Distance learning is an educational activity that can benefit adults who seek to upgrade themselves and get better opportunities in their career. This is a good option, because many of them are busy professionals who can attend standard multi-year classroom learning program. With distance learning, it is possible for them to pursue higher education and become much more competitive in the job market. Good positions often require people who don’t only have good experience, but also higher education. The Internet has allowed the distance learning to become much more successful. Before the Internet, distance learning was performed typically through a combination of mail, correspondence and occasional telephone calls. Now, people can get the freedom and flexibility, because the Internet has allowed for the actual virtual classroom, where instructors and students can gather digitally through the computers and mobile devices.
If adult students are already working full time, they can’t afford to lose their current occupation. In fact, their goal is to push themselves further up on the career ladder, not to abandon it. They higher position in career will bring improvement in their income and the quality of life of their families. Getting stuck at the same position for years could bring financial issues, because families tend to require better and better financial situation. Distance learning should allow adults to fit educational sessions into the busy lifestyles with various job and family-related activities. Even if these adults have enough time to spare, the local colleges may not have the courses or programs that they are relevant to their career. Travelling back and forth from campus to workplace can really be time consuming and inconvenient. These people will also find it difficult to meet their demanding family commitments.
These adults often have children or elderly parents that they need to look after, which further increase the life burden. Distance learning should allow them to stay with family members while being successful and effective in learning process. Some adults are also reluctant with the prospect of attending the class, with may cause potential social issues and conflicts, which could happen every time a group of people meet repeatedly. They will be able to learn new things at their own pace. Many adults have graduated decades ago and their monotonous work routines may already dull their learning capabilities. As a result, some of them could start as slow learners and in regular classrooms, they will find it difficult to keep up. Often, the whole class needs to slow down the pace, because the instructor wants to make sure that everyone has the same level of comprehension about specific topics.
Also, slow learners can benefit from the fact that digital classroom can be recorded and replayed. Any audio and video interactions between instructors and students can be captured using specific software and stored in local hard driver. It means that these recordings can become other valuable learning materials, besides the textbooks that are mailed to their address. It means students of distance learning sessions could potentially learn better than those in regular classrooms.
