Originally Posted by JesseQuinn

but that is the point, in the age of online those who are dedicated to their studies will find a way. I would have still done the work and learning I did if not physically present, and in some places with few options as Kane expressed it is go home or get in. then what if you or your folks can't send you abroad?

I live in Jamaica now and for good, the vast majority of students lack the option to even go on to high ed here. If they are lucky their folks can afford to send them to Florida, Miami or Toronto.

For the rest? no options.

'IRL' does have it's advantages. I got to experience a lecture by Paul Rusesabagina aka the real dude whom Don Cheadle played in Hotel Rwanda at my school

but if he did not do a lecture in my city and at my uni (if not my uni I would have snuck in), I would have had the cash to fly out to experience that if 'online education' had not been a joke at the time.

One of the coolest things I've ever experienced.

And peeps connect online for work all the time, whereas if you ignore a bullshit class and just show up for exams and to drop off a paper in a prof's inbox and you smoke the course and he gives a rec for you as a MA even though he knows you despise him. true story. he met me twice. first class and final exam. and gave me a rec for my application for my MA and believe me I did NOT ask him.

'home schooled' to the best of my knowledge is different; from the outside it seems often like parents are trying to shield their kids from the outside world and to the best of my understanding relates to non-uni (grade and high school) education.

Online higher ed need not be like that. It's all in how peeps shape it.