Online College is a general term that has unfortunately been culturally assigned to reference any college program that does not use traditional “residential” methods for learning content delivery. At its worst level of intellect the term Online College references any method of college beyond the traditional brick and mortar school. Because so many people do not understand alternative educational models but know that some courses are delivered online, they generally refer to this familiar “Online” terminology. To this point, online college can be just that, a college that offers its courses strictly online but generally this is not the case because learning actually occurs under …show more content…
In reality distance learning means that some or all of the educational delivery is done “remotely” or outside of the traditional walls of the classroom. Nontraditional Learning may also indicate that the learning format or assessment process may be different than that of a traditional model.
Although the term Online College often carries a negative connotation, distance learning is not inferior as an educational delivery method. The negative connotation may be a holdover from some past unscrupulous practices and the ignorance of some current nay sayers that have little knowledge over the true methods of distance learning and its 100 plus long years of effective usage.
Just as some distance learning models have had some unscrupulous practices in the past, so has its brick and mortar program counter part. To address both of these situations, enhanced regulatory practices have been implemented to improve the quality of education in both environments. Even so it appears that the lesser known distance learning model is still recovering its credibility. Fortunately as information is becoming more available and as the number of legitimate professionals are earning quality nontraditional degrees, the “ Distance Learning” method is proving itself to be a true and valid alternative means to receive a high level