The global pandemic crisis of 2020 has thrown all of the education into an unstable and uncertain situation. The higher education establishments – colleges and universities alike – have felt this great jolt and are now suffering the consequences.
The way many higher ed schools have inefficiently handled the Covid-19 has pushed a lot of current students and prospective ones to rethink their stance concerning higher education. As the whole world sought for social distancing, many learners had to transition to alternative ways of education, including MOOC platforms, online education businesses, and even open-source web lectures.
As a result, the students found out for themselves that traditional universities and colleges do not represent nor embody anymore the values that the students care so much about, encompassing the pure focus on studying, education and mental health support, accommodating conditions.
Seeing as how the traditional higher education establishments are struggling to provide the things they promise to deliver to students, there is a definite shift in students’ attitude. Let us dive deeper into the current higher education business trends.
Alternative Learning and Online Courses Are Gaining More Popularity Than Ever
Online learning has taken off. Although it is not a new medium for education, and it has been growing in terms of user base and customer loyalty, the need for social distancing has turned everybody’s attention towards online education platforms. This encompasses both smaller online education businesses that concentrate on a small number of higher ed subjects and gigantic education platforms, like Coursera, Udemy, Skillshare, edX, etc.
Such platforms can provide highly specialized education via the internet and without all of the unnecessary side subjects that plague traditional educational establishments. The success of these online platforms lies in how the students are meant to digest the information by themselves and through additional separate research.
Then, the students must complete tests, quizzes, and assignments well enough to proceed. This ensures a better involvement with the learning materials from the students. A big critique of the traditional universities and colleges is that the students do not engage with the subjects they learn properly enough. A big part of students simply goes through their traditional degree without really studying the topic and receiving minimal scores that allow them to move on with their courses.
Additionally, the multitude and the variety of courses that are available online easily wins over any physical higher education establishment. There, students get to choose just about any topic they want to study, which, of course, motivates them to excel in their studies. A few electives here and there from traditional universities and colleges do not really compare to what the internet offers in any way. In the end, the simple fact that a lot of young learners are getting introduced to alternative ways of education early on and are aware that they can switch out to learn over the internet puts the universities and colleges in great danger.
The New Generation Is Not Worried About Following Traditions
The universities and colleges are awfully slow to adapt to the emergence of new technologies – everybody knows this. Their bureaucratic means of organizing their work and education, in general, is a big argument against the traditional schools. In fact, it seems that with each year, this particular problem is getting worse and worse while the younger generations of learners are getting more and more disgruntled with this.
Now that many of the students have experienced or are experiencing right now the remote education, many learners are thinking of transitioning to remote education completely. The pandemic situation required traditional schools to quickly adapt their in-person courses (including completing the assignments, like custom writing, research papers, projects, etc.) to the web format.
Of course, the universities and colleges are having a lot of trouble with this, and the students that have already enrolled in the 2019-2020 academic year must now endure learning over the tedious lectures over web conference apps, constant connection problems, establishment’s online service unreliableness, and instructor’s computer ineptitude and unwillingness to learn and incorporate new technologies in their teaching.
So, of course, having experienced a much more fleshed out level of education in online courses, many students are thinking of switching or are actually doing it as of now. The thing that also empowers young learners to switch entirely to the alternative remote education is their modern parents, which are more than open to allowing their children to receive higher education from alternative sources. All of these factors play into many students deciding upon receiving higher education online.
Online Courses Have the Need to Improve Upon Traditional Education
As of now, we are at a historically important point: the way that the alternative and private business educational solutions will influence traditional universities and colleges will ultimately decide the fate of education for generations to come. The usual schools are too archaic and must evolve and innovate; the online education business cannot feasibly offer some of the benefits that universities and colleges provide.
Campus experience. It is an indisputable point that a lot of students decide to still enroll in traditional courses because they need the usual student experience on campus. A big part of this is collaborative learning and exchanging impressions with peers, which improves the quality of education outstandingly. Giant online education platforms have to come up with some solution to this.
Change of place. Some students want to leave their homes due to the awful situation they are dealing with at home. Somehow, such students need to have some sort of asylum where they will feel safe and be able to study.
Motivation aspect. Some students require real-life encouragement and help to go on with their studies. Learning over the web in the comfort of your home is extremely hard for some learners. Such students can perform excellently, but they do require a small push.
How Will the Education Transform in the Future?
The obvious solutions to the issues are, of course, further integration of the functionality of online platforms with physical, traditional educational establishments. However, will that happen and when – is up to debate. Both systems will need to combine their efforts to amend our almost archaic education finally.