It makes a lot of sense when you stop and trace everything back to the root. Unemployment went up. When unemployment goes up, people go back to school. The people who go back to school because they’re unemployed are, shall we say, less than affluent–they went back to school because they lost their jobs. Good on them! A higher education is a great way to improve your hirability. These people took advantage of financial aid to continue their education, which makes perfect sense.

When the Student Is Ready, the Funding Will Appear

On the governmental side of things, Obama has declared war on stupidity. Fantastic, wonderful–I for one like this war much better than our wars on terror and drugs (I think, too, that a war on stupidity would do triple-duty and help us out in those other two wars). His stated goal is for every American to enroll in some form of postsecondary education. To this end, some funding initiatives went through. The most important of which was an increase to the maximum Pell Grant, which is the most popular government-funding option for low-income students.

All Roads Lead to Online Education… Sort Of

So, we’ve got a greater number of low-income students going for postsecondary education, a governmental call-to-action for anyone considering enrolling in said educational programs, and more money being pumped into financial aid. Because it’s difficult to attend school without some kind of employment, and many of these new students have families to support, a more flexible option for education is preferable: online education. Online education has also gained quite a bit of credibility and even notoriety in past few years. It’s also got lower overhead–no commute, no parking fees, no need to get out of your PJs or eat anything other than cereal all day long.

Bringing It All Back Home: For-Profit Colleges Raking in the Government Funding

Again, it makes a lot of sense. Today’s students aren’t looking for a grandiose Western education replete with an unparalleled knowledge of the contemporary canon. No, they want a better shot at the limited jobs ASAP. This is why career-focused degree and certificate programs are gaining in popularity at the moment–and because they’re gaining in popularity, they’re the ones collecting the money that the government is handing out.

Pragmatism is the hallmark of many online universities, whether they admit it or not. It might not be everyone’s first choice, but it’s almost always the most practical, particularly for those looking for the aforementioned career-oriented schooling.

Since July 1, 2009, when the maximum Pell Grant went up, “Washington paid out 45 percent more through the program than during the same period a year ago [...] But the amount of dollars heading to for-profit, or “proprietary,” schools is up even more–about 67 percent,” the Associated Press found. With a few for-profit schools pushing the boundary of what’s known as the 90-10 rule (a regulation that requires schools to get at least ten percent of their funding from non-governmental sources), a few critics are suggesting that these schools are just cashing in on the gov’t-cash gold mine. From the AP:

The industry is “an aggressive sales operation that has a voracious appetite for recruiting the poorest students,” said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of AACRAO, a group representing admissions officers and registrars at traditional colleges. “The victims here are the students themselves and the taxpayers, who have to pick up the tab.”

Time will tell whether these colleges are doing more harm than good. In the meantime, I’m hopeful. A lot has changed in education since the 90-10 rule was necessary, and the students in these programs today are–hopefully–a bit more shrewd and bit more knowledgeable. Thanks to the Internet, it’s quite a bit harder for companies to get away with scamming students. I’m casting my vote in favor of the for-profit schools and hoping that the students enrolled go on to fulfill the dreams behind Obama’s plan: making America number one in education and building a brighter future on a strong base of higher education.

Now that we’ve made it through the turkey-induced food comas and for the most part–we’re nearly there–survived another Black Friday of bargain-crazed consumers, it’s time to take stock of of a few things. It’s time to start thinking about that New Year’s resolution. It’s time to start prepping for the yearly long, hard look in the mirror. When that ball drops, it’ll mean another trip ’round the sun, another holiday season come and gone. You’ve got the chance to change every day, but who doesn’t like a good line in the sand? Of course, if you’ve got designs on earning your next degree–or finishing your first–you should start planning now.

Universities Have Deadlines: Why You Need to Start Looking Now

If your big revelatory moment waits until you’ve got your glass raised on New Year’s Eve, you might have to scramble. You’ve got schools to research, programs to consider, and applications to fill out–many of which require tests to be taken or records to be obtained–in short, you won’t regret starting a little early. Most universities have their admissions deadline for the fall semester in late January or early February, and many degree programs simply can’t be started in the spring, particularly graduate programs.

