Inner Thought

Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Education

The COVID-19 circumstances is pressurize us to find new resolution to push ahead with the academic calendar because of  pandemic coronavirus schools, colleges and other educational institutions remains shut down. Online education only helping educational institutions around the world to hit the Covid-19 lockdown or in other words remote learning is the only way to stay safe while doing the prerequisite to keep individual learning. Irrespective of advantages and disadvantages of online education the coronavirus worldwide trigger the approval of distance learning at all education levels and pushing the limits of how teachers teach, how students learn and how infrastructure is used.

There are advantages and disadvantages of online education also just like every type of learning environment. It can be seen that online education does have some advantages and other side of the coin can be full of weakness.

Advantages of Online Education

Today, individuals do not need to be in a physical building to learn something. Websites, blogs, video based sites and even social media offer a variety of learning material that has abundant benefits. The online learning system, with its range of options and resources, can be personalized in many ways. It is the best way to create a perfect learning environment suited to the needs of each student. Hence advantages of online education are beyond our imagination.

Following are the advantages of online education

1)User Friendly or Convenient 

• Classroom and mentor available 24/7 with online education.
• Missing a class is affordable as classes and teaching can be recorded, archived, and shared for future reference.
• Other than specified due dates, students make their schedule for completing the requirements of the course.
• Accessibility to receive announcements and notes.
• Online education allows to learn on a personal schedule that suits them best. It also takes much less time than face-to-face learning.
• Students can get announcements, access notes, review assignments, take practice quizzes, discuss questions, chat with fellow students and study any time you want.
• Students have continuous access to lectures, course materials, and class discussions. This is particularly convenient for those who may need to reread a lecture or take more time to reflect on some material before moving on.

 

2)Online Education Give Flexibility

• In Online education students can study anywhere-anytime with the help of internet like from the comfort of  home or in the library or the bus, according to own choice. Thus it gives flexibly to schedule timing  for taking classes according to own convenience.
• Anyone from home and with a computer can access the content, perform exercises on each topic studied and advance in learning at your own pace and according to your availability.
• No worries about presenting oneself by dressing up.
• Online education gives opportunity to people who are suffering from health problem or may not have the ability to participate in traditional classes can often take online classes.
• Online classes ultimately enable to achieve professional and educational aims in a manner that fits anyone schedule.

 

3)Involvement of Guardian is More

• Online education helps the parents to look over and know what their children are studying.
• Parents can track the progress of  their kids , teaching method and its approach, activity done , children grasping ability etc.

 

4)Interest in Learning

• In Online education , approach through animation and graphics help children develop a keen interest in learning.
• online course will open a platform to gain information through the internet which stockpile possibilities to learn technical ,conceptual related things.

5)Individual Attention

• Online education gives us opportunity to learn efficiently by  accessible all learning resources anytime anywhere.
• Students felt uncomfortable, hesitation and shyness while asking questions or clearing doubts in traditional classes in front of others student for the fear of feeling like a failure or dump whereas in online education there is a direct pipeline with the online tutor  like email, message, what’s app to get questions answered directly.

 

6)Online Education give Efficient Learning

• Online education involves many techniques to make the learning interesting. example -It help to remember lots of things through visualization, video’s  so that  it will retains in the memory for a long time.
• Online learning is so effective because students can finish their homework quickly, and there is more time left for hobbies or for finding a job.
• Online education has a number of tools such as videos, PDFs, podcasts, and teachers can use all these tools as part of their lesson plans. 

 

7)Online Education Regulated Learning

• Online education vast opportunity to learn at anytime-anywhere broadens education to greater horizons.
• The responsibility of taking up the course and successfully completing it solely lies upon an individual. Self-Motivation is the driving force when it comes to online learning as there is no one over anyone  shoulder to tell or force to study or complete the assignment.
• In online education segregate factors such as age, dress, physical appearance, disabilities, race, and gender are largely absent. Instead, the focus of attention is clearly on the content of the discussion and the individual’s ability to respond and contribute thoughtfully and intelligently to the material at hand.

