Are You Learning on Empty?
Posted on June 16, 2008 by Jennifer Brady
Ray Schroeder, Professor Emeritus and Director of the Office of Technology Enhanced Learning at the University of Illinois at Springfield probably puts it most succinctly in a recent post on the Online Learning Update: Want to know the great thing about the Internet? It doesn’t run on gas. That’s what commuting students increasingly are considering as online registration at university and community colleges rises while gas prices soar.
Is this true for you? If you’re currently commuting to and from college, have rising energy prices given you another reason to consider the online alternative? Or, if you’re currently an online student, has gasoline at $4.00-plus a gallon made you feel even better about your choice?
Traditional, full-time, on-campus students probably have the biggest reason to celebrate their relative immunity from high gas prices since when it comes to motoring from here to there most of that is done the old-fashioned way: pedal power and walking. But what about you? Will you be more inclined to ‘go online’ if fuel prices continue to rise?
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- Are You Learning on Empty: Parts II, III, & IV…
- Today’s ‘Driving Factors’ in Online Education
- An Independent 3rd Party Review of Online Courses from UMass
- Distance Learning and the Greening of Our Planet
- Comparing Online to Traditional College Tuition Costs
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Runnin’ on empty is the old Jackson Browne song we sang when our two engine cargo plane was doing its best to get us south of the arctic circle.
Some of our students are running on empty as they drive forty or fifty miles to get to classes on campus. Needless to say, most don’t own a Prius.
I had a student who was a mom, worked at a small newspaper, took a class on campus and one distance learning class. Each experience probably made her a stronger, better person. She had the grit to make it as a journalist and I sometimes felt like our course helped her compress time and space. She earned an online certificate and a bachelor’s degree with her residential class — even though she didn’t know any of them.
She did, however, know all of her online classmates and we felt good to know that she did well in traditional classes and online. She said that both experiences contributed to her degree.
Would she have been able to get to campus twice a week for classes if gas were $5 a gallon? How about $6? I’m proud that our online classes are proving themselves in yet another important way.
When the cars are running on empty, my online students will be able to listen to Jackson Browne on iTunes, and make it to a safe port, just as my aircrew managed runnin’ on empty.
Go UMass…Online
Here at UMB, we are seeing more applicants who live locally apply to the online program instead of the face to face.
Not only do they save on gas, but they save on our 6.00 a day parking fee and some save on tolls.
Distance learning is becoming a truly “green” activity. Students may work from home and as has been pointed out, save gas and parking money. But, anyone with children can tell you that the amount of time spent commuting to school is expensive. Time is, literally, money.
I’m not sure how much energy we save, but teaching online has many hidden virtues.
Still, it would be nice to meet everyone at a big, round table sharing hot drinks and discussing a class…
While it is impossible to disagree with Ray’s article or the comments on it here, one must keep in mind the complexity of what it means to be green. While no driving is involved to get to campus, new online students may be purchasing computers - which not only take energy to make but have components that live longer than many humans. And printers. And bigger houses to have a quiet place to work. Or barring that, drive to the local Starbucks - if there still is one - to work without interruptions. Which isn’t to say that gas is cheap but that this being green is not a black or white issue.
[…] on the related topics of distance learning and the green movement back on January 28th and soaring gasoline prices on June 16th. Please note that UMassOnline is not attempting to capitalize on a trend that is […]