An Education Online

We are very fortunate to live in a country, which affords us many opportunities to pursue our educational goals. I attended college for 6 years, and thoroughly enjoyed the college lifestyle. The traditional classroon setting offered me an opportunity to interact with other college students and professors. I could take advantage of the the college resources, such as the library, gym and computer labs. The time I spent in college was a once in a lifetime experience. One I will never forget!

One I left college with my degree and license in hand, I was required to take continuing educational credits. I attended various trainiing, seminars and conferences; often in different states. These events were expensive, and time consuming, but offered me the chance to meet the leaders in my profession, and to network with others. I did this for several years, sometimes traveling with friends or co-workers. We always found time to take a break and have some fun.

Once I got married and had children, everything changed! I no longer had the time, money, or energy to travel. The thought of attending any trainings, conferences or seminars, seemed like a waste of time. A friend of mine suggested that I try taking some Home Study courses, and I've been doing this for nine years. Granted, it serves it purpose, but I don't get as much out of them. You have to be disciplined, have an ability to teach yourself, and of course, there is no interaction with anybody. Recently, the Home Study Courses have gone online, and I've taken a few.

Online Education is convenient, and can save both time and money over traditional classroom instruction, but it does not compare to the personal connection you feel in the classroom. Even with the discussion groups, forums, live chat, instant messaging, as a society we are becoming more, and more isolated. There are less chances and opportunities to socialize. Despite my reservations, last year I enrolled in the A-1 writing Academy, and took the Genesis 1 course. I was fairly new to the website, and had not fully learned how to navagate the pages. The instructions for registering and enrolling in classes was a bit confusing. I had an old outdated computer, that took 10 minutes to load one page. Midway through the course my beloved computer died, and I was fored to purchase a new one. By the time I logged back into wdc, the writing academy had done a total over haul of it pages. The had redesigned the website, making the instructions easier to follow with links to everything! They had added new classes, including the Orientation class which is designed to help new students. I was definitley impressed and inspired to try again. So here I am, manned with a brand new computer, the latest versions of software, and high speed internet connection. This time around, my online educational experience has been quite different. An online education may be convient, but by no means is it cheap!