IT Sligo welcome our online students to Induction Day. While the vast majority of the online students are based in Ireland, IT Sligo has started to reach people further afield. Last year the college had students in 22 countries around the world in Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Australia.
The interest in online learning has seen a steady growth internationally and has been identified as an area of interest in IT Sligo’s ambitious expansion plans between now and 2022 when they aim to increase the number of online users from 2,800 to over 5,000. Such is the demand for online courses the institute predict the ratio of students online will out-way full-time students by a small margin in 2022.
With over 110 different courses on offer, IT Sligo offers a diverse selection of programmes to students across the nation and abroad, and creates new courses depending on industry demand. Last year the institute launched online courses for the Insurance industry, allowing people to “Earn & Learn”, in a unique apprenticeship type approach to education which is proving to be very popular to both employee and employers.
IT Sligo’s President, Dr. Brendan McCormack said: “IT Sligo has become what Peter Bradwell calls the ‘edgeless university’, no longer confined to its region but a global provider of higher education. Not only in Ireland, but internationally, the boundaries between traditional and non-traditional, part-time and full-time are being blurred. There is a global shift in the provision of Higher Education with an increase in on-line delivery that is responding to the diverse requirements of lifelong learners.”
Online learning allows students to study around work and family commitments and reduces the amount of time necessary to travel to college. Using some of the latest technology, students can interact with their lecturers via video and can receive all course work via a cloud based software known as a “Moodle”. Eliminating travel and reducing the amount of time on campus has meant an increase in mature students returning to education, made up of people in work who want to climb up the ladder, and people who are out of work or want a change in career.