Online Vs. Traditional Education

Is Online the New Traditional?

Education is truly a hallmark of human society. It has been made an intricate and core piece of man’s intellectual development because it acts as a catalyst for a child becoming an adult so that they can be productive members of society. Whether this is from learning a trade or skill or gaining an abundance of intellectual property through meticulous instruction, education is seen as a way for anyone, poor or rich, to escape their present, and at times relegated, socioeconomic status. It is the tool used to gain a stake in this game one calls life. However, 1`education for many has always had to take a back seat to the demands of the day to day expenditures of life. Instead of school, many have not been afforded the luxury of being able to attend school because they have to work. Time and cost are the major dilemmas for students who have to financially support themselves and possibly others. What is a solution? One has been the inclusion of online classes to the roster of higher educational institutions. Yet like any system, online classes do have their pros and cons when it comes to helping a student obtain their respective degrees while having a job.

The degrees and diplomas earned by and individual affirms their knowledge in a particular field that grants them seniority over those that may have the same knowledge yet have not earned the credentials to attest to that knowledge. Education means higher pay and better jobs. However, higher education in the United States over the past 20 years has not only become time consuming, but also very expensive. In Georgia alone, the average price of in-state tuition and fees for public four-year institutions has doubled (The College Board, “Tuition and Fees by Sector and State Overtime”). It is hard for individuals to work and obtain a higher education at the same time. It is for this dilemma that many educational institutions have adopted an online system allowing students to move from a traditional setting to a technological one. This helps the student taking advantage of this opportunity to have more control over their time, specifically when it comes to working a job.

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The increased likelihood of being enrolled online is becoming a major trend as it pertains to higher education. Since 2014, nationwide the proportion of undergraduate students enrolled in online classes has risen from 27.1 percent to 30 percent in 2016. In that same time, the proportion of graduate students enrolled at least partially online has grown from 32.5 percent to 36.6 percent. These numbers show there is a drastic need for online educational programs because a large percentage of students, over 30 percent, are utilizing this 21st century practice (Erstad, Online vs. Traditional Education: What You Need to Know). Furthermore, one can see how online enrollment rates can be a reflection of students needing to work while they are in school. The percentages on both undergraduate and graduate levels are roughly the same, however it is easy to see that there is slightly a higher demand to work on the graduate level than it is on the undergraduate level, which makes common sense. While higher education for two, four, or ten years allows the student to obtain a better future, the demands of the present still exist and persists. On the contrary, for the true value of online enrollment to be realized it is imperative for the pros and cons of this system, as it pertains to the student, to be weighed and counted.

When a student has to decide whether they will take the traditional or non-traditional approach to schooling, there are a lot of factors that go into their decision making, one those factors being having extracurricular activities such as a job. This is the main problem handled by taking online classes because of this education being flexible (American InterContinental University). Time is the most valuable asset you have, so the flexible schedule of online learning can work naturally with your lifestyle. Instead of traveling to campus, you can spend more time learning in the comfort of your own home. Fitting in coursework and study time is up to you, which is ideal when for many (MyCollege.org). Another key advantage of taking online classes is its releviations of distractions. Having physical classmates is good, however they can be a hindrance to many, especially if someone has a job and already has problems dealing with their coworkers. Adding more people to their life may not be the best choice so this is why online classes allow the student to be fully engaged without outside influences misleading them.

In addition to time and physical influences, another reason why online classes are conducive for a working student is allows them to stay in a place they may have deep ties to. For example, if a student cannot move because of family, work, and other obligations, and their local college and/or university does not offer the program they are interested in, online classes allows them to access other avenues of education that do offer the classes needed for their future careers (Purdue University, “Classroom vs. Online Education: Which One Is Right For You?”). In addition, online programs make it easier for students to network with each other because they are all connected through one forum, which would be the program’s online website and resources. When choosing the traditional approach to education, most students will not meet and network on campus because their schedules and social circles will simply not allow it to be so. Online classes make the student communities more personal and more accessible to networking while still juggling other day to day responsibilities.

