Traditional vs. Non-traditional School, distance education Traditional vs. Non-traditional educators are concerned with outcomes, regardless of the process. Traditional education involves internal students attending resident classes conducted by internal faculty members on a campus. Nontraditional education involves external students studying independently under advisement of an external mentor at a distance from the institution's homebase.
Traditional education places responsibility on the instructor.
Nontraditional education places responsibility on the student. Traditional education is taking new courses or retaking old courses for academic credits. Nontraditional education is interpreting and evaluating a student's prior work experience for academic credits. Traditional education provides standard curricula with programs which are identical or comparable to similarly titled programs across the land. Non-traditional education provides new or unique, special purpose curricula in programs not commonly available from traditional institutions.