As with most instructional methods, online learning also has positives and negatives. Decoding and understanding these advantages and disadvantages will help institutes create strategies for more efficient delivery of the lessons, ensuring a continuous learning journey for the students.
The advantages and disadvantages of online learning
As with most instructional methods, online learning also has positives and negatives. Decoding and understanding these advantages and disadvantages will help institutes create strategies for more efficacy in delivering the lessons, ensuring a continuous learning journey for students.
The Advantages Of Online Learning
- Efficacy
Online learning offers teachers an effective way to deliver lessons to students. Online learning has several tools, such as videos, PDFs, podcasts, and teachers can use all these tools as part of their lesson plans. By extending the lesson plan beyond conventional textbooks to include online resources, teachers can become more efficient educators.
- Convenience
An advantage of online education is that it enables students to attend classes from any location of their choice. It also enabled schools to reach out to a more extensive network of students instead of being restricted by geographical boundaries. Online lectures can be recorded, archived, and shared for future reference. This allows students to access the learning content at a time of their comfort.
Online learning offers students the accessibility of time and place in education.
- Price
Yet another advantage of online learning is decreased financial costs. Online education is more affordable as compared to physical learning. This is because online learning eliminates the cost points of learners’ transportation, student meals, and, most importantly, real estate. All the class materials are available online, thus creating an affordable digital learning environment while also being beneficial to the classroom.
- Student Attendance is Increased
Since online courses can be attended from home or a location of choice, there are fewer chances of students missing out on lessons.
- Works With All Learning Styles
Every learner has a different learning journey and a different learning style. Some learners are visual learners, while others prefer to learn through audio. Many learners thrive in the classroom; others are solo learners who get distracted by large groups.
The online learning system, with its variety of options and resources, can be customized in various ways.
The Disadvantages Of Online Learning
- Screen Time and Focus
For many learners, one of the biggest challenges of online learning is the struggle with focusing on the screen for long periods. With online learning, there is also a better chance for learners to be easily distracted by social media or other sites. Therefore, teachers must keep their online classes crisp, engaging, and interactive to help students focus on the lesson.
- Tech Problems
Another key challenge of online classes is Wi-Fi access. While internet penetration has grown considerably in the past few years, a consistent connection with decent speed is a problem in smaller cities and towns. Without a consistent internet connection for learners or teachers, there can be a lack of continuity in learning for the kid. This is detrimental to the education process.
- Disconnection
Learners can learn a lot from being in the company of their peers. However, in an online class, students and teachers have minimal physical interactions. This often results in the sense of isolation for the students. In this situation, the school must allow other forms of communication between the students, peers, and teachers. This can involve online messages, emails, and video conferencing that will allow face-to-face interaction and lessen the sense of isolation.
- Training
Online learning requires educators to have an understanding of using digital forms of learning. However, this is not always the case. Very often, educators have a very basic understanding of tech. They often don’t even have the resources and tools to conduct online classes.
Schools need to train teachers with the latest technology updates, so they can conduct their online classes seamlessly.
- Managing Screen Time
Many parents are worried about the hazards of having their kids spend so many hours staring at a screen. This uptick in screen time is one of the most listed concerns and disadvantages of online learning. Students also develop poor posture and other physical problems due to being hunched in front of a screen.
A good solution would be to give the students plenty of breaks from the screen to refresh their minds and bodies.
