Online Colleges

By Sami Ahmed

When I turned on my TV a few weeks ago I noticed that there were three commercials for separate online colleges within a time span of five minutes. With the current growth of technology, online teaching is becoming more popular and accessible. Some of these online institutions, such as the University of Phoenix, have been devoted to online teaching. As a student in a traditional style university, Georgia Tech, I felt jealous, if not angry, at how a person can be in the comfort of their home in order to get a college degree while I have to be in this uncomfortable setting hundreds of miles away from my home, family, and friends. However before one starts criticizing the legitimacy of such online institutions, they should realize who these colleges appeal to.

The traditional university appeals to students who have just successfully graduated from high school and are looking for a college where they can study a specific field in order to get a job that suits them in the future. Online universities appeal to a completely different genre of people. The type of people that the online universities commercials are aimed towards tend to be adults who did not obtain their college degree and are already to embedded in their life and job to be a full time student. This means that these colleges aren’t there to make the future workers of tomorrow, but rather the current day workers a little better.

When analyzing the different University of Phoenix commercials, such as the one below, I realized that the commercial is tailored towards an audience that I don’t belong to: parents, army veterans, and people in the current workforce.