Thursday, October 25, 2012

Advantages of Online Education

Online education is defined as learning, training, degree program or credit-granting course, which is mainly delivered via the Internet or an Intranet. It is a method of redefining the method of study where people can educate themselves without boundaries of timing, attendance and travel difficulties. In online courses, the students and teachers can meet once or periodically in a physical setting for lectures, labs and exams. Overall, online education gives more emphasis on global interaction and the concept of latest knowledge expansion.

Advantages of Online Education

For online education, one needs a standard personal computer with an Internet connection. Many people with family and job responsibilities don't have time to attend the regular classroom studies and find online education beneficial. Online education includes many online courses and online degrees. Let's discuss some of the advantages of online education.

People can opt for many online courses, in universities where the facility of online education is available. It is very helpful for students residing in remote places. One can study any course of his/her own choice offered by universities around the world, without the physical presence for that course. There is no need for relocation and hence, is cost saving.

Physically handicapped students can go for higher studies without worrying about traveling or being physically present for studies. Also, one can continue education at any stage and update himself with the latest knowledge through online education.

At present, many of the online universities are accredited by recognized educational bodies. Hence, the degrees offered by these universities are accepted all over the world and one can enroll in a top university within the comfort of home.

If somebody is looking for additional training for a better career prospect or promotion, then online education is the best option. It is the most convenient and flexible way of learning and updating one's knowledge without disturbing the current job.

People can study at their own pace without any strict regulations; there are no class schedule and fixed timings and assignments. Only the quality of work is evaluated, not the speed or the appearance of the student. Even, people can interact online and discuss with the students, scholars, researchers, subject-matter experts and professors for any type of query or problems.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Which Undergraduate Classes Should I Take Before Law School?

So you want to get into law school. This is becoming an increasingly larger goal for ambitious young people, since a career in law offers respect, affluence, and stability. In the post-recession period, with the economy yet to recover completely, there are many aspiring students hoping to land an amazing career as a prominent lawyer. However, entering a prestigious institution is tremendously difficult. Schools look for students who can think critically, apply logic, analyze complicated situations and articulate their thoughts clearly and concisely. The logical thing to do as an undergraduate, then, would be to figure out exactly what undergraduate courses law schools like to see.

You may be racking your brain trying to figure out that answer. Take a breath; the truth is there are no specific courses that you have to take. Not exactly. There's no specific course that can "prepare" you for law school. In fact, while it is true that some courses might help an applicant to develop analytical thinking skills and other cognitive abilities that will definitely help on your LSAT and law school application, no graduate school mentions any specific academic background as an entry requirement. Usually a class at law school is quite heterogeneous, comprising of students from diverse academic backgrounds. Law schools usually prefer to have a multidimensional aspect in the class, especially apparent today as law becomes increasingly integrated within multiple dimensions of our daily lives.

However, that's not to say that you should coast through your undergraduate career taking classes like "The Living and Undead: An Inquiry into Zombies in Cinema and Literature". Even though that does sound kind of cool.

The main thing a law school will judge in your application is the way you challenged yourself. Learning from any course can be applicable to your law education. For example, if you have taken mechanics courses, that experience might help you to understand construction defect disputes better. So, one of the best ways of preparing yourself for law school during your undergraduate years is to really learn from whatever course you take. In depth knowledge on any course will benefit you in the long run.

Having said all that, there are some points you can consider about your undergraduate courses.

Thing To Keep In Mind When Applying To Law School

Law Schools expect at least a basic understanding of the United States Government, politics, and history. Though they aren't required, taking courses United States and World History, Government, Economics, and Political Science.

Courses in Debate, Public Speaking, English, Philosophy, Logic, and Literature will allow you to enhance your abilities in writing, thinking, and public speaking. Law schools like this, so consider enrolling in a few of these undergraduate courses.

Critical thinking and analysis are two skills that will serve you well in law school. Taking undergraduate classes in sociology, psychology, criminology, and even religion before applying to law school may help you a great deal.

You should go for those courses that are likely to challenge your cognitive and analytical capacities. Also, it is better to get used to a significant amount of writing and reading since you have to do a lot of that in Law school.

