What Is the Difference Between Online and Residential Bachelor’s in Secondary Education Degrees?

Secondary Education

The greatest difference between online and on-campus learning is the mode of delivery. On-campus degrees include face-to-face teaching and interactions with peers; online education, on the other hand, does include teaching and interaction with peers, but it’s mediated by video conferencing and social media platforms such as Blackboard.

This difference is the most important to consider in thinking about the actual education potential of each delivery style. Here at Best Education Degrees, we include an affordability ranking, Top 10 Best Online Bachelor’s in Secondary Education and a residential ranking, Top 20 Best Bachelor’s in High School Education, for those interested in either or both. In the end, we want you to choose what works best for you.

Here’s a glance at online learning in general:

It can be asynchronous, synchronous or a combination of both. Asynchronous learning is taking classes whenever you want at whatever pace you want – there isn’t a time or place set up in advance.

This online learning mode is maximally flexible and occurs through the web, email, message boards, or videos. You turn work in as you complete it; do note, most schools have a limit on how long you can be a program like this. Synchronous learning is a virtual classroom with a time to attend with others.

It can be cohort or individual. A cohort-style program puts you in a group with others in the program that move through it together, often with an assigned mentor or faculty member. Individual online education, typically asynchronous is done autonomously.

Now to question, what is the difference between an online and on-campus Bachelors in Secondary Education?

Online and residential programs include the same scope and sequence there is a general education core a professional education or and your content area. Both modes of delivery include practical experience and culminate in student teaching.

Bachelor’s in High School Education is four-years and around 120 credits. The classes are the same and include educational psychology, classroom management, philosophy of education, teaching diverse learners, assessment, and more.

Both formats include practical experiences and student teaching that must be done at local schools, so technically there is no such thing as a 100 percent, asynchronous online Bachelors in High School Education.

With that said, classes are called the same thing, but with a different delivery, there is something lost and gained depending on your perspective.

Also, regarding the number of schools offering online Bachelor’s in High School Education, we didn’t find near as many as traditional, on-campus offerings. The inestimable value of non-verbal communication, collegiality, and personal relationships cannot be emphasized enough for teaching; for teaching is an art, based on personal relationships and experience.

To this end, and in my personal opinion, the on-campus version of this particular degree does offer more learning potential, simply because there is more human interaction and communication. That is not to say that there are not advantages to this particular online degree. Online programs do offer more flexibility and may even save money so that those advantages may outweigh the benefits of a residential program.