Education is one of the keys to success in today’s day and age, however life still goes on with or without it. Before making the decision to either take online or traditional classes, one has to see and evaluate their own lifestyles so that they can make the right choice. Certain questions will help. Questions such as: “Do I like group settings” or “Do I work better if I’m physically engaged with the instructor” (Atlanta Technical College, “Frequently Asked Questions.”)?

No matter where you are, from Atlanta to Los Angeles, students must know themselves and their own abilities before making this decision. Online classes are amazing, but only with self discipline. Traditional colleges and universities instill a sense of discipline with the rules and procedures that encompass and lead a specific institution. Online classes strip this away because now it is the rules and values that you govern your own self by and your household that hold the ultimate weight in your education. You must find it in yourself the motivation and inspiration to continue, not matter the obstacles and current obligations.      

The Positive And Negative Effects Of Globalization

An analysis on the effects of the positive and negative effects of globalization within the development of a one world market combination of global economic personality.

Globalization is defined as the process by which geographic boundaries have been transcended by increased technical progress. It is the development of a one world market place, or worldwide economic ecosystem governed by the interconnectivity of individual component economic units. Globalization is a set of processes, rather than an end situation representing the unrelenting erosion of all barriers to free trade, increasing worldwide economic integration.

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Business expansion through internationalization is a positively correlated function of globalization. Globalization has created a singular, unified worldwide economic collective, operating as a dynamic composite personality, permeating all market verticals, industry sectors and political covenants. The operational landscape created as a globalization collective side effect, has facilitated numerous undisputed benefits to all market participants, including the emancipation of women, increased routes to market for business, lowered production costs, bettered supply chain networks, and a deeper global labor pool. The process of globalization through all methods has resulted in a more liberated free market economic archetype.

The creation of the Internet in the early 1990’s and the technological progress has facilitated a convergence of competitive advantages. Businesses have increased access to a more educated, culturally diverse talent pool, allowing for and assisting in the development of sustainable competitive advantage. Supply chain networks that transcend tradition geographic boundaries have lowered the costs of production, improving the organizational bottom line. Improved profits through cost saving has produced a shift in the demand curve for labor. Standardized product offerings thorough certified global manufacturing methodologies have afforded the consumer the luxury of being able to take quality for granted. As the world becomes smaller with easier access to information, substantial improvements in education and healthcare have been possible; originally thought incurable diseases now have therapy lowering infant mortality rates and improving life expectancies. Between 1950 the worldwide infant mortality rate was 174 deaths per 1000, in 1990 this figure had fallen to 64 deaths per 1000.

Also once culturally suppressive states are now accepting the possibility of women in the workforce by limiting the economic participants available in their respective economies; a said country will lower its ability to compete against more gender accommodating and accepting countries. Globalization has fundamentally altered the way organizations compete, the way they market, and their value propositions. Businesses are no longer defining strategy with a local bias, but are competing within a global business ecosystem, where decisions can only be made by understanding all of the inputs and outputs of that system. Businesses can no longer operate as independent components of an economic collective but rather act as interrelated component parts of an overall system. Open markets are the best engine for improving living standards and building shared collective prosperity. Only countries that remove the shackles to free trade, capital movement, and international competition will realize socioeconomic progress.

While weighing the benefits of continuous globalization, it is evident that for every positive there is often a negative. Some economists argue that globalization has a debilitating effect on emerging markets and infantile industry. The interconnectivity of rich and poor nations is a zero sum game, that exists outside the framework of pareto criterion. It is not possible for one economic unit (country) to benefit without making another economic entity worse off. Someone has to win and someone has to lose.

It is still however acceptable and beneficial if the alternative of not engaging in trade is less savory than the loss that any such trade would incur. It is clear that there are significant in-equity problems as a result of globalization. It is argued that globalization has increased sovereign wealth income inequalities with continual divergence resulting in more polarization of incomes worldwide. Greater access to labor markets has on one hand facilitated increased employment, and on the other hand the excess supply has created a producer sovereign labor market and lowered global wage rates. Lower disposable income (particularly in emerging economies), lowers aggregate demand within the national economy.