 

8)Online Education Reduced Costs

• Online courses are less expensive when compared to classroom coaching. One can save a lot on travelling cost and time when opting for an online study, which also means time and cost savings. Consequently Students who are looking for economically feasible choice can go for a distance learning program or online education.
• Online learning cuts printing materials, travel, training facilities, in-house training development, and equipment, hiring an instructor, booking a facility etc cost.

 

9) Developed Responsibility and Self-Discipline

• Online education represents a great way to study many fields and to boost the level of self-motivation, responsibility , self-discipline, self-direction, self-realization and critical thinking.
• Interactive learning environments  contributing to be a self-driven person with great time conscious skills.
• The nature of the semi-autonomous and self-directed world of the virtual classroom makes innovative and creative approaches to instruction even more important.
• Online method of education can be a highly effective alternative method of education for the students who are matured, self-disciplined and motivated, well organized and having high degree of time management skills,

 

10)Accessibility of Time and Place

• Online education allows students to attend classes from any location of their choice. It also allows schools to reach out to a more extensive network of students, instead of being restricted by geographical boundaries. 
• Online education allows anyone to participate from wherever part of the world or from a place of their comfortable zone, whenever they want.
• In addition, the online format allows physically challenged students and teachers more freedom to participate in class. Participants access the Virtual Classroom through their computers instead of having to “go to class” physically.
• In other word, in online education classroom is right in your bedroom – the study material on your desk or the e-material on your computer. Therefore Online courses ultimately enable you to achieve professional and educational aims in a manner that fits your schedule. 

11)Online Education is Environment Friendly

• Online education creating a paperless learning environment which is more affordable, while also being beneficial to the environment.

12)Interaction with other Students

• Online education provides an opportunity to get to know other students via bulletin boards, chat rooms and mailing lists.
• Each one can furnish to the course discussions and comments on the work of others. The teamwork that exists in the student-centered Virtual Classroom is one of the most unique and vital attribute that the online education pattern carry.
• Even with an online video conferencing  people are sharing and learning a lot about different topics.

 

13)Online Education Promote Active Learning 

• Online education give us the scope of  learning how to get information via the Internet , ultimately opens up a world of prospectus for personal and professional growth. 
• Example- Find jobs online, get college applications online, make travel plans online, get dealer costs for cars online, comparison shop online, access great works of art and literature online, meet people from around the world online, follow sports and movies online, and so on.
• Online education promote active learning. The online student takes responsibility for their course of studies and matures into an individual for whom learning and achievement are to esteem. 
• The ability to learn new information or a new skill whenever and wherever you want offers far greater opportunities for education than set before. 

 

14)Learn with Own Pace or Speed

• Different people  have different ways of grasping  power according to their own level of understanding. In a classroom, when everyone is being taught together, it is often difficult to have every student on the same page. Some students are too shy to raise their doubts in class. whereas some are very eager to go advance level.
• With online learning, an instructor can write down notes on a digital whiteboard or even assign a student to write real time notes that students can easily download after the class. 
• Online education makes the students get into a situation where they work by themselves, put in their effort and synthesize any particular topic. So, they digest and formulate the information in a way that it stays for a long time.

 

15)Online Education is Student Centered

• Online education methods are commonly known as a student-centered activity.
• In traditional classroom coaching, the students mindset is different as they become lazy as getting all sorts of information regarding the course from their classmates, teachers but in an online format, those learners will not get any counseling from classmates and they have to make up their mind to complete their tasks by themselves. Thus  online education gives opportunity to control their own learning experience and adapt the class discussions to meet their own specific needs.
• Ideally, students make their own individual contributions to the course while at the same time taking away a unique mix of relevant information.

Online programs advantages offer a convenient solution to conflicts with work, family, and study schedules.

