Featured Articles on OnlineEducation.com

According to government data, PLSF enrolled more than two million borrowers through certified employers in December 2024. They include public school teachers; doctors, nurses and other clinicians who work for nonprofit hospitals; firefighters and police officers; public interest lawyers; and military employees of the Department of Defense. The program incentivizes people to choose lower-paying jobs and careers crucial to society’s functioning by offsetting some of their financial sacrifices through student loan forgiveness.

The U.S. Department of Education’s launch followed decades of expanded federal education funding. Those efforts started with Sputnik-era and Cold War math and science initiatives, followed by President Lyndon Johnson’s landmark Higher Education Act of 1965, which attempted to open college access irrespective of any student’s ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic background.

Alarming reports that employees from billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency Service (DOGE) gained access to computer systems inside the U.S. Department of Education containing student loan records. Millions of borrowers who’ve benefited from student loan forgiveness programs worry that the new administration could suspend or reverse their discharges.

The Clinton Administration’s introduction of the first income-driven repayment (IDR) plan for student loan borrowers in the early 1990s was a milestone in the history of higher education finance in the United States. For the first time, borrowers struggling with high loan balances and limited earnings could elect a payment option that provided relief from the burden of what were, in many cases, unaffordable monthly payments required by the standard plan at that time.

The bipartisan Affordable Loans for Students Act (ALSA) from Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) would cut interest rates on existing and new Direct Loans to only 2 percent from the 6.5 to 9 percent range most borrowers currently pay at the time of this writing in April 2025. That works out to a 69 percent decrease from the rate undergraduates pay, along with a 78 percent decrease from the premium PLUS loan rate paid by graduate students and parents.

Educause’s October 2022 survey of 820 university undergraduates across America found that student preferences for online learning had soared by a sensational 222 percent since before the pandemic. But oddly enough, that newsworthy figure appears nowhere within the language of the report.

Anyone who interacts with an AI chatbot to elicit desired responses from that system engages in their own form of prompt engineering, which some have described as the most valuable computer skill in history. As shown in this guide, some prompts are more effective than others. Online students who can optimize their prompts by applying the principles, best practices, and tips we suggest will likely obtain more useful results from AI systems in less time.

The challenges for online students are well documented. We do not talk enough about the strengths that online students bring to the classroom. Recognizing the experience and passion that adult learners bring to the classroom is fundamental to supporting students.

We spoke with professors that are also experts in the design and rollout of scaled online degrees to learn more about the development of online degrees at scale and what they could mean for students.

With recent TikTok and WeChat drama highlighting business competition between U.S. and Chinese tech companies, the same trend may be on the horizon for edtech products. Find out what players are best set up to succeed in education markets worldwide.

The novel coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the digital divide impeding online educational access and support for many students from low-income families as schools moved the majority of their operations online in efforts to stem the spread of the virus.

Education plays a pivotal role in fostering security and stability, yet it is often one of the first casualties of war. The relationship between education and conflict is deeply intertwined—access to quality education is compromised during wars, and the absence of education perpetuates instability, trapping individuals and communities in cycles of violence and insecurity.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently hosted a new application window for the Emergency Connectivity Fund. This third application window is intended to support schools and libraries in the upcoming school year as part of the FCC’s effort to support student access to educational opportunities.

As virtual reality began to dip its toe into the mainstream, the first obvious use case for immersive technology was gaming. However, the education industry would soon benefit from VR as well.

Preliminary data quantifies the impact of Covid-19 on higher education and students, providing insight into the tumultuous period’s impact on the education sector. OnlineEducation.com spoke with an expert who has studied the impact of Covid-19 on education to gain his insight on the pandemic’s evolving challenges for students and higher education.

A significant portion of individuals who get ordained online perform just one ceremony at the request of their friend or loved one and never end up officiating again, but others find that performing wedding ceremonies is a fulfilling experience that they want to continue to replicate—and a legitimate way to earn money.

Education is a $6 trillion industry projected to increase to historic levels and reach $10 trillion by 2030. However, the education sector is starved of capital compared to other sectors, especially when it comes to digitalization. This fact was highlighted as Covid-19 forced many education providers and students online across the globe in 2020.

James Truslow Adams coined the term “American Dream” during the Great Depression. More than 80 years later, getting a college education is hailed as a ticket to the American Dream. But is it really? The truth is that some U.S. universities are much more successful than others at promoting social mobility among the students that need it most.

Much has changed since our August 2023 report on the new strategies for the Biden student loan forgiveness initiative, which we presented in our feature article “Student Debt Relief: How “Plan B” Relies on This 1965 Law.” Proposals for the new “Plan B” slated for release during fall 2024 now differ from the original program in several significant ways that borrowers need to understand.

People pursue master’s degrees for the same reasons they always have: their profession requires that level of education, or it will help them reach the next pay grade in their current job. That said, the way in which students can complete a graduate-level program has changed, and traditional on-campus degrees are no longer their only option.

The National Association of Social Work Professions (NASW) describes the primary goal of careers in social services as enhancing the well-being of the most vulnerable and oppressed members of society. These 14 social work professors have demonstrated expertise gained through years of professional field experience and academic scholarship.

This guide profiles 15 outstanding members of faculty from three universities with fantastic speech pathology programs.

Learn about three first-rate university psychology programs and 15 phenomenal faculty members that shine in the classroom and beyond.

CIOs play a vital role in the modern economy, guiding companies in all different industries towards the right strategic information technology investments. The CIOs on this list are active C-level officers who are also engaged on Twitter.

After the Biden Administration had wiped out $109 million in student loan debt during the third quarter of 2023, the U.S. Department of Education now finds itself under pressure from congressional Democrats who want tax relief for their constituents.