I'm constantly amazed and delighted at the enthusiasm of the people I know who are studying online. For many of them it is the only way that they can gain the qualifications they want or need to improve their career prospects, but they also seem to really enjoy the process of study. Of course, this isn't true for everyone, but it seems to me that the majority of online students I meet have this real passion for online programs.
I think that one of the reasons is that they feel in control of their own studies. They have choices about when and where they study, and they can pace study to suit themselves. There are deadlines that they need to meet, but they tend to be quite long-term, and so students can organise their days so that the study periods are when they can best study.
Learning is an activity whose effectiveness increases when the student is attentive and in a good mood, so for many people online programs can be educationally better than normal traditional programs.
At my educational institution we are redesigning some of our core traditional programmes. It has been decided that as a part of this redesign we are to rewrite most of the courses as online modules. This means that we have the option of delivering part or all of the programme online without having to resource the programmes differently.
This kind of flexibility is becoming an integral part of programmes in many colleges and universities, allowing you to study any online programme you want, or any programme in the way that suits you best.
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