How Online Classes offer a Safer Education

Colleges with online classes are continuously boasting the list of benefits of earning a college education online to entice students into enrolling in distance learning and online courses.

Two of the most commonly discussed advantages of online education normally include 1) the flexibility of online learning and 2) how distance education learning costs much less than the traditional college campus costs.

Online education also provides a safer environment for students and reduces the possibility of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Campus shootings and other crimes

While many students are sitting in their homes, safely taking their online classes, those who are attending classes on a college campus often live in fear that another college shooting could happen at their school. This has become such a hot topic that the FBI has even created a resource list pertaining to school violence and also published a study: Crime in Schools and Colleges.

Then, there are the other transgressions that have occurred on college campuses, including stalking, assaults, robberies, and other violent crimes. An online college education offers a safe way for students to earn their distance learning degree, in a secure environment where students can study and learn from the comfort of their home, where campus shootings and other crimes are not an everyday concern.

Contagious illness and diseases

The CDC published an article Community Settings as a Risk Factor, which discusses college students and the risk of meningococcal on college campuses, but that is not the only disease that can be found in social communities. Anytime there are large numbers of people in one place, like at a traditional college campus, there will certainly be contagious sickness floating around. Door handles, tabletops, and desks can harbor germs and viruses when the flu season comes into full force. Students who attend classes on campus can also be subjected to colds, mononucleosis, chicken pox, and a variety of other contagious illnesses and diseases.

Students who choose to earn their degree via online learning can circumvent these contagious illnesses and diseases by studying at home. Of course, this does not mean that a student who is working toward their online degree would never come in contact with germs when they are out and about in the general public and even at home if they have children and other people in the house. However, if the college campus can be avoided, there is less of a chance of coming into contact with some common contagious illnesses and diseases.

Avoiding natural disasters and the chaos that accompanies them

College students who attend classes on campus also have to worry about the shifting climates and the increase of natural disasters, according to GRID-Arendal’s graph that document trends in the number of reported natural events since the year 1900. Although many college campuses have developed emergency plans for natural disasters, nobody is completely prepared for a major event, and the chaos that occurs afterwards can be even worse than the disaster itself. The students who are attending distance learning college courses can remain in the safety of their home during natural disasters, or seek a shelter if necessary, and avoid the chaos that can occur on a traditional college campus in the aftermath.

The benefits of online education reach far beyond the advantages that most potential students are aware of. By taking online courses and obtaining a degree via distance learning, students can avoid the factors that make a college campus dangerous. While crime, natural disasters and illness happen, no matter where you are, there are ways for students to circumvent these issues and stay safe.

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