When you were a high school student, you were most probably pondering over the idea of becoming a member of college community. More than likely, you were thinking about professors, huge lecture halls and campus as well. Nonetheless, nowadays it seems like the whole educational field is moving forward up to the web-based system. Do we really need to place much stock in the cyber space? Is technology-based education really what we all are in need of? And why is it developing so fast?
Learning on the web actually provides a wide range of advantages, according to the experts. First of all, the thing is about the convenience and flexibility of the online learning. It is a great opportunity for the students, who have to balance work and studying. Students, who work part-time, have no opportunity to take regular classes because of a pretty tough schedule. By means of online education they can take all required courses even from the other country.
Besides, online education is a real chance for the introverts! The point is that in online environment these people have an opportunity to participate in various events to get the experience that is very rich and deep. They have a chance to collect their thoughts, think over every word they are going to say, perform a thorough research before posting certain comments, unlike when asked to take part in a real classroom, while interacting with their classmates. This way they won’t have to face usual inconveniences, connected with offline communication.
Yet, there are certain disadvantages of online learning. First of all, it requires you to be highly concentrated, self-disciplined and motivated to properly manage the time. There are no professors looking from behind of your shoulder – you are the boss! And though it sounds awesome, you might find out that you have troubles with self-control.
To add more, online learning requires more writing and reading than actual college classes for the reason that all assignments, lectures from the classmates and tutors are usually presented in a written form. Some of the experts tend to believe that online colleges do not encourage students to learn. Plus, online learning is not suitable for all disciplines and, what is more, it does not give an opportunity to build up strong relationships with the college professors, who, in turn, have to evaluate students’ knowledge only on the basis of cyber communication.
On the other hand, according to the US Department of Education, on average, college students who study on the web, perform better than their “colleagues” educated in a traditional way. Besides, students who take a hybrid course combining traditional education with online instructions are actually making it better in the process.
In general, experts tend to believe that there is no sense to change the whole system of education for it will definitely be a mistake to write off online studying. Without a doubt, the future learning won’t be 100% online, but, at the same time, this sphere of education will continue to grow!