Virtual space has no confinement – compared to auditoriums and lecture halls. As technology becomes more advanced and cheaper at the same time, it will be easier for institutes such as to provide these resources to non-profit educational initiatives.

The biggest benefit of delivering learning online is the ability to mass produce (or considering how the Internet is a medium – mass broadcasting). Since the United States as well as the rest of the world remains entrenched in a serious economic downturn, it is easier to imagine thousands of people compromising on their learning experience – rather than having none; they can now turn to online education in order to continue improving their skills and achievements.

Another angle on the online education scenario is related to giving back to the community. How, you may ask?

One example is OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) – an initiative to educate the world’s poorest children who would have no chance at receiving any kind of education unless they are provided with a low-cost, low-power, and rugged laptop that comes with Internet connectivity. Implementation in this relation is an uphill task, but one important aspect is the learning content delivery system that provides tools for learning.

Towards this end, aspires to continuously improve and develop its Student Area through which all the free study materials are dispatched to enrolled students. Once an online course or module has been designed, it is only a matter of server capacity and connection speed to determine how many people can ‘attend’ it. Virtual space has no confinement – compared to auditoriums and lecture halls. As technology becomes more advanced and cheaper at the same time, it will be easier for institutes such as to provide these resources to non-profit educational initiatives.

“ has always been sensitive to the difficulties faced by people with respect to education around the world, and as part of our social responsibility initiatives, we opened scholarships for the victims of the Gulf Oil Spill,” shares Brian Reeves, the Communications Director.  When times are tough, Reeves says “all human beings need is a reason to look forward to better days. This could be that reason."

Those are bold and daring initiatives by an online university, but no one can make positive change sustainable without community involvement, and is no exception to the rule. Former, current, and prospective students – all of them need to play their part, together with faculty members, administration departments and other players, in realizing the changing trends of the world by recognizing initiatives such as those being taken by .