The lowered demand for internal labor as a result of decreased money supply is the precursor to a vicious cycle of unemployment due to cyclical demand. This means that rather than leveraging the opportunities created by the fruits of globalization, poorer nations are struggling with internal economic strife, and falling even further behind their Western counterparts. The second cost of globalization stems from the resource and economic interdependencies that it creates. When economies and the businesses within those economies are so closely linked and correlated, there is a systemic risk to the whole economic ecosystem . If one of the parts of that system were to fail, there would be a domino effect knocking over all other elements of that system. This is evidenced in the collapse of the housing market in the United States in late 2007.

As financial institutions began to falter in the US as a result of complex structured products, the problems inevitably began to spread to firms in Europe and the United Kingdom. The sheer density and number of unknown correlations between firms meant that no one organization had a complete picture of its exposure to it counterparties. This lack of knowledge prevented firms from being able to implement any risk mitigating strategies and was the ultimate cause of the failure of Lehman Brothers, a century old Wall Street investment banking giant. Lehman Brothers International as an organization built itself on the foundation laid by economic globalization. They went from a scrappy tier two investment bank with seventeen billion dollars of revenue in 2003 to fifty seven billion dollars in 2007. As the financial services world joined hands in holy matrimony in early 1990’s, agreeing to ever more lenient repurchase financing terms for fellow members, the church bells were ringing marking the beginning of the end.

Complex financial alchemy was used to develop highly structured, highly profitable instruments of speculation with Lehman Brothers . Easier access to overseas markets and clientele created by globalization had allowed the firm on offer its services on an ever widening foreign audience. Lehman Brothers continued to create and sell financial derivatives. When the market began to sink in 2007, Lehman Brothers immediately found itself in an unfamiliar situation. Not only were US markets falling, but it seemed that world markets were acting in unison and collapsing together. Lehman Brothers as a function of globalization experienced a black swan event, an event so statistically implausible that it was unlikely to happen in a million years.

A harsh lesson on the black swan principal, “ The observation of one thousand white swans is not enough to infer that all swans are white, but the sighting of a single black swan is enough to refute the conclusion” A worldwide recession as experienced in 2010 caused partly by globalization could result in a desire by government and market participants to break the economic bonds built by the globalization process. This was observed in the Great Depression of the 1930s. The severe result which is severe economic dissatisfaction, followed by economic disagreement climaxes into economic warfare and possibly to military conflict. It is seen that globalization is allowing foreign powers (in the form of external political influencers as well as Multi National Corporations) to govern the resources of a nation as they see most beneficial to their own motivations.

The fundamental aim and goal of this research essay was to discuss the positive and negative effects of globalization and the effect that they have on the business playing field. Whether globalization by opinion is viewed as negative or an inherently positive force for continued economic progress, it is unmistakable that it produces massive opportunities and frightening challenges. Globalization can act in favor or not in favor of an economy depending on the situation, but it definitely impacts all economies. It must also be accepted that the combination of variables, known and unknown, that has lead society to a globalised one world economic system are still abundantly active. The trend is still bullish and is likely to accelerate with economic resources diminishing, increasing technical progress happening daily, and barriers to progress falling as fast.

Thus, we see that there is a strong connection between globalization and the development or non-development of a country. In a situation where the economies of different countries are highly correlated to each other, it is important for the countries to work according to the international scenario. Different countries adopt different policies but in the case of globalization, it is often observed that the policies of one economy are adjusted slightly in order to make them align the policies of other economies . In conclusion, globalization is a journey to be embraced rather than feared. It is the key that will remove the chains of impoverishment from third world economic powers, and it is the lock that will bind a composite global economic collective into achieving sustainable socioeconomic progress.  

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