According to Bill Gates, ground-schools or “place-based” colleges are “good for parties,” but not as beneficial or conducive to learning thanks to the Internet. At the Techonomy Conference in Lake Tahoe, California, Gates told the crowd that: “Five years from now on the Web for free you’ll be able to find the best lectures in [...]

In order for online education to work, and to work well, it must be able to offer the same type of assessments, quizzes, exams, and training as a ground school. Sameer Bhatia, founder of ProProfs.com saw the surge of online learning and hopped on board, establishing a website where instructors and employers could easily create [...]

The unemployed are heading back to school. A 2009 report published by the Sloan Consortium details the growing surge in online education, especially during the recent economic downturn. Historically, in times of economic trouble, the demand for higher education increases. This time around, it’s a massive increase in the online learning sector. “Already, one in [...]

As technological innovations continue to influence the way we learn, some professors are finding ways to utilize it effectively in the classroom though podcasts or videos. The idea some of these professors had wasn’t necessarily a new one, but through proper implementation, they’ve made it work. The idea of shifting class time away from the [...]

Today, 1 out of every 4 college students takes some or all of their classes online. As online education becomes more and more mainstream, states like Texas and Maryland are beginning to incorporate more online-based coursework and classes into their curriculum. With education in high demand and less monetary resources available to some public colleges, [...]

Google Wave, one of the more recent Google initiatives, has halted development amid disappointment from its many academic supporters. Wave, Google’s “experimental next-generation e-mail system that blended instant messaging, video chat, document sharing, and other tools in one platform,” was being implemented in many college classrooms, both physical and digital, and some professors were even [...]

Many potential online students express frustration and confusion when trying to search for and find relevant and up-to-date education data or statistics. The U.S. Department of Education has responded by creating a new, interactive and comprehensive website geared towards presenting “accurate and timely educational data available in a single place” ED Data Express will not only [...]

In this technologically-advanced era, it’s hard to believe that college websites are still largely inaccessible to students with disabilities. A recent study which reviewed the homepages of 127 Northwestern colleges between 2004-2009 found that accessibility for students with disabilities remains “strikingly low” despite attempted improvements. In instances where students are unable to use a mouse [...]

Historically unrepresented groups such as Latinos and African-Americans are making a huge impact on the growth of online education. As online degrees become more prevalent, more minority students are taking advantage of the benefits extended by these schools and are contributing to the growth of online degree programs. Unlike traditional, ground-school colleges which often prevent [...]

“Online teaching improves practices in both virtual and face-to-face settings.”