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Blog entry by Lanka Academy

Advantages and Disadvantages of Online College Education

Advantages and Disadvantages of Online College Education

The Internet coverage zone has been growing continuously since the late ’90s and early 2000s. The “online mode” entered our lives in many of their fields. People buy things, communicate with each other, watch movies, play games, go in for social activities, and do many more things on the Internet now in 2021. Students look for learning materials, check domyessay reviews, do tests, and pass exams online, too.

If in the late 2000s and early 2010’s the industry experts and IT specialists might discuss whether or not online education would become a part of our reality, then there is no doubt a decade later. Online learning is here to stay. At this very moment, you have the opportunity not only to see the essayservice.com review and order academic papers but also to get an education online.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the situation, too. Students and teachers all over the world had to master the skill of distance learning due to massive lockdowns introduced by governments. What are the outcomes?

Just like any other initiative or trend, online education has its strong and weak features. Here below, we’ll pay attention to both pros and cons of Internet learning for students, teachers, economies, and the world as a whole.

Online Education: Advantages

Let’s start with positive features. The online education properties mentioned on the list below make the method definitely worth attention. Any school, regardless of its location and status, can try applying Internet learning to get the following benefits.

Effectiveness

There is no doubt online education can be effective. The efficiency of web learning has its boost coming from the number of instruments possible to use: in fact, the digital space offers endless possibilities to get learning materials, conduct experiments, and combine theory and practice for every separate student.

Accessibility

Apart from being effective, online education is easy to access now. All a student requires to study is an electronic device connected to the world wide web. In our times, it can be either a laptop or desktop PC, a tablet, or a smartphone. The focus point here is a student’s comfort.

Better Attendance

This benefit is a consequence of accessibility. When all that is needed to visit classes is to turn on a favorite gadget and join the appropriate app, platform, chat room, and so on, they won’t feel it too difficult. Additionally, students and teachers are less likely to be late for classes, as they only need to join the class online.

Adjustability

Actually, this is one of the best benefits that any online education initiative provides. The potential use of digital technologies (especially when mentioning AR and VR concepts) is limitless. Internet platforms can be developed and adjusted depending on the needs of a particular school, subject, teacher, student, and even topic of the lesson. Consequently, the set of adjust-ability advantages can make it a lot more interesting and comfortable for students to study new things, providing them with an additional efficiency boost.

Affordability

Cost reduction is another benefit of online education. For students, there is no need to spend additional money to get to the college, to buy something to eat there, and so on. For colleges, it becomes less expensive to support the studying infrastructure throughout time. The point is, real estate and maintenance costs can be reduced significantly when a particular school successfully transits all its educational processes into the online space. All the benefits combined may cause a positive effect on study bills, making higher education more affordable all over the planet.

Online Education: Disadvantages

Distance learning is cool, without a doubt. However, perfect things are rare in our reality. So, the undisputed negative points can be found in online studying, too. Here they are.

Lack of Focus

In theory, online education should be less tiring for students. However, humans may feel it difficult to focus on their computer displays for too long, especially when speaking of working or educational strains. Moreover, the Internet itself offers countless distractions like social media websites, messengers, or anything else.

Still, the concentration of students surely depends on the teacher’s dedication a lot. If a teacher is able to organize the process in an interesting and useful way, students are less likely to lose focus during such classes.

Tech Troubles

Internet access is global but frequently unstable. There are multiple troubles potentially possible to occur with either software apps or hardware elements. A microphone malfunction, a router refusing to provide a student with the required web access, a laptop not launching because of any reason – these and many other issues may and will happen during the online education process. And it is not always possible to solve them quickly.

No Community Feeling

When people speak of online education, they usually mean studying from home. It seems to be comfortable: you get out of your bed in the morning, have a meal, and join the digital class with no rush. Still, studying in physical classes allows students to interact with their groupmates and professors personally. No webcam or messenger can replace live conversation so far.

Teacher Qualification Requirements

Digital education sets certain demands not only for students but for professors as well. A teacher should know how to use online instruments and possibilities to organize the class and provide students with everything they need to get knowledge successfully. That adjustment requires additional effort from every professor.

To Conclude

Online education has its strong and weak points. On the one hand, distance learning is accessible, effective, adjustable, and more affordable. At the same time, it is not always easy for students to concentrate on the web class because of distractions or tech issues. Additionally, Internet study sets particular requirements for the teachers’ qualification and does not give students the usual amount of social interaction.

However, online education is our reality and, most probably, future. Its advantages are undisputed, while the problems can be solved sooner or later.


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