The traditional education idea has transformed significantly within the past several years. In-person education is not the only option today due to the emergence of new technologies and the internet. Students today can learn online from any location. Educators and learning institutions are now facing a new period of the online education revolution. While educators are skeptical about online education, many students today gain from online learning.
In the article, Future of The College is Online , Taparia argues that colleges should adopt online learning because traditional in-person education is costly and online education has long term benefits. The article also presents potential challenges when adopting online education.
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The conventional in-person education in colleges is expensive. In talking about the increasing costs of college education, the author uses emotional appeals to persuade the audience. For instance, the author discusses how college fees in the U.S. today are very high compared to four decades ago. College costs are now two and a half times more expensive, which is unaffordable for families with low income. Higher education institutions have benefited from higher tuition fees by attracting students from wealthy families, both locally and globally, who pay full fees to acquire education. The Covid-19 pandemic has, however, adversely affected the in-person education model as local students have deferred enrollment and international students have not registered. Besides, the pandemic has led to mass unemployment. The effect of this is that institutions now lack any source of income, which has forced most of them to cut salaries, forego hiring, and reduce their spending to manage the negative effects. The situation has also compelled institutions to shift to online learning hurriedly without preparations. Previously, institutions considered online learning less seriously.
It is, nevertheless, possible to address the issues of costly tuition and the negative effects of the pandemic by embracing online learning strategically to expand access to education while lowering fees (Taparia). The author supports his arguments further by offering examples of institutions that have implemented online learning programs including the University of Illinois and Georgia Tech. These institutions have been able to attract large numbers of students by charging fewer fees than required for regular in-person courses. They have benefited through additional sources of income and appealing to many students. Higher education institutions can use lessons from these institutions when implementing their online learning programs. They can initiate their online education programs by developing parallel courses for their core courses.
Online education also offers long term benefits to Universities. Taparia demonstrates the benefit of online education to persuade the audience through ethical appeals. He first notes the challenges that institutions would encounter when attempting to fully implement online learning such major changes that may require the introduction of new technologies, training of staff and the need to develop content production competencies. The author then demonstrates how universities can overcome these challenges, such as through producing theory-based content in advance before delivering it asynchronously. According to Taparia, once universities have established the program, they can use it for longer for both online and in-person programs. The implementation of online learning will benefit institutions through reaching many students and allowing lecturers to prepare to face numerous live interactions. Universities will then create economies of scale, which will significantly contribute to the reduction of tuition costs. Additionally, institutions will increase their pedagogical practices through the assistance of their staff. Taparia persuades the audience further by offering existing examples of online lessons in Biology such as Eric Lander and M.I.T online classes for biology, which have thousands of students. The author also notes the importance of being careful before fully implementing the online learning model to avoid failure. Taparia states that since online learning is attractive and less costly, the financial gains of the program may lure Universities into adopting the program hastily. The effect of this is that the institutions may fail to focus on ensuring the effectiveness of the program, which may be detrimental in the long term.
In conclusion, Taparia effectively discusses the reasons why Universities should adopt online education and the long term benefits of online learning. He uses examples, emotional appeals, and ethical appeals to persuade the audience. He, nevertheless, focuses more on the online domain without considering the benefits of in-person education. While his rhetoric attempts to explain why most higher education institutions are concerned with shifting to online learning, the arguments only aim to support views regarding the importance of online learning. The failure to present arguments about the value of in-person learning compared to online-learning weakens the presented arguments.
Work Cited
Taparia, Hans. The Future of College Is Online . New York: The New York Times Company, 2020. PDF. June 5, 2020.
