Students can find more online college classes available nowadays than ever, as the number of online degree programs continue to soar. Determining which scholarships and grants are applicable in your educational pursuits means finding the money to help pay for an online education.
In addition to long popular online degree programs in business, nursing, information technology and criminal justice, college catalogs for the fall 2010 semester and the web sites of virtual and traditional institutions boast a wide array of online classes and degree programs. Southern California has recently seen an increase in such degree programs at the associate degree level,
and a single university in Memphis added 18 new bachelor and master's degree programs to its existing 22 for the coming fall semester, according to reports. Distance degree offerings from these geographic areas and others now give students opportunities to pursue degrees in philosophy, history, African-American studies, the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects and more.
The online education boon could have to do with a historically large 2009 high school class and physical settings unable to take on increasing numbers of students, according to a scholarly report. National Center for Education Statistics information cited in the report, "32 Trends Affecting Distance Education", included anticipating a 16 percent increase in online college enrollment between 2003 and 2010.
This forecast was based on high school information alone. Adults, including rising numbers of women and minorities, form a solid amount of the distance learning population. Between 1970 and 2000, the number of adult students rose 170 percent as compared to a 41 percent increase in 18 to 24-year-old students, according to "32 Trends". Online education is said to cost about the same as physically attending college.
Students browsing the Internet for online classes and online degree programs can also shop for online grant, scholarship and fellowship opportunities. Online grant applications include the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Large companies, non-profit organizations, civic groups and more provide scholarship and fellowship information online.
The education market has changed significantly, moving from classroom and lecture-room education to online education, according to a March Marketwire news release. Online education, in fact, is growing at a speedier pace than higher education overall, an article in the San Diego Business Journal that same month reported.
More than 4.6 million students were enrolled in least one online course during the fall 2008 semester, representing a 17 percent increase over fall 2007 enrollments, the Business Journal reported, citing a 2009 Sloan Consortium survey. The entire higher education student population, by comparison, increased by only 1.2 percent, according to the survey information provided.
Virtual colleges and traditional institutions offer online classes and online degree programs. In some instances, online education offerings account for more than 60 percent of a traditional for-profit college's revenues, the Marketwire release reported. A Memphis institution saw the number of students enrolled in its online education programs rise by nearly 50 percent in one year, according to an area newspaper known as the Commercial Appeal. Keeping up with the demand for distance education has been a challenge, one college representative reportedly told the San Diego Business Journal.
For-profit higher education institutions were considered the fastest growing online education segment when the "32 Trends" report was written. And the report anticipated that the number of degree-granting institutions will continue to rise into 2020, while the number of traditional campuses declines. An Information Age work force during this time is expected to require continued retraining and "retooling" as well accelerated online degree programs, the report forecasted.
Distance educators were looking at how wireless laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), videoconferencing, virtual reality, video streaming, gaming environments and other technologies enhance distance learning when "32 Trends" was written. Looking ahead, the report forecasted that college accreditation and program approval is going to change, becoming more outcome-based and, by 2025, without one national accreditation system.
Governments, testing companies and others, the report noted, would put testing programs into place, and large corporations would develop their own approval systems. Distance educators, to accommodate the accountability emphasis, "32 Trends" suggested, should plan ahead to maintain accreditation and meet consumer demands. The focus of online education is going to evolve to focus on the student as consumer as well as on flexibility and global reach, according to the report.
Just as with traditional on-site learning, those wishing to attend college via distance classes will find scholarships and grants are available to help pay for the classes. Begin your search for grants online by finding all the forms of aid that apply in your situation.
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