Time to Strike! Things Are Looking Up

While things haven’t returned to the level of affluence we enjoyed a few years ago, the economy is getting better. It’s expected by many that we’ll start to see job growth in the second quarter of 2010 (incidentally, that’s plenty of time to get an online course, even a certificate program, out of the way). Some extra training isn’t going to land you a new career by itself, but it can help your resume stand out. In two years, you could get a master’s degree to add to that bachelor’s-level qualification. If you don’t have any postsecondary education to further just yet, you could get an associate’s degree.

The point is, don’t wait until you’ve got glitter in your champagne glass and a head full of bubbles to decide that you’d rather go back to school and start working towards a better–or even completely different–career. Start thinking about it today, and get all the facts before you’ve got to rush on what could be the most important application of the rest of your life.

The people who give out the Webby Awards posted their “The Ten Most Influential Internet Moments of the Decade” list the other day, and they included some pretty momentous occasions. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used Craigslist–but only because I’ve never tried to count that high. Its outside-of-SF expansion in 2000 made the list. The launch of Google AdWords, another favorite of mine, also made it on there. Several other occasions, launches, and auspicious beginnings–and even an ending–got nods, but it was CNET that brought online education to the Internet fore. CNET’s Lance Whitney posted another list, one that included online education.

Something to Be Thankful For: Online Ed.

Online education is definitely something to be thankful for. Without this great new medium for education, a great many people would be missing out. From the ever-so-busy parents to the myriad others who simply don’t fit into the traditional classroom mold, online education has helped millions.

A friend of mine with Asperger’s syndrome isn’t really cut out for campus life. Thanks to the online offerings of a few local institutions he’s almost done with his degree–a work in progress that spans three states, five schools, and nearly a decade. Without the opportunity to study at his own pace and in his own environment, even he doubts that it would have been possible to finish up his bachelor’s.

We’ve come quite a ways from when online degrees were thought of as diploma-mill byproducts. Today, there are hundreds of fully accredited schools with online programs, and many don’t have a campus-based counterpart. Things are changing, and I, for one, am thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

In high school, I took a correspondence course. At the time this was a fairly normal thing to do. Today, the idea of mailing tests and essays back and forth between teacher and student is tantamount to writing checks for groceries–it’s time consuming, archaic, and totally out-moded. Since then, online education has gone from something of a joke to the respected medium it is today. What’s changed?

New Tech. for Online Learning

The Internet has gotten faster. Broadband Internet access is far more common than it once was. Desktop computers are more affordable than they’ve ever been on one side of the spectrum and more powerful than ever before on the other. Laptops have gotten smaller, cheaper, nicer-looking, and more portable than ever. Digital cameras are everywhere. In short, the tools of the trade have changed. Today, professors can stream live lectures or post recorded ones. Advancements in discussion boards, chat rooms, video conferencing, messaging, and social media programs have made taken online learning to a new level, bringing students and faculty together in ways that rival face-to-face meet-ups for efficacy.

Diverse Clients Call for Diverse Methods

One new online school is offering a monthly flat rate for all the classes you can take. This kind of knowledge buffet is just one of the innovative techniques being used in online education today. For example, many people think that they’ll flounder in the work-at-your-own-pace format of many online schools, saying the all-too-common “I work better with a deadline.” If you’re one of those people, you can easily find an online program with more strict deadlines than you can shake a stick at. If you aren’t looking to apply your education to a career (at least not a strict one) and are looking more for education for education’s sake, you can enroll in an unaccredited online degree program, which can be less expensive and more flexible.

New Research Puts Hybrid Education On Top

A recent study put out by the U.S. Department of Education showed that online learning trumps the traditional classroom setting for efficacy, with a mix of the two educational settings delivering just the right kind of mental one-two punch that our contemporary brains are looking for (i.e., hybrid learning won out). We should take a moment to put this in context to calm all of the teachers up in arms about this study. Today’s students (the traditional, under-30 variety) have grown up, at least to some degree, with computers. Is it any wonder that a mixed-media approach is successful? If we change the debate just slightly and replace computers with books, would anyone argue that mixing reading with lectures produces more understanding? I’m going for a big “no” on that one.

The fact of the matter is that online education is getting more popular. Acceptance of online degrees is gaining. States are even beginning to boast about the ranking of their online educational opportunities. Even if you aren’t a big proponent of online education, you can agree that more opportunities that people have to learn, the better. Just because it doesn’t work for you doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. In America today, we need more college graduates, and anything that can help us get those graduates and start working towards a brighter, more economically stable and greener tomorrow has my vote.