There are lots of reasons that distance learning and online universities are becoming more common. It is a standard concept in business and marketing. As technology and marketplace change, we need to start changing the products and services we offer. The same is happening for the graduate school marketplace.
Marketplace Changes: It is common for students to graduate from university with their 4-year degree and go out into the world to start their careers. After working for a few years, after working for some years, many develop for themselves a specific set of goals for their lives. They discover that they need additional graduate degrees to achieve their goals, but their job or business does not permit them to take a year or more for additional study to obtain those higher level degrees. Some kind of shift in the university paradigm was needed so that the educational needs of these students could be met.
Many universities started offering graduate programs for these kinds of mature students. Students could attend evenings or weekends and take a while longer to obtain the education they wanted.
Other schools started designing intensive on-campus residency programs. They were usually designed for those times when dormitories were empty for a few weeks, so the school could offer graduate programs as a way of filling the gaps in revenue from the physical facilities of the university. Grad students could come to the university on their vacation and take intensive courses and complete their assignments after they return home from school.
Technology Changes: As email and the Internet began to develop, these technologies started becoming a part of the facilities these universities could use to offer their courses. So, many schools have started offering more and more courses as an online curriculum. As computer horsepower and Internet access speed has increased and video has become more easily harnessed, schools are making their online courses more productive and more ample.
Now many graduate programs are moving away from the on-campus residencies and moving more of their curriculum to an online environment.
Environmental Changes: As these changes are occurring in the educational marketplaces and the distribution technologies, another factor is becoming a more prevalent concern. What can be done to obtain higher degrees from university and reduce the carbon imprint of the task. Distance learning and online education are both helpful in achieving a more green educational experience.
