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Virtual Universities. Pros and Corns

Imagine being able to attend classes while wearing pyjamas. Or studying at a university located 500 miles away. These possibilities may become facts in the near future as more and more schools focus on the chatrooms as a place to educate rather than the classroom.

Universities that use the Internet to educate are often called “Virtual Universities”, where the education is real but the lessons take place in living rooms and libraries. They are viewed by many as being a tool that allows more people access to learning opportunities. Besides, a virtual university would lower tuition costs. However, these savings would come at the expense could become socially isolated. There would be less interaction or time to ask questions.

And sometimes the most important lessons are not taught in lecture halls but in residence halls and through extracurricular activities where students learn to become a part of a small society. While these aspects of universities may seem to represent the best possible situation, the reality is that many deserving people cannot afford to take classes, cannot find time to go during the day or do not have the ability to commute.

For many of these people, taking classes over the Internet has become a viable option and many public universities across the country have started to offer these classes, although on a very minor scale.

California is currently one of the leading states to offer access to online courses. The California Virtual University offers a Web site at http:www.California.edu with information and connections to more than 40 post-secondary schools in California that offer classes through the Internet.

The Virtual University is viewed by many as an absolute necessity because of the nearly 500,000 additional students who plan to enter the California higher education system in the next decade.

The Web site has proven very successful, and receives an average of 120,000 visits every month. Long distance learning has become more popular with colleges across the country. According to a 1995 report by the US Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics, more than 33 percent of all post-secondary institutions in the country offered distance education.

Students use e-mail to communicate with their professors as well as turn in assignments. They also have class discussions with other students using chatrooms and message boards.

Anyway although technology has made its way into the heart of the educational system, it has not yet taken on a dominant role.

Questions:

1. Would you like to study in a “Virtual University”?

2. What are the weak points of such method of teaching?

3. Do you think it is necessary to have an opportunity to interact with professors and other

students in a face-to-face way? Why?

4. Is it in the classrooms that the student learns the most important things?

5. Do you think that we must prepare for the future of electronically transmitted education?