Colleges Experimenting with Teaching Foreign Languages Online | Education News

Colleges Experimenting with Teaching Foreign Languages Online | Education News:

Two schools have recently launched programs to offer extensive foreign language instruction over the internet, including an accredited German degree online.

As online learning begins to play a bigger role in the education landscape, some have questioned if foreign language instructional courses can make a similar transition and be successfully taught over the internet. Recently, James Madison University became the first institution of higher learning to offer comprehensive online foreign language instruction by partnering with language software maker Rosetta, the company behind the successful Rosetta Stone franchise. The move has caused other education professionals to consider the internet as a medium for language instruction.

Inside Higher Ed reports that education veterans have doubts that the internet language courses can deliver the same high quality results as those achieved via traditional method of instruction, and schools that are too eager to chase the future and the promised financial savings that come with moving courses online, risk offering their students an inferior product.