Education 2.0
Education 2.0
Getting a college degree has never been easier, particularly if you prefer to listen to lectures on your lunch hour or in your pajamas at 3 a.m.
The coursework is still demanding, but distance learning has opened a world of possibilities for adult students who can’t go back to school full time.
Marjorie Gowdy, who works as a museum director in Biloxi, Miss., is completing a UNCG online master’s degree in liberal studies. She came across the program during an Internet search. At 55, she plans to have the degree by the time she enters the job market again in a few years, she says. In her program, assignments are due typically at the end of each week, so she tries to do school work each day in the early morning, an hour at night and some on the weekend. But it doesn’t always happen that way.
"If you have three rough days at work, you can carve out a full day later," she says. "I’ve only had to pull one almost-all-nighter in two years."
Helene Grande, of Erie, Pa., finished her undergraduate degree in 2000 after 10 years of commuting to night school. Now 61, she’s also taking online courses toward a master’s degree in liberal studies at UNCG.
She says the technology is not as intimidating as she anticipated it being, and the staff has been helpful when she gets stuck. The best part of the program is she can log on anytime and read or talk to classmates, an appealing option on a snowy winter night in Erie, she says. As a full-time administrative assistant for the Erie school district, Grande often works on assignments during her lunch hour, and at least 20 hours a week total.
A common rule of thumb for most college courses is to spend three to four hours studying at home for every hour of in-class time, but that formula may not hold water when it comes to distance learning. Grande says taking classes online can actually be more time-consuming than attending class on campus, because online discussions require more "thoughtful and collegial discourse" than simply raising your hand to state an opinion.
The average age of a student enrolled in online courses at an accredited degree-granting institution is 37, according to a 2007 survey by The Distance Education and Training Council. The council also found that 55 percent are male, and 90 percent are employed when they enroll. Bill Horn, a Greensboro firefighter, fits that typical distance-learner description. At age 40, he’s hitting the books again after a 20-year hiatus and a career as a professional hockey player. Though he’s never set foot on the campus at N.C. State University, he’s finishing an undergraduate degree through an online program there.
With a wife and two school-age children, plus a job that requires 24 hours on and 48 hours off, he likes being able to "self-pace" his lessons. For a political science class, he reads textbooks, watches lectures on DVDs and e-mails his papers to the professor. No one is checking attendance, he says, "but if I don’t stay up with the assignments, I’ll quickly get behind."
For an entomology class, he does daily experiments on bugs, which he received in the mail, and reports his findings to the professor. His final exam for that class is set in a proctored classroom at GTCC. "Doing all this is a stretch for me, but it’s invigorating to go back to school," Horn says. "It’s also important that I don’t just tell my kids they need an education. I’m setting an example for them."
Deana St. Peter, an English instructor and distance learning coordinator at GTCC, has observed all kinds of students since she started teaching online in 2002. She says that "if you’re one who never does the reading assignment or never speaks to anyone in class, online is not for you."
GTCC launched an online-only associate degree program in fall 2007. The first class consists of about 20 students, a majority of whom work full-time jobs, mixed in with few stay-at-home moms, St. Peter says. "I wouldn’t discourage anyone (from pursuing an online degree) as long as they’re open to it," she says. "There are a lot people hesitant to try it who would make awesome students."
In addition to being comfortable communicating electronically, St. Peter says to be successful, a distant learner "must be willing and self-confident enough to hop online and post your thoughts on a discussion board, or e-mail an instructor and then don’t get frustrated waiting for a response." Most instructors reply to students within 24 hours, she adds.
For students who grew up with the Internet, text messaging and blogging, it’s not much of a leap to take part in a virtual learning environment.
Justin Drogos, 24, is part of a generation whose members rely heavily on the Internet and electronic devices to gain access to more opportunities. After receiving a master’s degree in physical therapy at UNC-Chapel Hill, he was hired to work weekend shifts at Moses Cone Hospital, so he moved to Greensboro. He immediately enrolled in a full-time online program designed for working physical therapists, which will allow him to earn his doctorate from UNC-CH without the additional time and cost of a commute. While he knows most of his professors and some of his classmates from his campus days, the rest of the class he met at an optional fall orientation held in Chapel Hill and through online chats.
He says class participation is measured by the quality of posts and replies to classmates on discussion boards.
"You get to know people a little bit that way, though it’s not the same as being in the same place every day," Drogos says. "One good thing about it is I get to take classes with people who have been doing physical therapy for 30 years. For someone in my position, that’s a big help."
Justin Drogos, a physical therapist at Moses Cone Hospital, is e
