A Faster Internet Aids Online College Students
May 2nd, 2010 | by Natasa Bright |The Federal Communications Commission in March presented the U.S. Congress with a plan to expand access to broadband networks and speed up the Internet. This would be good news for students pursuing college degrees online, allowing them faster Internet access. This, coupled with new technologies, would allow school assignments to be delivered in even more creative, sophisticated ways.
The National Broadband Plan is required as part of a federal stimulus bill known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It’s reportedly intended in part to encourage online education and online education tools and to improve education connectivity.
The Internet is the biggest platform for commercial innovation and business success this country has seen, Congressman Rick Boucher of Virginia told CSPAN. A Strategy for American Innovation report, prepared by the National Economic Council’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, proposes the creation of online degree education where high quality subject expertise meets with the latest technological advancements.
The federal government over the next 10 years intends to invest as much as $500 million to create online college classes at community colleges that would be freely available to students to extend their learning opportunities and complete coursework, according to the American Innovation report. Colleges, universities, publications and others would be invited to compete in creating state-of-the-art online courses, the report notes.
Many students already take part in online school programs, access a wide range of online databases and connect with scholars throughout the world, according to broadband plan news release. But while reports show that students in online college programs do at least as well academically as students in traditional college classes do, a pilot program at one university suggested completing online school work might take more time.
The Internet can be accessed via wireless services, dialup and high speed DSL services offered by telephone companies and by broadband services with wireless and satellite options. Broadband service, with content carried through what the FCC calls a transmission “pipeline”, provides quality access to streaming media, Internet telephone services, games and interactive offerings, according to the FCC’s broadband Web site. More people also want to move toward HD video, Boucher noted. Local telephone carriers have been expanding their fiber-optic networks to accommodate DSL and would continue to receive federal funding until broadband becomes more widely available and even telephone service is carried through the Internet, Boucher said.
President Barack Obama has expressed a desire to make higher education more accessible, and he recently signed an education bill into law that provides more tuition assistance to students pursuing masters degrees online. For students with work and family responsibilities, higher education often becomes more accessible as a result of online college classes and online degree programs with flexible formats.
The broadband plan calls for increasing download speeds from what Boucher said is as few as 5 megabits per second to 100 megabits per second by 2020 and for achieving upload speeds of 50 megabits for second. Expanded network connectivity is still needed, the FCC reported. Some 7 million people in the United States don’t have access to broadband network services, Florida Congressman Cliff Stearns told CSPAN. According to Stearns, 95 percent of households have broadband access, and two-thirds of them use high-speed Internet services. Proposals within the broadband plan would reportedly require establishing new laws and agency rules.
As more and more people are returning to school, many of those students are getting their college degrees online. Classes and the funding for education are allowing everything from an online bachelor degree all the way to a masters to fit the student’s schedule and their life responsibilities.
