Online Learning in adult’s continuous education

This week I want to share some of my thoughts about the online learning in adult's continuous education. In the old time, I remember my Dad studied in a distance leaning program to complete his post-secondary education. Certainly, there is no internet at that time. Distance learners received his/her study materials in a package of mail to conduct self-study and to complete necessary exams. This was the old fashion way of distance learning to meet learner's convenience. After the existence of internet, an equal sign has place between the distance learning and the online learning. The old correspondence course has been replaced by the online learning course. Online MBA is one of the most popular adult education programs on this planet. However, online MBA has growing exponentially in the past few years, many educators and reputable institutions still have a receptive attitude on the online learning method. In Canada, only one university (Athabasca University - Online MBA) offers complete MBA course on the internet in total of 77 universities. On the counter part, in United States about 12-15 universities are offering the online MBA program. Unfortunately, I have found that none of these universities are accredited by Ivy League Universities. Obviously, none of the universities of Ivy League is offering online/distance MBA programs. As we can see in this phenomenon, North American universities are still being conservative toward the online education. I think MBA program has many values from the personal net working among students during the course. Personal networking in online education/online learning environment might not be perceived as substantial as traditional MBA program. Hopefully, through using the advancing new technology, online education could have closer community among online learners, for example using Google Doc and eportfolios.