ONLINE EDUCATION

The launch of the World Wide Web in 1991 forever changed the way we exchange information, ideas, and communicate with one another. It has allowed people from all over the globe to connect with each other in ways that were never imagined. This new form of communication has had an enormous impact on the world of education. With the Internet serving as a new medium between educators and their students, new forms of online education began to surface. From the mid 1990s through the early 2000s, computer technology and the Internet grew by leaps and bounds. New forms of multimedia changed the way we use the Internet in order to communicate. Because of this, online education has become much more efficient and even more accessible. With the invention of webcams, instructors are now able to record lessons and upload them to the Internet, while online streaming allows students to watch these videos online. There is a revolution coming in education. Already a student can have a live interaction with a teacher over the internet-even if the teacher is on the other side of the planet. Materials, notes and books can also all be sent over the internet. There is simply no reason why a student and a teacher have to be in the same room together. [Want an education? Open up a browser. With the information available online, you could probably get a complete education without ever leaving your house.]

Online or On Campus?
On Campus education and online education do have a lot in common but on the other hand there are certain factors which vary in each of them. Factors like cost, convenience, communication, and interaction have substantial importance when you have to consider any of the educational system. Cost: One of the most crucial factors while deciding about education is cost. Online education in considered more affordable than its traditional counterpart. The reasons being certain savings; transportation costs, no need to buy textbooks and even there is no need to rent a room or house which some has to do for conventional universities. Another significant factor that online education programs offer is that they also offer scholarships, financial aid packages, including loans and grants, just like traditional education institutions. Convenience: This is considered to be the most important factor behind massive growth in the online education industry. The ease and flexibility in online education is unparalleled, as you study with you own pace and according to your own convenience. Usually you have 24x7 accessibility to the classes and course material. Driving to class to listen to a bored lecture for 90 minutes, then driving home is a waste of time. You could read that material yourself in 20 minutes in the comfort of my home. Communication: Another factor which cannot be ignored is communication. In online education you have numbers of medium through which you can communicate to your instructors anytime, anywhere

like webcam chat, emails, discussion threads etc unlike traditional system where you just have single option of meeting during your university timings. Interaction: One of the big advantages of classroom education is one-to-one interaction and personal attention you get from the teacher. You also get to discuss and resolve your queries in his presence. On the contrary, online education does not have an option of face-to-face interaction with your teacher but some communication mediums can be used to interact with your teacher.

Conclusion
The truth to the matter is that there are advantages and disadvantages to every type of learning environment. It is best to use the advantages that each method offers to their fullest extent and go hybrid. It appears from the initial studies, that a combination of online and classroom learning to convey subject matter to students will be the best teaching method. Learning also highly depends on the individual's motivation to learn. So it still depends on the effort that the students put into their education that determines how much they will gain. And ultimately what counts is the knowledge that you have.

Some Free Online Education Resources

Code Year codeyear.com If learning computer programming sounds way out of your reach, and you think that it should be left to those geniuses, you're wrong. According to Code Year, anyone can learn the basics of computer programming in just one year. Code Year encourages people to make a New Year's resolution to learn enough code to build their own apps and websites. The creators of Code Year, a project of New York City-based startup Codeacademy, think that basic programming is an essential skill that everyone should learn. Code Year lessons are presented in an interactive format that doesn't necessarily feel like you're learning code. It's certainly the opposite of listening to lectures and reading dry books on programming. Budding programmers start off with JavaScript and move quickly to the subsequent lessons. W3 Schools www.w3schools.com Want to make your own website? W3Schools offers tutorials and references on a large range of subjects, including HTML, CSS, XML, JavaScript, PHP, SQL, and more. The largest site on the Internet for Web developers, W3Schools is a fantastic resource for those interested in brushing

up on their Web development skills, or learning them for the first time. Though not as structured as Code Year, W3Schools is just as thorough. Those dedicated enough to learn an entire coding language can even receive certification. Users can apply for a certificate by paying an exam fee. The exam is based entirely on the content of W3School's tutorials. Users that score at least 75 percent on the exam (consisting of 70 multiple-choice or true-or-false questions), get certified. TED www.ted.com The nonprofit started out as a conference in 1984 with the intention of "bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design." is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation. TED now features more than 1,114 free, award-winning talks, with more added each week. The videos can be freely shared and reposted. TED speakers discuss a wide array of topics- from technology and design to science and culture, and present them in the most innovative ways. Past presenters include Microsoft's Bill Gates, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, a number of Nobel Prize winners, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Stephen Hawking, Bill Clinton, and many more. MIT OpenCourseWare ocw.mit.edu The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a slew of undergrad and graduate courses available online for free through its OpenCourseWare program. Over 2,000 courses cover architecture and planning, engineering, humanities, arts, social studies, science, and many other academic areas. MIT's OpenCourseWare program lets users move through the lecture notes, suggested reading lists, and videos. Google Books books.google.com Just type the keyword for what you want to study in search bar and hit enter button. You might get lucky. Khan Academy www.khanacademy.org Sal Khan, former hedge fund analyst and creator of the nonprofit Khan Academy, has made over 2,700 free educational videos and aims to continue until the day he dies. He is making several thousands of videos available in nearly every subject. Khan Academy currently covers mathematics, science, computers, finance, and economics etcetera. A recent partnership with Smarthistory added hundreds of art history videos to the library. The content is made in "digestible 10 to 20 minute pieces," and students are encouraged to complete practice exercises and assessments.

Academic Earth academicearth.org Academic Earth, an online video education site, offers courses and lectures from Yale, Harvard, Stanford, MIT, UC Berkeley, and Princeton in a user-friendly platform. They are trying to build a user-friendly educational ecosystem that will give internet users around the world the ability to easily find, interact with, and learn from full video courses and lectures from the worlds leading scholars. With more than 1,500 videos, and more being added regularly, Academic Earth covers a wide range of subjects, including art and architecture, astronomy, biology, business, economics, computer science, environmental studies, psychology, media studies, and law. Users can also download QuickTime versions of lectures to watch while not connected to the Internet.

Himanshu Patidar