Online Programs Making Waves with Traditional Universities

USNews reported today that online universities might just be the “the rock that disturbs the placid waters of American higher education.” As top traditional universities like the University of Southern California continue to adopt online programs, it seems like pioneers like University of Phoenix and Kaplan University might have sparked a revolution in education.

With so much technology at our finger tips, I am surprised it has taken this long for other schools to adopt the model. We have video conferencing, collaboration software and smartphones that make it absurdly easy to take education outside of classrooms.

The flexibility afforded to students by online courses is appealing to a wide cross section of prospective students–not the least of which are those who have day jobs. More and more people are likely to pursue higher education as the recession continues, so institutions of all shapes and sizes should make it easy for people to do so. Online courses serve as a scalable model to make education accessible to the masses. Of course quality will vary, but the same can be said of traditional universities and colleges.