In the past decade, online education has become increasingly popular as technology continues to evolve. With it comes the question: can the internet truly replace school? While there are certainly advantages and disadvantages to both traditional schools and online courses, this article will explore how the two compare in terms of accessibility, cost-effectiveness, quality of instruction, and more.
How does online schooling work?
There are several types of online schooling. First of all, there are individual and collective forms. In addition, there is asynchronous learning (that is, students send completed assignments and receive feedback, but they do not have a clear study schedule).
Online education is built on the same principles as classical education. Homework and class work, interaction with the teacher, grades – everything is the same, but without desks, school uniforms and briefcases.
Is there really no difference from the traditional system of education?
Of course there are! Here are a few of the major ones:
- Flexible study schedules. Perhaps this is one of the main advantages of online schooling. It is especially convenient for young athletes, musicians, and actors who are not suited to the standard class schedule.
- More opportunities for gifted children. If in a “regular” school they are forced to study at the same pace as everyone else, with online learning they can work at an individual pace, ahead of their classmates.
- Comfortable environment for students with disabilities. The correspondence format gives a wider choice of schools, because not all educational institutions have inclusive education opportunities.
- Development of independence. Students devote more time to independent training on materials developed by professional educators. Thanks to this, students learn to approach the case consciously and responsibly, not “from under the stick”. These skills will be useful to them in their adult lives.
Educational online projects are good, first of all, because they erase any geographical boundaries. Staying at home or in the park with a laptop, we learn foreign languages, acquire programming, yoga or gardening skills, learn to embroider or draw, change our profession, get diplomas from international universities or undergo advanced training…
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What are the prospects for online education?
As for digital trends, the future of education is gamification and virtual and augmented reality technologies. And there are really many possibilities here: for example, the Chicago Historical Museum and the Chicago Institute have released an application that allows you to see how the place where the user is located looked like many years ago. The Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic have created a three-dimensional environment for studying anatomy.
Another interesting trend is that experts say that more and more people are taking their time to finish their education after graduation and are becoming “perpetual students.” The concept of continuing education is now more popular than ever.
The level of education in distance education
Much depends on the school, as with traditional education. If we are talking about education at the international level, its quality does not change depending on the format. But the opportunity to study remotely expands the boundaries and allows you to get a degree from a European or American institution without leaving the country and without leaving family and friends. This is especially important for children and school graduates, whom parents are still afraid to let go free.
Let’s turn to the results of the experiment. Pearson initiated a study comparing the results of traditional and online schools in math and English in the United States. It is one of the most advanced countries in the field of school distance education, there such a practice has existed since the 2000s. As a result of the study, scientists concluded that the effectiveness of learning in an online school is not lower than in a traditional one.
Moreover, the online format makes it possible to take an individual approach to each student. The teacher monitors the progress of the mentees on the monitoring panel and can help in time if necessary.
Communication with classmates, circles and sections
Students are distributed by classes and faculties where they socialize and find friends. Many activities and hobby clubs have migrated to the Internet environment with the schools themselves: writing, chess, choir… They are held online outside of school hours. As for sports sections, students can attend them in their own city.
When the Internet can hurt
So, when the Internet can only hinder good learning:
- Indiscriminate use of information sources. Remember that not all sites provide verified information. In addition, many sites allow anyone to write and edit articles, which also negatively affects the quality of the information posted.
- Downloading other people’s reports, term papers, etc., and trying to pass them off as your own. There is a very high probability that all these papers have already been read by the teachers, so it is very easy to get the wrong idea about you. In addition, many teachers have begun to use “anti-plagiarism”, which will also give you away easily. In addition, your downloaded work can be old and some points no longer relevant, especially with regard to law, rapidly developing technical specialties and medicine.
- Social networks, entertainment portals and online games. Have nothing to do with learning, or have very little to do with learning, but can take up a lot of time, which is unlikely to help you study.When the Internet can help you study
The Internet is not universally evil and can help you with many things, including being helpful in your studies. A few points when the Internet is not detrimental to learning, but on the contrary helps:
- The Internet allows you to find materials that have never been published or have been published in a very small edition, but these materials have useful information and are used in your work, as well as referenced by various academic literature. You are unlikely to find such things in the library, and they can be useful, especially when writing your thesis.
- Untranslated textbooks. It is not certain that you will need to borrow the latest information that has not yet been translated, but anything can happen.
- Long distance to the university library. It may indeed be easier to read a textbook online than to go to the library, which may not have the book you need or only have it available in the reading room, but you would like to get a lot of information from it.
