Ask any college student these days and there’s a strong chance they have taken an online course. According to a study by the National Center for Educational Statistics, in fall 2014, there were 5,750,417 students enrolled in any distance education courses at degree-granting postsecondary institutions. That number has most likely increased with the popularity of distance learning.
College students aren’t the only one’s benefiting from this trend. Online courses offer plenty of digestible, trustworthy teaching on everything from computer coding to foreign languages to remedial classes that can help you brush up on that Monday morning math class you always slept through in high school. And for the first time, there’s now an internet domain specifically for any educators hoping to make their materials easy to surface online.
What the “.study” and “.courses” Domains Mean
You’re probably familiar with “.com” domains, and what sets apart “.org” or “.edu” domains. But there’s more variety with the expansion of higher level domains that can help people find what they need through the avalanche of Google search. There are city-based one such as “.nyc” for a small business based out of New York City, or “.co” for a business site like yours truly. The benefit of these personalized domains is that they set aside groups of internet sites by theme, allowing you to sort through the ever-growing internet that much faster, and it’s a tactic that’s particularly useful in education.
Take Global Learning Support as an example: The site’s domain is “student.study,” and it offers ‘Retention as a Service’ solutions for online teachers hoping to improve their students’ engagement and completion rates. Some domains, like “udemy.courses,” redirect to a preexisting site. Meanwhile, “Smart.Study” offers learning tips and tricks to students in a blog format.
Looking to the Future
The “.study” and “.courses” domains have become a simple way for educators to connect with those searching the internet for in-depth information: The short names are both punchy and memorable. The benefits are twofold. Teachers increase their enrollment, and students can easily identify the websites they need.
From countries to industries, more and more domains are being represented online, increasing the number of well-respected institutions to combat the misinformation that might lurk in other corners of the internet.
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