Disadvantages of Online Education

Too much exposure to screens of mobiles and laptops leads a feeling of isolation and anxiety at the present time, are one of the major disadvantages of online education. It can point to distress and an increase in abnormal or obsessive tendency such as nail biting, thumb sucking and hair pulling. Excessive use of gadgets even resulted as mental health issues, stress feeling, anxious, excited or thrill sensations, headaches, muscle fatigue, eye strain on eyes and ears, obesity or overweight, laziness and disordered sleep patterns, mentally disturbed, pain on backs, shoulders and neck muscles etc. Online education also affected the physical activity levels of students like bad posture, later bedtimes, longer sleep rise discontinuation and later waking times which has been associated with motionless and lazy lifestyle.

Following are the disadvantages of online education :

1)Health-Related Concerns

• Online education requires the use of a computer and other such devices as a result eyestrain, develop bad posture, and other physical health problems impact the students.
• Student spend many hours staring at a screen is one of the biggest concerns and disadvantages of online education.

2)Disturbance of sleeping habits

• One of the major unpleasant outcome of the passage to online education is its impact on student sleeping habits. 
• online education has unavoidably increased the amount of time students spend on digital devices everyday which effects their physical and mental health associated with not sticking to a regular sleep cycle include difficulties falling asleep, staying asleep, waking up and daytime fatigue.

3)Technology Issues / Internet Connection Problems

• In smaller cities and towns, a consistent connection with decent speed is a problem. Without a consistent internet connection for students or teachers, online education is impossible, even slow connections are worse for online learning.
• Any malfunctioning in software or hardware resulted as interrupt in the online education.
• Many times in the past, students were required to download and/or install cumbersome apps or technology that would deliver inconsistent performances.
• Lack of access, whether it be for economic or logistic reasons, not being able to see or hear an instructor’s lesson distract the student from online education. This is a significant issue in rural and lower socioeconomic zone.
• Crash the server which hosts the program cut all participants off from the online class.
• a participant may access the class through a networked computer which could go down, individual PCs can have numerous problems which could limit students’ access.
• The Internet connection could fail, or the institution hosting the connection could become slowed up the online education.

4)Inability To Focus On Screens

• Focusing on the screen for long periods of time is the difficult task and  a greater chance for students to be easily distracted by social media or other web sites. Thus teachers have to play crucial role to keep their online classes engaging and interactive so that students concentrate on the class.

5)Online Education has Lack of Structure

• Self-disciplined students can profit gained from the mobility and convenience, flexibility of online education, but it is a drawback for unsystematic, intractable, undisciplined or unmotivated children as they fall behind on assignments, fail to study adequately by test deadlines and ultimately suffer as no one present behind them to remind  about assignments and  exert  continuously, vigorously, or obtrusively to gain an end pushing for work harder.

6)Limited Social Interaction in Online Education

• Social isolation coupled with a lack of communication often leads to several mental health issues such as deepen stress, anxiety, and negative thoughts.
• Due to lack of social interactions with companion before and after classes and absence of  face-to-face experiences , sense of community and belongingness not able to develop with students .

7)Online Education Need Teacher Training

• Teachers  should have a basic understanding of digital forms of learning. In some cases they don’t even have the required possessions, means and tools to executing online classes.

8)Online Education Requires A Good Grasp of Tech Skills

• Learning from a website, blog or whichever online platform requires you to understand online technology like how to navigate the screen, how to maneuver around a video, task or text.  Online education is very difficult in the absence of such skill.

9)Online Education offer Sense of Isolation

• There are minimal physical interactions between students and teachers often results in a sense of isolation for the students.
• Learners may feel isolated as it is on one’s own or by oneself  for the most part, which may give the learner the feeling that they are acting completely alone.
• Spending a major amount of time of a day in front of the screen resulted as one’s psychological health.

10)Online Education Unsuitable for Hands-on Fields

• Some subjects should not be taught online because they require practical sessions , Examples public speaking, surgery, dental hygiene, medicine and sports where physical movement and practice contribute to the achievement of the learning objectives. 
• Practical skills are somewhat harder to pick up from online resources. Pottery and car engineering are examples of skills that require hands-on experience.
• Online education never replacement an postmortem or pathological examination of the dead for medical students or real-life industrial training for a budding engineer. 
• For example, if one wants to learn philosophy, which requires the ability to deeply evaluate given knowledge and synthesise and arrive at new postulates, it will be very difficult to acquire that level of deep learning virtually.

