas of learning before watching “The Future of Learning” video
Perso
(indi
need