Difference Between Traditional & Online Master's Degree Programs
Earning your master鈥檚 degree is a great idea for improving your career prospects, personal knowledge, self-satisfaction, and more. But how should you earn that master鈥檚 degree: online or in a traditional on-campus program? Before you decide, run through the pros and cons of both to make sure you鈥檙e choosing the option that best fits your lifestyle and learning style.
How you spend your time
When you鈥檙e a traditional master鈥檚 student, you鈥檒l probably split your time between campus and home. You鈥檒l walk, drive a vehicle, or ride your bike to campus where you鈥檒l attend your scheduled classes, stop by a professor鈥檚 office, and work certain hours for your assistantship. You may work on your coursework in the library or somewhere else on campus, and then go home at the end of the day to continue working from there.
As an online master鈥檚 degree student, you won鈥檛 spend your time commuting to campus. Maybe you鈥檒l have to make the walk across your room to your desk to start working on assignments, or maybe you鈥檒l work on them during the lunch hour at your office. You have flexibility to work and learn on your own time. Of course, you鈥檒l have to turn in your assignments on time and, on occasion, you鈥檒l participate in certain webinars or online lectures at a particular time. The added flexibility of an online student鈥檚 schedule makes it appealing for individuals who want to maintain full-time employment or have other family obligations to uphold while earning their degree.
But having that flexibility means you also have to be responsible for how you spend your time. You have to make your classes a priority. It鈥檚 imperative that you have strong time management skills in online master鈥檚 degree programs because you鈥攁nd only you鈥攃an make sure you鈥檙e staying on track.
How you interact with your professor
Regardless of whether you鈥檙e taking your classes online or on campus, you鈥檒l need to learn your professor鈥檚 teaching and communication styles. The learning curve for doing so may be a little bit steeper, especially if you haven鈥檛 taken a class online before.
Online, you鈥檒l be interacting with your professor in a different way than you may be accustomed. You contact your instructor and advisors via email and other forms of electronic communication like instant message, and you won鈥檛 necessarily get to have a face-to-face meeting unless you request to video-chat to discuss a difficult topic. Figuring out how they like to teach and provide feedback on assignments is a crucial part of being an online master鈥檚 degree student.
How you work in groups
When you鈥檙e working with a group in traditional master鈥檚 degree programs, you鈥檒l probably be physically together for at least part of your project, whether that鈥檚 in the classroom, a coffee shop, the library, or someone鈥檚 apartment. You鈥檒l bond with your classmates and maybe even become like a small family by the end of the semester.
In an online master鈥檚 degree program, just because you don鈥檛 see your classmates face-to-face doesn鈥檛 mean you are free from group projects. With online master鈥檚 degree programs, there is a different sense of community among classmates. Even though it鈥檚 online, you鈥檒l still collaborate with your classmates on projects and assignments. Keeping an open line of communication becomes even more important, as is learning how to use online collaboration software like Google documents. Your ability to facilitate quality shared work with a remote team will improve significantly鈥攖hat鈥檚 just one of many 21st-century job skills you will need to be competitive. To learn online, you will want to become comfortable with the aspects of virtual teaming, where some of the same principles of traditional group work apply.
What tools you have available
Luckily for students today, the technological tools, both software and hardware, available for online students are vast and help expand beyond the classroom learning experience without requiring you to be in an exact place at an exact time.
That said, you will need to be open to new types of technology and learning tools, whether that鈥檚 Google+ hangouts, Skype conference calls, online forums, or even Facebook groups. You will want to begin to view your mobile devices (phones, tablets, etc.) as classrooms with teaching and learning tools. The app store will become your tutor and your toolkit for delivering impressive assignments. You can use these tools to customize your learning experience, so take advantage of what鈥檚 available.
Does location matter?
Sometimes yes, but sometimes no. Not all online programs are offered in every state, so you do need to do your research before sending in your applications. And, if you're looking for programs outside your home state, you will have to consider the out-of-state versus in-state tuition costs. However, as an out-of-state student studying at UL 69传媒, you automatically receive an out-of-state tuition waiver and pay only the in-state costs.