The Online Higher Education Market in the USA Essay

The Online Higher Education Market in the USA - Essay Example In online courses, professors are often referred to as facilitators. There are some similarities between taking online and a traditional course, but there are also a lot of differences. Students often are exposed to both types of courses in the curriculum of universities. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast traditional and online courses. In a traditional school, the majority of courses are taken on a semester basis. There are some school systems that offer trimester courses. The length of a semester is approximately five months, while trimesters are completed in about three months. Online schools are different in their scheduling. A lot of online schools offer courses in six-week spans. A student that takes six-week online courses can complete a master’s degree in 18 months instead of two years. Both online courses and traditional college courses are very challenging and require a full commitment from the students. The grading format of online courses is diff erent than in traditional courses. In traditional courses at universities, the teacher places a lot of weight on examinations. The exam grades often exceed 70% of the total value of the grade. An online course has a different emphasis. Professors in online courses allocate a low portion of the grade to exams and a larger portion to essays or term papers. The participation dynamics of an online course is much different than in a traditional course. In a physical college, the professor stands in front of a classroom and speaks to the class. Students are able to ask questions to interact with the professor. In such a scenario, the professor has full control of the material that is discussed in class. The dynamics in an online course is much different. Online classes utilize a classroom forum for participation purposes. The professor typically posts discussion questions for everyone to answer. The students are supposed to answer the question and also post replies about the answers of ot her students. In this dynamic, the student is more involved than in traditional courses.