The Internet these days is full of cat videos, DIYs and hilarious memes. But there’s some useful stuff… a very wonderful opportunity for the smart entrepreneur.
Education on the Internet has changed, mostly for the better. Things have changed – big time. Now, an online course can be comparable to a real-life educational experience. In fact, sometimes it can be even better.
Let’s say you didn’t go to college, or maybe like a lot of people you got a degree in one field of study and then figured out that you actually wanted to do something else. What, now? You probably asked yourself. In the past, you had two options:
Option 1: Go back to school and get your degree.
Option 2: Go and teach yourself by reading a lot of books.
Today, we have a third option: the Internet. The Web is exploding with legitimate online education opportunities that are literally changing people’s lives.
Here are five reasons why you should now take online education more seriously:
1. Online courses are less expensive.
For a fraction of the cost and sometimes for free, you can get a university-level learning experience taught by an expert.
2. Online courses are results- oriented.
3. Technology makes the experience of an online course more exciting.
Instead of attending a couple of 45-minute lectures per week, you'll now have worksheets, discussion forums and interactive presentation at your fingertips.
4. The classrooms are cooler.
You can attend class right in your living room -- whenever you want.
5. You get to keep the course.
In contrast to traditional education, where the only keepsakes you get are the overpriced textbook and big notebook full of illegible scribbles, many online courses let you keep a lot of the course material
Here's what to look for in a good online course:
Solid credentials: Has the teacher achieved the expertise he or she claims? In other words, if you’re taking a course on how to write books, is a published author teaching it? Or is the teacher at least someone with real-life experience in that industry? If other marks of legitimacy (i.e., licenses and such) are needed for what you want to learn, make sure the instructor has those, too.
Trustworthy testimonials: What do previous students say about the course? Find people who have gone through the class and will give you their honest opinion.
Discussion opportunities, One of the best parts of an online course is the opportunity to connect with other students who are going through the same experience as you (this is the best part of any educational experience). Does the course have a forum or Facebook group, a place to ask questions and get help from your peers?Good refund policy. Just as withcollege, there should be an initialperiod of time in which you havethe freedom to drop the class, if itisn’t what you’d hoped. A 30- to60-day money-back guarantee ispretty standard in the online business world, and you shouldn’ttake a course that doesn't offersomething similar.
Notice that I didn’t include price in thislist of criteria, and there’s a reason forthat. There is no set standard for what anonline course should cost. Many four-week courses are $200 to $500, but thenothers go on for six to 12 months andmay cost thousands of dollars. Itdepends on your field and what kind ofvalue you place on the information. Justknow that taking most any course onlineis typically going to be cheaper thanattending in person.
Think you could do better? Then,do it.
If you’ve ever taken an online course, youmay have noticed some skunks outthere.
One thing I noticed in my research is thatcertain classes I took weren’t worth themoney.
There was a lot of hype at thefront end, but when it came to the classitself, the quality was sub-par. Thisdisappointed and frustrated me. Itseemed like some people were using theirmarketing savvy to take advantage ofpeople who really wanted to learn. I kept saying to myself, “I could do better.”So one day, I did.
If you find yourself saying the samething, maybe you should "do better," too.
Because it’s not enough to simply saythings should be better. Sometimes, wehave to be the change we want to see in the world (someone wise already saidthat, I think). Sometimes, our deepestfrustrations are a sign of the problems we ought to be solving.
So, if you have something the world needs, some knowledge that can helpother people, you have a responsibility to share it.
And it just so happens that that can be a very profitable venture these days..
Sent in by a facilitator of DRF.
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