11)Possibility of Diversion

• In online education the chances of getting diverted and losing  target date are high because no faculty around for face-to-face interaction and no classmates to help with constant reminders about pending assignments.
• In Online education concentration of children easily draw away due to many important factor like people moving around, noise from surrounding, friend chat etc.

12)Online Education has Hidden Expenses

• Installing a computer , printer, a web camera , maintenance of equipment’s , electricity costs , getting a reliable Internet connection etc are some fixed cost in online education.

13)Quality of faculty compromised

• Online education is frequently annoy by shortage of enough good quality faculty members,
• Even if the educator knowledge is up-to-date, teaching in an online environment or the technology they use may be the another reason for downside of online education.

14)Online Education Need Time management

• Time management is very important in online courses, if you are not managing the time efficiently then you are  beneath the underside or base of course and overburden yourself.
• online education involve setting your own goals, tracking progress and meeting deadlines.

15)Online Education Required Too Much Attention 

• Getting learners’ attention and holding onto it is a problem of online education.
• There is no face-to-face interaction with the learners, so not possible to see or hear educator or instructor  in real-time, and hence difficult to know their reaction on lectures providing to them. Thus keeping attention of students is very necessary in online education.

16)Online Education give Excessive freedom

• Students can misuse their independence as  excess freedom or no restriction, no institutional guideline, no class commander and  lack of proper guidance is harmful for students and difficult  to engage  and complete the lessons ,assignments and deadlines by themselves.

17)Online Education Require Computer Literacy

• Both students and instructor must possess a minimum level of computer knowledge in order to function successfully in an online environment like able to use a search engines ,internet access ,email etc. If they do not possess such technology knowledge, they will not succeed in an online program.

18)Online Education Requires strong Self-Motivation and Time Management Skills

• Online courses need greater amount of motivation ,time management skills and self-discipline because numerous  key factor  missing from online education like constantly push students towards their learning goals. Face-to-face communication with professors, peer-to-peer activities, and strict schedules etc.

19)Time-Consuming Method

• Online education need  to spend more time in studying and completing assignments as it is text-based and to communicate with your instructor and other students,  only medium is typing messages and it is known fact that typing is slower than speaking and that’s the major flaw of remote learning, that it is time-consuming. Similarly reading your lecture materials can take more time than listening to an instructor deliver them and hence greater effort to accomplish it.

20)Dependent Learners 

• Online education required well organized, self-motivated and a high degree of time management skills and because of this it is not suitable for younger student and dependent learners.

21)Lacks the Warmth of Face to Face Interaction

• Body language and eye to eye contact,  which are the necessary part of teaching is difficult to maintain in an online education.
• Studying alone with only the computer as companion can be distressing for many students.

22)Lack of Communicational Skill Development in Online Students

• Communication skill , which play a vital role in the development of the student is not possible in online education because of  absence of  face-to-face communication between peers, students and teachers in an online education consequently  they excel in theoretical knowledge but could not able to pass their knowledge to others.

23)Stressful for Those with Weak Character

• Online education required personal time-management skills as there is no one behind you to get to class on time, submission of assignment, appearing the exam and meet the deadlines.
• Studying at home, with family and other distractions  create obstacle  to concentrate .

24)More postponing

• Delay in work or postponing the work is very common in the online education. As there is no one to give you the extra push to finish your homework.
• Delaying or postponing something is commonly seen in online education.

25)Questionable Credibility of Degrees

• Online education are base of rising  lots of illegal and non-accredited  /not approved degrees , which are being offered as online courses. 

26)Online Education has Lack of Flexibility 

• The problem with many video conferencing tools is that they are strictly video conferencing tools. They provide the ability to see and hear and the chance to be seen and heard but not much else. 

According to one BBC article ” having exclusively online interactions can have a real impact on the mental health of both students and professors. Zoom fatigue is real – video chats make it harder for our brains to process “non-verbal cues like facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice, and body language,”

Reference article

Impact of online education

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