Nontraditional students interested in pursuing an online degree are getting some powerful attention these days. President Obama’s recent education policy proposes spending $500 million on improving the quality of online degrees while making them more affordable and in some cases, free.

What to Expect: Online Education Models

• Carnegie Mellon University’s Open Learning Initiative

Carnegie Mellon University has developed a library of online course material and software, designed by select faculty members and software engineers, using a variety of technologies that is openly available to professors and students around the world. For instance, 300 students could be enrolled in one class from different countries.

The way it works is that professors access the online course from Carnegie Mellon University. Students then receive the course materials online and learn the content on their own. Prior to class, students electronically communicate with the teacher, specifying where they need help. In turn, the teacher prepares class instruction based on the students’ needs.

Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative consists of a number of online, self-guided, open (free) courses in subjects ranging from French to Physics. The White House hopes to use this library as a model for open, online courses offered at the community college level.

This type of class is a form of blended learning where students receive both online and in-class instruction. Blended learning is considered a highly effective method of instruction, perhaps the most effective, and is becoming more common at colleges and universities.

• MIT’s Open CourseWare Project

Another online education model the White House is considering is the Open CourseWare project. The Open CourseWare project is the brainchild of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and involves a catalog of 1,900 online courses available for free publication. Each of these courses costs the school $10,000 to offer, making it difficult for community colleges to take advantage of. However, if the education policy goes into effect, community colleges will be given money from the government to develop similar courses.

• Allows students an opportunity to explore careers
• Acts as a warm-up and confidence booster for students nervous about returning to school
• Improves the number of students who stay enrolled in a degree program
• Reduces the cost of a degree
• Inspires different ways of giving credit
• Guarantees a high level of quality

Nontraditional Students Are Essential to the White House’s Goal to Educate America

The White House intends to have the highest number of college graduates in the world by the year 2020 - not an easy task. Some think in order to achieve that goal, nontraditional students must get on board and go back to college. By focusing on and investing in the country’s community colleges, the new education policy will reach the most people and the most hard to reach people, namely, nontraditional students.

Marshall S. Smith, senior counselor to the Secretary of Education says that “the opportunity to attract (nontraditional students) would be greatly enhanced by having a bunch of really good courses that they could work on in the evenings” so they could “try out the idea of getting course credit for them - and get hooked.”