Pros and Cons of Online Education

Pros and Cons of Online Education

Introduction

The primary purpose of both online education and classroom education is to facilitate the learning experience of the students so that they are able to grasps what is being taught to them in a simpler and more comprehensive manner. Educational institutions across the globe have often debated whether they should retain traditional classroom environments and conventional teaching styles in order to educate their students or adopt online education instead. This paper aims to determine the effectiveness of online education methods by highlighting some of its major benefits and drawbacks.

Discussion

There are a myriad of reasons why online learning methods have become one of the most popular forms of distance learning in today's world. Compared to conventional classroom learning which offers limited access to education, online education promises an assortment of opportunities to the students while also providing educators with a new paradigm that encourages dynamic high-quality courses to be developed and taught (Billings, 2002).

Benefits of online education

There are many reasons why many students prefer online education over classroom learning. Online education facilitates the learning experience of students because,

It can be taught anywhere

A major benefit of online learning is that students are able to participate in a dynamic high-quality online classroom environment when factors such as schedule or distance would normally discourage them from on-ground learning. Simply by setting up a computer and an internet connection, the students are able to participate in online classes from virtually anywhere in the world. This allows underprivileged students, especially students from underdeveloped countries who are unable to enroll into world-class higher education institutions because of financial issues, to learn from some of the best teachers and educators in the world (Billings, 2002).

It can be taught at any time and pace

Students can access the virtual environment practically any time of the day and this brings a much higher degree of time efficiency to the online learning format. Asynchronous communication is also facilitated through conferencing programs which allow the executive students to juggle study, work and family (Ko¨nig, 2007). Therefore, the online learning environment allows students to choose a time for studying that is more convenient for them.

It promises synergy

Online learning promises dynamic interaction on a student-to-instructor and student-to-student level. This promotes continuous sharing of ideas and resources and generates synergy throughout the learning process (Shank & Sitze, 2004). Individual students are therefore able to make contributions to ...