Why Online Courses Can't Replace Higher Education

Online courses surround us everywhere: through distance training it is proposed to learn languages, marketing, programming, economics, management, copywriting, psychology, perhaps not to operate on people.

There are courses from authors and schools that have declared themselves experts, and there are more serious courses from the world's leading universities. But is it worth giving up on higher education, considering that all the necessary information can be learned in the courses?

At first glance, courses have several significant advantages:

1. Ability to study in your own schedule if there is a video recording of the course. You only need to hand over completed assignments on time.

2. The ability to study without leaving home or in any convenient place with Internet access.

3. The opportunity to take courses at several world-famous universities located in different countries, while paying a symbolic amount.

4. The ability to choose the most relevant course that meets the spirit of the times and is not out of date.

At the same time, the statistics are relentless: despite the high availability of courses, many drop them after the first lecture, and only about 4% reach the end of the course. The situation with free education is even worse: when there is no deterrent in the form of money spent on the purchase of the course, people drop out of school even earlier and / or do not complete the tasks.

Traditional higher education in domestic universities is often criticized for providing outdated knowledge, breeding corruption and forcing students to learn what they don't really need. However, at the moment, it is higher education that has more fundamental advantages than online courses.

1. The "crust" about education is evidence that you had the patience, perseverance and ingenuity to spend 5 years at the university and pass exams and tests. This means that you still learned something, did and practice.

2. Higher education is still a prerequisite for almost any employment in a well-paid job. Unless, instead of a "crust", you have a solid list of training programs in foreign universities and work experience in large companies.

3. If you get a job without higher education, then in the eyes of the employer you are yesterday's high school graduate who has not decided in life. And you are unlikely to convince him of the completed online course.

4. Higher education provides knowledge systematically. If you are trying to put together your own curriculum from online courses, then it is possible that you will miss something important or spend even more time (if you do not give up in the middle).

5. Higher education is harder to quit. A lot of bureaucracy is associated with this: to enter, leave, recover - all this takes a lot of time, effort and nerves. Accordingly, most students still find the strength to finish their studies to the logical finale.

6. Studying at the university gives free access to the library, which is very useful, since most of the scientific literature still cannot be found freely on the Internet.

What do we end up with? Definitely the next 10-15 years, higher education will continue to be the preferred option, and we can only hope that it will be reformed for the better. However, it is education at a university that can become a sure basis for additional education in the form of courses. After graduating from the university, you will have a better idea of ​​where you want to get more knowledge.

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