1. What are some reasons in-person education may lead to better academic performance?
2. According to the first article, how does in-person education contribute to interpersonal skill development?
3. How does online learning provide flexibility for students, especially working professionals?
4. What does the second article say about assessments in online vs. classroom learning?
5. Why might it be harder for students to build a strong community in online learning, as mentioned in the first article?
6. What are some advantages of the physical college campus mentioned in the first article?
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As students today have more choices than ever in how they obtain a college degree, online learning has emerged as a cost-effective and flexible alternative.
When choosing how to get a college degree, students have more choices than ever before. In particular, online learning can be cost-effective, eliminating the need for commuting or moving to a campus. For non-traditional students or those needing more accessibility, online learning can be flexible and adaptive. However, for traditional college students, choosing the most convenient path isn’t always the best option.
While attending class without ever leaving your room or your pajamas may sound appealing, in-person education offers significant advantages that can positively impact students’ academic performance, interpersonal skills, and access to resources.
1. Better Academic Performance
In-person students are less distracted and can often stay more disciplined. The ease of multitasking in the online environment can affect students' ability to listen and engage even in face-to-face digital environments. Students who are physically present in a course may also struggle with the temptation to play on laptops or daydream, but doing so in an in-person environment is significantly more obvious and frowned upon. Being physically in the classroom holds an accountability factor that digital learning can’t.
Similarly, being in a classroom lets you receive more direct instruction, allows faculty to adapt their teaching styles to your needs and helps you build stronger connections with professors. An online instructor can set up opportunities for feedback or breakout sessions within a digital learning environment, but the level of connection pales in comparison to a faculty member walking around a room, holding a student’s work in their hands, addressing questions and being able to give clear, direct feedback. In-person interactions allow students to experience positive body language and emotional encouragement in different ways than online.
2. Stronger Interpersonal Skills and Community
In-person interactions with a faculty member are not the only valuable relationship-building that happens more easily. In general, students who have in-person college experiences come away with stronger interpersonal skills. Imagine the difference between a physical lab experiment versus a digital lab experiment. One of the greatest differences is how students are required to work together or engage with each other. Beyond listening, reading and responding to one another’s ideas in online forums, there is less group work that can happen solely online. In contrast, in traditional classroom settings, students are required to work together on presentations, labs and more, learning to clearly communicate with each other and practicing collaboration, a valuable skill in the workplace.
Likewise, as students take multiple classes together and work on group projects, they begin to form community and professional connections beyond the classroom space. These relationships can turn into future networking opportunities. Students also may grow in their connections with faculty members and seek guidance and mentoring outside the classroom. From these mentoring relationships, faculty members can easily connect students to other valuable resources on campus. Online, there is less structure for meeting together beyond the digital classroom experience and less pointing students to other physical places for guidance or support.
3. Access to Resources and Support
College campuses, the physical spaces themselves, are also significant advantages for students as they are built to support student success and to cultivate an atmosphere of learning. Students can easily find help and resources as well as having access to labs, technologies and library resources that are unavailable to online-only students.
Another advantage of the in-person college experience is the built-in support system of community. No matter what kind of day students have had, on a physical campus, students have more opportunities for faculty, staff or peer mentors to come alongside them because they are embedded in a culture rooting for their success. The in-person experience allows for a more holistic approach to student care and education as college campuses are built to knit together people into a community working toward similar goals.
Making the Right Choice
While online learning is a convenient and flexible option, students should weigh the advantages and disadvantages carefully. In-person education offers benefits that go beyond academics, including better performance, stronger social development, and access to valuable resources. Those who prioritize these factors may find that attending college on campus provides a more enriching and supportive learning experience.
Difficulty of getting to know students
During COVID-19, when teaching to a computer screen, it was harder to tell if students were listening, and students were much more reluctant to discuss concepts and ask questions. The class community was not nearly as strong as in a traditional classroom. It was also hard to get to know students purely through online class sessions
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We are now in age of the fourth industrial revolution – Technology. As it transforms major industries, life has become more interconnected, blurring the lines between the personal and professional with a growing number of sectors and companies becoming operationally mobile. The education industry has also slowly but surely attempted to accommodate these shifting demand trends, bringing with it a unique set of challenges. As Covid-19 changed the world and the education landscape with it, distance education and online learning became proliferated by necessity, raising questions about the differences between them. This article highlights the 5 differences between online learning vs classroom learning.
1. Human Interaction
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We are now in age of the fourth industrial revolution – Technology. As it transforms major industries, life has become more interconnected, blurring the lines between the personal and professional with a growing number of sectors and companies becoming operationally mobile. The education industry has also slowly but surely attempted to accommodate these shifting demand trends, bringing with it a unique set of challenges. As Covid-19 changed the world and the education landscape with it, distance education and online learning became proliferated by necessity, raising questions about the differences between them. This article highlights the 5 differences between online learning vs classroom learning.
1. Human Interaction
The most obvious difference someone thinks of when comparing the two is the perceived lack of human interaction, however this isn’t technically true. The correct way to phrase this would be ‘no physical interaction’. Classroom Learning involves physical interactions with a teacher and peers, while online learning transfers this component to a virtual environment. So while there is human interaction, it happens online via virtual lectures, virtual discussions, face-to-face video workshops etc.
2. 24/7 Access to Learning Materials
With online courses, students can always access learning materials such as module contents, assignments, lecture materials, podcasts and recorded sessions anytime during the course of their studies. For postgraduate courses module tutors are always there to assist with any questions through emails, messages and Skype calls. With Classroom Learning, be it for a school or university courses, a student has to visit the physical location to speak with tutors face to face, during assigned hours. This can be limiting, especially for working professionals.
3. Practice While Studying
For University courses, Online Learning students can fit studies around their work schedules, and can immediately practice new concepts learned by applying them in their current scope of work. With classroom learning university courses, this is not often the case. Since students have to leave their job and social commitments to complete a degree programme, they will only be able to practice the new knowledge once they have re-joined the workforce. When it comes to schools and younger learners, a lot of Online Learning tools and apps help students understand concepts on a deeper level by providing problems they can interact and solve with in different ways.
4. Assessments
The Classroom Learning method of assessing a student’s capabilities is usually through quizzes and exams, most often one in a physical setting invigilated by an examiner. Covid-19 has made this method of assessment (temporarily) redundant. In Online Learning, assessments are undertaken via assignments, which can be either individual or group-based, providing an opportunity for students to form study groups that support each other and learn from their differing experiences. In rarer cases, online, open-book exams are also used as an assessment medium, however the latter is more popular.
5. Agility and Flexibility
Course materials can be accessed from anywhere in the world, regardless of differences in time zones, the location of the student, or their current status. From a busy working professional studying online in the late hours of the evening, to a stay at home mum brushing up their knowledge before getting back on the job market, online learning provides the much needed flexibility to study and finish a degree at each one’s own pace.
As universities recognise the need of the modern workforce for education, learning and development, online programmes were developed with various specialisations to cater to professionals from different fields, industries and experiential backgrounds. It is no longer an absolute requirement to travel to a campus to study the programme, as our partner UK universities have a global reach, providing their distance learning degrees to various countries worldwide.
The online mode of learning also inculcates a sense of discipline amongst students as they have to be self-motivated to finish their assignments and degree requirements to graduate on time. With student support always available to online students, they are guaranteed to successfully finish their degree course with a little commitment and dedication.