It seems logical that online courses are on the rise throughout the United States. As technology improves, so do the methods of teaching and learning. As a student who has two jobs, is deeply involved in church and is a full-time student, online classes are a God-send. Sleep is not something that I am accustomed to but having the opportunity to take classes online raises the chances that on any given night I will be able to get acquainted with the idea of getting some rest. In her article, “Degrees, Distance & Dollars”, Marina Krakovsky states that “most of the students who flock to online programs are nontraditional; their time and locale is constrained by jobs, military service, and dependent children.” In the same article, USC Professor, Guilbert C Hentschke states that “online education is not only more convenient, but for some students it’s the only option they’ve got.” I would certainly agree with both comments since I think that I am probably more of a nontraditional student and most of the time, online courses are my only option to take courses that work around my schedule.
There are many students out there that are balancing similar schedules but they do not equate to the amount of students taking the traditional route of college life such as living on campus and attending most, if not all, classes physically. Although this is true at the moment, I do believe that the nontraditional route will be much more common in the years to come than it is now. As more and more people understand the advantages of online courses, they will gravitate in larger numbers towards that medium. The traditional path is not likely to erode anytime soon because there will always be a sense of tradition regarding what college life is supposed to be but I would not doubt that the new path being paved will have just as much traffic.