What are the benefits of online education?

Have you decided to sign up for online education? Or just considering if it will be worth it?

Let’s look at the benefits of online education, especially when compared to regular in person education.

We all probably know what the biggest benefit is:

Learning in your own time
This is the first thing most of us think of when the topic of online education comes up. Not having to stick to a strict schedule can be so freeing, but you also need to have the discipline to make your own schedule and stick to it. In any case, most of us have family and work commitments and fitting in your online learning around that is so much easier than fitting in learning when you have to go to classes in person.

Then there’s the travel. Imagine the cost savings when you don’t have to transit to and from a location (which could be quite far away) multiple times per week. In my opinion, the next biggest benefit of online education is:

No travel costs
Of course, you could be doing a part online and part in person learning program. You’d still be saving money on travel costs with that arrangement. In fact ANY portion of a course that you can do online from home is going to result in a money saving, especially in this day and age with very high fuel prices. Depending where you live, public transport can be quite an expense as well.

But it’s not all about the convenience and money saving compared to traditional learning on campus or at school. What are some of the more intrinsic benefits of online education?

Take risks
Signing up for a college or university course is not cheap (to put it mildly). Online courses can give you a taste of a certain field or subject that you might be thinking of pursuing for a degree in future. With low or even no cost online education you can take more risks in choosing courses or topics to learn about than we could traditionally do in the past. The only thing you have to lose is your time, and perhaps a small amount of money. That’s nothing compared to enrolling in college then realizing you’ve made a mistake six months down the track.

Unlimited options
You can learn – literally – anything in online education. Yes there’s all the traditional topics and subjects and careers, and these are excellent options. But there’s also stuff you’ve probably never heard of, and these can be some of the most rewarding courses online because they will get your mind working in ways it never has before.