Online education — Distance learning

In light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, online education has had a significant surge in popularity. And it's not just online English schools or fitness courses, but also full-fledged higher education programs. Some experts predict that soon all universities will move to our tablets and laptops. Of course, if surgeons and nuclear physicists get their qualifications while sitting at home, a disaster will surely happen. However, there are a number of professions that can now be mastered remotely without any quality loss.

Online degree programs rankings

Here are a few lists: the first has programs with the best cost to quality ratio in foreign universities, the second — distance programs of top universities for those who want to get a degree of Harvard without going to Harvard (but note that not all top ranked universities have launched online training programs yet); the third table describes the top MBA programs, which today are the most popular choice among online programs.

The best online universities abroad

Online degree programs in top ranking universities

Online MBA programs

The methodology for evaluating business programs, according to the QS rating, includes several criteria:

• Faculty and teaching (academic reputation, teachers to students ratio, completion rate) — 35%;
• Employability of graduates — 30%;
• Class profile (experience and qualifications of students, racial, national and gender diversity) — 30%;
• Class experience (physical meetups, regular synchronous classes, access to a learning app on a mobile and/or tablet, and 24/7 tech support) — 5%.

Specialties for online education abroad

Online education has long ceased to be something new and unusual. You can now get a degree remotely in almost any specialty. Below are the programs which are often implemented online:

• Engineering. Most online programs are taught at the master's and doctoral levels and are aimed at students already working in the profession who want to get a narrower specialization and apply knowledge in project work.
• Computer Science. The very concept of remote technology is inextricably linked with computer science. Online learning here is largely based on the independent work of the student and is implemented almost without restrictions. Specializations vary from cybersecurity to video games.
• Business Administration (MBA). Business programs today are in the highest demand among students. Given the extremely high cost of a full-time MBA (sometimes BBA), more and more students are looking for opportunities to obtain an online degree. Fortunately, these programs are easily transferred to a distance learning format without much issue, which allows young entrepreneurs not to break away from their own business and solve applied business problems in the process of obtaining education.
• Finance and Accounting. As with the BBA/MBA programs, finance and accounting education is available entirely online. Online training in the specialty provides all the necessary skills for working in both private and public sectors.
• Psychology. Distance education in this specialty is often supplemented by internships and group projects, which in most cases can be transferred to the digital format.
• Medicine. Obviously, a doctor cannot get a full qualification without practical training. Therefore, online education in the field of medicine in most cases is limited to nursing. But even here, given the specifics of the profession, training is more mixed than remote: during the program, students undergo several internships, which can last weeks or even months. The place of clinical practice is chosen as close as possible to the student’s place of residence, but you need to be prepared for the fact that the usual online classes for some time will be replaced by full-time work.
• Healthcare. The increasingly popular specialty of Health Management / Healthcare Administration is the business administration of medical facilities. Organizing online training here is easier than for medical practitioners. Nevertheless, students also have an offline internship at a medical center or laboratory.
• Social Work. Practical experience in the field of social work is one of the primary requirements for learning online. Therefore, in addition to remote learning, as part of the educational process, students are expected to work in accredited social services.
• Education / Teaching. You can get a degree in teaching 100% online, in other cases, you must complete the practice under the supervision of professionals. However, even if there is no such requirement in the program, at the end of training, depending on the country and city, teachers usually need to undergo an internship to obtain a license.

The process of admission to online programs

Admission to online programs of foreign universities is almost no different from admission to full-time programs. At the application stage, it is required to provide documents in the form of scans, then send them by mail (if necessary). As a rule, the list includes:

• Certificate of previous education;
• Letters of recommendation from teachers or employers;
• Motivation letter;
• Language certificate (for example, TOEFL, IELTS, TestDaF, etc.) and standardized tests (ACT / SAT, GRE , etc.).

However, not all universities (mainly European) accept documents digitally. In some cases (Belgium, Italy, Spain) apostilization and notarized translation of documents is required, the preparation of which may take about 2 months without taking into account the time for sending them from your country.

Some areas of study require the student to be temporarily present on campus or at the place of employment, which may be difficult for international students. If in addition, upon completion of online courses, a license is required (for example, for physicians and lawyers in the USA), access to such programs may be closed to foreign citizens, especially from those countries for which there are sanctions. It is necessary to check the requirements and restrictions on the websites of universities and ministries of education.

Duration of online programs may vary from 3 to 8 years at the bachelor's level and from 1.5 to 5 years at the master’s level, depending on the specialty, the progress of studies, and the presence of full-time study periods.

Some programs involve financial assistance, but it should be noted that the competition for scholarships and grants is quite serious.

How is online education at the university organized?

The choice of distance learning programs, which are often called online degrees, is quite wide. There are even entire universities specializing in online education.

The main differences between full-time, part-time, and online programs are as follows:

Distance learning technologies: online classes and assessment

In the process of online learning, all interaction between students and teachers is organized using the Internet:

• Most of the time the student learns from the materials and lectures (text or video) using his personal account, studying specialized literature;
• A student can ask any questions that arise during the training process directly to professors through correspondence via mail or in specially created chats;
• Homework is also sent via email or uploaded to a special system;
• For the preparation of group projects, various virtual boards/spaces, discussions, programs with shared online access are used;
• Online lectures, seminars, and practical classes are held through Zoom, Google Hangouts, Skype, Microsoft Teams, and other similar video conferencing services.

Like in full-time programs, online ones also have exams and tests, project evaluations, practical and independent work. Midterm assessment is often held in the form of interactive testing, for final examinations personal presence may be required.

Recently, the control of knowledge by means of proctoring is gaining popularity. It is a system that allows you to observe honesty during the exam or a test online. The identity of the test person is verified using a webcam, which then continues to record the entire process. At the same time, a special program on the computer is recording the screen.

The role of a proctor (observer) can be performed by a person (full-time proctoring) or a computer (cyber proctoring). In the latter case, the computer system independently recognizes the suspicious or "undesirable" actions of the person taking the test. A combination of two methods is also possible — mixed proctoring: the program records violations and reports them to the human proctor. The examiner then looks at the notes and makes a decision on whether the exam order has actually been violated. Tasks themselves, as a rule, are checked separately, with the exception of those tests, according to the results of which the score is set automatically.

Getting a diploma of online programs

Given that online education is still in a period of creating its standards, the effectiveness of the developed courses and methods has not yet been tested by time. The confidence of employers in online degrees can be low, especially if this is the first and only degree obtained by the applicant.

To avoid unnecessary doubts, it is necessary to check in advance whether the institution of higher education is accredited. In this case, a student, as a rule, receives a degree, which is almost no different from a degree issued to full-time students. Often, it indicates the part-time form of study, so that the value of the diploma does not suffer in any way. The employer may not even know at all that the student studied part of the material himself in an online format.

Obviously, with the growing popularity of online education, the number of specialized online universities will increase. For now, prestigious educational institutions are rapidly opening new online programs, and the quality of existing ones is constantly improving. Thus, confidence in the labor market is growing. After all, a diploma is far from the only factor that an employer considers when selecting employees.

Platforms of online courses

Many leading universities launch online platforms with the help of which everyone can get access to video lectures of the best professors and unique advanced training courses. We collected the best university and independent portals and described them in detail in a separate article.