Whatever courses you take, try to apply your analytical and problem-solving abilities to address the subject matter.

You probably won't even have a choice with this one: get used to writing essay exams during your undergraduate years. Essay exams are the most common way to evaluate law students. That's why it is better to avoid courses during your undergraduate studies that mainly depend on multiple choice questions.

In short, the whole point is to push yourself forward to handle academically rigorous courses. If you perform exceptionally on those courses, that might give you an edge because law schools tend to evaluate applicants who attended and excelled in advance level courses a bit more favorably than applicants who focused on easier courses. Having said that, don't just go for the tough classes; it would be a serious blunder to choose a course outside of your interest just because it is hard and you believe it to give you advantage in your law school application.

Nevertheless, these advanced level courses can be categorized in three groups. As mentioned earlier, they will not give you any direct advantage for law school admission but may help you acquire some skills necessary for the study of law.

Courses That Help Students Build Useful Skills For Law School

Besides analytical and problem-solving skills, there are some other abilities that an aspiring law student may consider developing during the undergraduate years. These skills include public speaking, familiarity with Latin, and an understanding of accounting and financial principles.

Courses That Help Students Develop Skills On Substantive Areas Of Law

There are some other undergraduate courses that cover substantive areas of law and the legal system. For example, courses on Ethics help a student to clarify his ideas about the moral basis of law. In a similar way, courses covering the Constitution and Federal taxation system contribute to the development of a student's skills in areas relevant to many cases faced in court.

Courses That Familiarize Students With Legal System

There is another set of courses that familiarize the student directly with the legal system, legal problems and the social aspects of law. Business law, advertisement law, Constitutional law - all these courses introduce different aspects of law and legal systems to the student. Hence, these courses can help them to have a more sophisticated understanding about how law works in a practical context. Taking these courses can improve the quality of one's law school application because having completed these courses successfully, the applicant will likely have a more fundamental understanding of law.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Advantages Of Online Learning

The world wide web is growing at a crazy pace, and the number of youngsters hooked to it is also increasing. Taking this into account, many educational institutes are now providing online learning options. There are many online colleges and universities that are dedicated to online learning. All you need to get a degree is a computer, an Internet connection, the willingness to learn, and cash to pay the fees. There are some websites giving free tutorials too, but if you want a proper degree you will have opt for the paid options. As in any other system of education, there are some flaws and some benefits of online learning too. Currently we are focusing on the many advantages that online learning has, in the following article.

Advantages of e-Learning

You may be surprised to know that there are quite a few benefits of online learning. The following paragraphs will tell you about how learning with the help of the Internet can help people, in spite of there being no one to physically monitor you.

Convenience
The only requirements for taking an online course are a computer and Internet access. You also do not have to commute to the college campus and so the necessity of living near the campus is out of question. The online course is delivered mainly in the form of lecture videos and webinars. So you can take the course more thoroughly by viewing the videos as many times as you want.

Economical
The online education options are far more economical than courses that require you to attend college everyday. This is because the transportation cost to you and the infrastructure cost to the college is eliminated completely. Also, the best teachers that the college cannot afford to employ full-time, can be hired for a limited amount of time. As the cost is only one time, colleges can afford it.

Self-discipline
E-learning courses give you complete freedom to learn anytime from anywhere. This freedom will give you some lessons in self discipline and time management. The need to be self disciplined arises because when you are online along with the useful and informative things, there are also many distractions.

Learning through Games at your Pace
Online learning also gives you the option to learn through games and puzzles. There is wide number of online educational computer games available on the net. Moreover, most of these games are completely free of cost. They are entertaining along with being highly informative.

Earn and Learn
While attending a full-time college, students get hardly any time for anything else. But if you are taking an online course, then you can have the entire day at your disposal and you can do your studies at night or any other time. This is one of the best advantages of online education. It is a great way to learn for students who have no option but to earn and learn.

Prolonged Access to Course Material
Many times you will feel the need to brush up your knowledge of a certain subject, and online learning gives you the opportunity to do that. All the course material that you get as a part of your online course remains permanently with you, so you can revise any of the subjects any time you want.