Rural Students: Online Distance Learning Degree
Finding a suitable job along with educational opportunities has been a long time problem for the rural students. A rural setting fails to provide the necessary infrastructure required for a decent educational background. This is the main reason why most of the children in rural area end up in the agricultural sector when they grow up. The students who are good in studies reach the high schools but do not go beyond that.
Ambitious students move out of their small towns in search of job opportunities and higher educational degrees. Demographic experts have termed this trend as ‘out-migration . However, it is good news that the trend is now slowly changing. Rural students are getting opportunities to study within their town. This is particularly good news for the students who do not have a strong financial background. Moving out of town and settling in a metropolitan city can prove an expensive affair.
Not many students can afford that plus it also means staying away from your family for a long time. Today, all these worries have got removed with the advent of an online distance learning degree. Now the students can learn anything; even a PhD degree is possible through a university by distance.
Therefore, it can be said that online education is kind of a revolution in the rural sector. Students in the country side can select their degrees with just a mouse click. They now get the opportunity to learn the subjects in which they are interested, and thereby they increase their chances of employment prospects.
Since online degrees are well accepted in the professional world, students get a sense of assurance while studying their courses. However, there are some problems as well. First of all, computer literacy is still not very high in the rural areas. The absence of proper computer training centers is the main reason behind it. The one or two centers that exist, lack in facilities and have a poor structure. There are not many learned faculties in the centers as well.
Moreover, cyber cafes hardly exist in a village or small town. Therefore, the scope of practicing is also limited. These factors definitely come in the way of attaining an online distance learning degree within a rural set up.
Another challenging factor is the absence of broadband access. This can certainly prove as a big blow to a student s dream. Though broadband nowadays is trying to penetrate all market segments, still they are not adequate for fulfilling everyone s needs.
The infrastructure is missing for converting a dial-up connection into a high-speed broadband link. The efforts so far been made in this area is also very depressing. The presence of these factors certainly poses a threat to the university by distance.
If these problems are taken care of, online courses in the rural parts have a very bright future. The best thing with these courses is their cost; they are about forty percent less from the regular university courses. Thus distance learning degree, if offered by a reputed university, can be immense help.
