Online courses are exploding, and with it there are many arising issues. Transition from onsite to online education is a natural trend in education in the 21st century and beyond. Tim-Berners Lee once said that the Internet would bring about a cultural revolution. This has already happened in education.
A challenge to the concept of nation-state boundaries: There is no longer physical national boundaries in education. This is a unique characteristic and a strength of online learning. The mobilization capacity of online education is huge. This is especially true for humanities and social, political sciences.
Quality of learning and training (the Depth of Education): There is a difference between learning by doing (application/practice/procedural) and acquiring knowledge (theoretical), but that does not slow down the online learning movement. How the instructor uses this method/mode of information delivery is more important than the mode itself. The focus of learning is always the learner, and his/her learning goal. The learner must know what s/he wants out of the course.
Quantity of learning and training (the Breadth of Education): This depends on the discipline, and the individual learner's goal and ability of self-motivation and monitoring. Online learning has boundless capacity and no boundaries. It is the structure of the course by the specific instructor, and the individual learner's critical thinking and judgment that matter.
Social, interaction, and relationship aspects: When the community shares one common interest and goal, which is life-long learning and training, it is naturally exciting and highly efficient for learners to get fully engaged and actively participate in the discussion forum. Such an educational social network is usually wholesome and inspiring. Participants learn from one another, and share different perspectives on important issues, locally as well as globally.
In the beginning there are usually unpredictable and fuzzy areas. But one thing is clear: open course ware and online learning is an unavoidable trend.
