Online vs Traditional Classes: Which One is Better?
What is Online Learning?
The online learning system is a newer and enhanced version of remote learning. It is a mechanism for delivering educational information via the internet. Unlike the traditional education system, time and location hold no significance to online education. In this way, a student has the privilege of not always being physically present in a school/college during classes. The student can adjust his own pace of learning while having the luxury of selecting his ideal time and place to study. Students all over the globe can learn from any institution in the world that offers online classes to its students.
Learning Management System (LMS)
In higher education, most educational institutes use Learning Management System (LMS) to provide their course materials to the students. LMS is a software application for the administration, documentation, reporting, automation, and delivery of course materials, as well as learning and development programs.
Traditional Classes Advantages
Student Feedback
With online education, one drawback that is faced by both teachers and students as compared to traditional classes is the lack of effective feedback to the teacher, as the teacher cannot discern the emotional state/behavior of the student. An experienced teacher is capable of recognizing the emotional state of his student and responding to the student accordingly to have a positive impact on the student’s learning process.
When it comes to online education, there is no individual present to monitor the student activity and behavior like in traditional education systems, and student-centered learning mechanisms are the only thing to rely on. So the student won’t get the feedback respective to his emotional state but would instead receive general feedback from the course. Another related issue is that the professor cannot keep track of the emotional behaviors of the students as it’s not possible to use physical devices.
Interaction with peers and professors
A traditional educational environment enables students in having face to face contact with professors, instructors, and peers. In online classes these options are limited. Traditional learning enables physical interaction with peers and professors. Students form meaningful relationships with people in their college campus or high school that will probably last a long time. Traditional classes make you part of group projects which require communication with peers and this provides a holistic experience to the student which cannot be obtained via online learning.
Some Majors entirely dependent on traditional classes
If your major is nursing, agriculture, biology, music, then online classes would prove to be extremely ineffective. While some classes in these majors could be taken online, only traditional classes can provide you with lab work, clinical practice, or musical performances. A traditional learning environment would provide access to equipment and materials needed in these majors that online classes can never provide.
Access to Libraries and Research Equipment
An online learning environment cannot provide you with the library experience offered in physical campuses in universities or schools. A library facilitates students to study, collaborate and do research for papers together in the same room. Without a library and easy access to research materials contained inside a university, a student cannot reach his full potential and obtain a holistic understanding of his specific research work.
Advantages of Online Learning
The online education framework is working to overcome the drawbacks of the traditional education system, while also offering additional advantages.
Students learn at their own pace
One main advantage of online classes is students have complete control over their lessons. They can make their own pace according to their learning ability. We know that every student has different learning and memorizing capabilities. Some students are sharp learners while some take time to absorb certain topics. A teacher explains concepts and clears doubts of the students in a classroom but beyond that, the teacher cant help much.
Many students cannot clear their doubts and may find the tutor’s learning pace to be too fast for them. And it is impossible for the teacher to individually give attention to each of his students.
Online education can remove these drawbacks as additional online resources and eBooks are available for the student to gain knowledge from.
One additional advantage is that students aren’t dependent on the teacher to cover the coursework, as he/she can start or finish a chapter himself.
Cost-Effectiveness
Online classes are significantly cheaper than attending physical classes. The stark contrast in cost is represented by the difference in resources needed to produce online coursework and a printed textbook. A paperback book bears a great expense to the student as its process of production is resource-consuming. From chopping down trees to the generation of paper to printing, packaging, and shipping, a significant amount of money is spent which makes the prices of textbooks exorbitantly high.
Hence eBooks are much cheaper than paper textbooks and online students have all the necessary coursework present digitally.
Traditional education forces each student to buy textbooks for different subjects, which is not the case in online learning.
Students Don’t need to worry about missed classes
Students oftentimes become absent in their lectures, either due to feeling unwell or because they find the classes of a particular subject to be dull. Whatever is the reason for absence, a teacher cannot conduct the same lecture again for just a few students. As that would be not only unfair to other students but also waste the professor’s time.
However, in online classes, there is no worry of missing the classes, as the student can read his coursework on his own time. Some lectures are also recorded and the student can always watch the recorded lectures whenever he is free. However many institutes don’t give the privilege of recorded lectures, so you can pay someone to take your class if you cant take it yourself. If a thought like “ can someone take my class for me?” ever crosses your mind, there exist services online that you can make use of.
Moreover, online notes can be shared between students, so access to additional information is also available in online learning. Students don’t need to feel anxious about missing out on topics and chapters, as they can be on pace with the help of online tutorials and other online resources. Thus online education guarantees the student never missing out on any of his coursework.
So Which one is better?
There is no easy answer to this question, as traditional learning has been around for thousands of years, and shutting down schools and universities is impossible as face-to-face learning and developing interpersonal skills is unachievable with online classes. But on the other hand, the flexibility and additional resources that online learning offers are also absent from traditional learning. Hence the integration of online classes and traditional classes is the best solution for achieving the highest learning potential for students.