Travel and Technology: Get Online Degrees While Abroad
Whether you’ve just finished high school, or you’re looking to upgrade your education, you may be faced with a truly difficult choice: post-secondary education, or travel. Each side has its benefits. If you choose education, you know that within a few years you’ll have a degree that you can use to get a better paying job – which may allow you to travel more in the future. If you choose to travel, you’ll be having once-in-a-lifetime experiences. You’ll grow as a person, see different places in the world, and gain a whole new perspective on life.
Fortunately, you no longer have to choose.
Study Abroad
When most people think about traveling and learning at the same time, they think about studying abroad. In this case, you’re still taking university classes, you’re just doing it in a foreign country as a foreign student. You may qualify for additional scholarships, and you may have the opportunity to live in residence with local students. However, for those that want to travel to several different nations, this may not be the best option.
Online Degrees
Once frowned upon, online degrees have started to gain legitimacy in the work force. Heavyweight post-secondary institutions such as MIT offer online alternatives to students. While some courses are free (such as the MIT ones mentioned), others will be full programs that require a full tuition.
How It Works
You’ll be learning in an online environment, communicating with your classmates and teachers through message boards and email. Your teacher may upload a video or perform live question and answer sessions through a chatroom or Skype. You’ll submit papers and write tests as you usually would, with the notable difference that they’ll probably be open book. To pull this off, you’ll need to be disciplined. Without set class times, it’s easy to get lost in the exciting country around you and forget all about your school work.
Travel Limits
The whole purpose of studying abroad is to give you the chance to experience different cultures. If you choose to pursue an online degree, there are only a few limits. For starters, you’ll only be able to travel places where you can find an Internet connection. Rural China probably isn’t a great idea. You may be required to carry a few text books, though it’s possible you can put those on an e-reader.
Best of Both Worlds
If your goal is to see as much of the world as possible while still gaining an education, studying abroad and pursuing online degrees are both valid options. Each has pros and cons, and each will provide you with different experiences. Ultimately, it’s up to you what route you would prefer to take: do you want to hop from country to country and get online degrees, or do you want to stay in one place while you study abroad? Both offer great experiences; you need to choose the one which suits your lifestyle the best.
To learn more about your online degrees options, visit The University of Liverpool.
About The Author
Cecil Lee
The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.
