Rhetorical Analysis: Online Education
Travis Buckley
College Writing II
061121 MWF 8am
10/12/2012
Education Goes Technological
Education has evolved immensely from its beginnings to present day. Previously, books were the only way of portraying information. This was then presented to the class via an instructor(It was the professors duty to educate the students on the content contained in those books). Over the past decade, however, technology has begun to interfere with how teaching works, in a positive way. Introduction of online classes has only appeared in the past 5 years or so( Online classes were introduced to the education system about 5 years ago and are growing in popularity), . With the quality of online classes progressing (improving) with each passing year, it has come to a point where it (they) can be compared to the traditional classroom setting. Typically, a student goes off to college and sits through an hour long lecture and takes notes and tests periodically. The introduction of online classes has begun (began) morphing this standard of teaching that college students have been accustomed to. Whether or not these online classes are considered useful tools to expand ones education has been on the forefront of debate for some time. The question is not if the online universities are working, but more or less if the quality of the information is preparing students for the world in equal fashion to what a face-to-face university represents.
To begin with, online classes can raise concern for attendance. Robert Mendenhall of Western Governors University addresses this by stating that although attendance can interfere with the quality of online courses, the important factor is if students can gain the knowledge they need to be successful through other means ( Mendenhall, 2). This statement can be interpreted by understanding what the “other means” could be. The statement by Mendenhall was directed towards large student, general education classes. Rather than going to every class, it
College Writing II
061121 MWF 8am
10/12/2012
Education Goes Technological
Education has evolved immensely from its beginnings to present day. Previously, books were the only way of portraying information. This was then presented to the class via an instructor(It was the professors duty to educate the students on the content contained in those books). Over the past decade, however, technology has begun to interfere with how teaching works, in a positive way. Introduction of online classes has only appeared in the past 5 years or so( Online classes were introduced to the education system about 5 years ago and are growing in popularity), . With the quality of online classes progressing (improving) with each passing year, it has come to a point where it (they) can be compared to the traditional classroom setting. Typically, a student goes off to college and sits through an hour long lecture and takes notes and tests periodically. The introduction of online classes has begun (began) morphing this standard of teaching that college students have been accustomed to. Whether or not these online classes are considered useful tools to expand ones education has been on the forefront of debate for some time. The question is not if the online universities are working, but more or less if the quality of the information is preparing students for the world in equal fashion to what a face-to-face university represents.
To begin with, online classes can raise concern for attendance. Robert Mendenhall of Western Governors University addresses this by stating that although attendance can interfere with the quality of online courses, the important factor is if students can gain the knowledge they need to be successful through other means ( Mendenhall, 2). This statement can be interpreted by understanding what the “other means” could be. The statement by Mendenhall was directed towards large student, general education classes. Rather than going to every class, it