Online University Degrees Through Distance Education More and more universities around the world are offering online language co

Online University Degrees Through Distance Education
    Good morning, boys and girls. You are all here eager to improve your foreign language, right? Looking to improve your language skills, but you don’t have the time to go overseas to attend school? More and more universities around the world are offering opportunities for students to obtain degrees online from the comfort of their own homes, and many of these institutions are accredited, meaning that they have met certain standards of excellence.
    Distance education or distance learning is a field of education that focuses on teaching methods and technology with the aim of delivering teaching, often on an individual basis, to students who are not physically present in a traditional educational setting such as a classroom. It has been described as "a process to create and provide access to learning when the source of information and the learners are separated by time and distance, or both. "
    If you decide to take language courses online or any subject for that matter, be sure to evaluate the benefits of studying online verses going abroad. The advantages of studying online are that the costs are usually lower, you can study at your own pace, and (2) you have access to the materials 24-hours-a-day from almost any computer in the world. However, you won’t get the human interaction of meeting people to face to face like you would if you were physically attending a school overseas. On the other hand, (4) the advantages of going overseas may include day-to-day opportunities to learn a new culture, meet new friends with whom you can use and practice the language, and chances to see different parts of the world. (3) However, there may be a number of disadvantages for some including expense, time away from one’s school, family, or work life, and the challenge of adapting to a new culture and way of life.
    Whatever you do, considering a distance education program that meets your educational needs, is within your budget, and equally important, provides you with opportunities to grow beyond the classroom through cultural and educational activities.
    Distance education dates to at least as early as 1728, when an advertisement in the Boston Gazette was seeking students for lessons to be sent weekly. (5) Modern distance education initially relied on the development of postal services in the 19th century and has been practised at least since Isaac Pitman taught shorthand in Great Britain via correspondence in the 1840s. (6) The University of London claims to be the first university to offer distance learning degrees, establishing its External Programme in 1858. The development of computers and the Internet have made distance learning distribution easier and faster and have given rise to the virtual university, the entire educational offerings of which are conducted online. In 1996 Jones International University was launched and claims to be the first fully online university accredited by a regional accrediting association in the US. In 2006, more than 96 percent of the very largest institutions have some online offerings, which is more than double the rate observed for the smallest institutions, and that almost 3. 2 million US students were taking at least one online course during the fall term of 2005.
    Today, there are many private and public, non-profit and for-profit institutions worldwide offering distance education courses from the most basic instruction through to the highest levels of degree and doctoral programs. An institution may not use terms such as "university" without accreditation and authorization, often overseen by the national government. In the US, the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) specializes in the accreditation of distance education institutions.
    Diana G. Obliger, writing specifically of the US context, has identified four broad reasons why educational institutions might embrace distance learning:
    Expanding access: distance education can assist in meeting the demand for education and training demand from the general populace and businesses, (7) especially because it offers greater possibility of flexibility.
    Alleviate capacity constraints; being mostly or entirely conducted off-site, the system reduces the demand on institutional infrastructure such as buildings.
    Making money from emerging markets; she claims an increasing acceptance from the population of the value of lifelong learning. beyond the normal schooling age,and that institutions can benefit financially from this by adopting distance education.
    Catalyst for institutional transformation; the competitive modern marketplace demands rapid change and innovation, for which she believes distance education programs can act as a catalyst.
    The method of delivery of continuing education can include traditional types of classroom lectures and laboratories. However, (’)) much continuing education makes heavy use of distance learning, which not only includes independent study, but which can include videotaped/CD-ROM material, broadcast programming, online/Internet delivery and online Interactive Courses.
    In addition to independent study, the use of conference-type group study, which can include study networks as well as different types of seminars/workshops, can be used to facilitate learning. A combination of traditional, distance, and conference-type study, or two of these three types, may be used for a particular continuing education course or program.
    Virtual education is a term describing online education using the Internet. This term is used in K - 12 schooling, often to refer to cyber schools, and in higher education, where so-called Virtual Universities have been established. A virtual program is a study program in which all courses, or at least a significant portion of the courses, are virtual courses.
    Virtual courses—a synonym is online courses—are courses delivered on the Internet. "Virtual" is used here to characterize the fact that the course is not taught in a classroom face-to-face but through some substitute mode that can be associated with classroom teaching. That means people do not have to go to the real class to learn.
    Although there is a long and varied history of distance education, the current intersection of technology as a means to facilitate real-time communication with community-centered interaction, and the increasing acceptance and employment of those developments in the broader culture, have uniquely positioned virtual schools in a position of significant innovation and responsibility. Thanks for your listening. Wish my suggestions may give you some help.