Analyzing The Impact Of Internet Assessment

By:
Manal Chamaa

There is no doubt that the World Wide Web has taken the wide world and made it much smaller, more accessible, and more familiar. Not only is the population of the planet able to shop, bank, spend leisure time, and watch the most popular television shows and movies, but more and more society is able to access information and concepts that were heretofore available only through enrollment in an institution of higher education. As Nicholas Carr discusses in his article, “The Crisis in Education”, the ability to extend the reaches of higher education to virtually the farthest points on the planet is a direct result of the Internet and our ability to communicate through its sites. The popularity of online classes, offered by both public and private universities and private educational ventures such as Khan Academy, has certainly impacted the direction which higher education will take in the coming decades. Carr notes “for better or worse, the Net’s disruptive forces have arrived at the gates of academia.” Unfortunately, in today’s world, the cost of higher education has become burdensome for parents and students alike. According to CNN Money, in 2011 “college seniors graduated with an average of nearly $29,000 in student loan debt in 2012 as compared to $27, 000 in 2011.” This figure can rise dramatically when students attend costly private universities or pursuing graduate degrees. These debts place great burdens on students who graduate and often take some time before finding a lucrative job in their field. Fortunately, technological advances are such that universities are offering more and more online classes. These “’massive open online courses’ or MOOCs” (Carr, 2012) are one of the ways in which universities are endeavoring to make higher education more affordable.
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