Online Courses Are Easier and Better for Students

Online Courses Are Easier And Better For Students

As Chris Bustamante mentioned in his argument “The Risks And Rewards Of Online Learning”, the 2011 Sloan Survey of Online Learning reported that more than six million college students in the fall of 2010 took at least one online course, comprising nearly one-third of all college and university students. The development of online learning classes is remarkable recent years. Students are voting with their actual behavior, that online learning has advantages for them. Although education on campus is still playing an important role in higher education, online learning does have more benefits.

        The first and most obvious advantage of online learning is that students can have more chance to arrange study time themselves. In the United States, a large amount of college students have part time jobs. They have to work for hours and study for hours every single day. Campus class time are not always ideal for them. There might be hours between two classes and they have no choice but to stay at school. If they have online classes, they still have to do some assignments every day. However, they will be able to arrange time themselves. They can use a continuous time of three or four hours to study. They can study on daylight or at night, and don’t need to worry about losing their jobs. If the students have classes on campus, they will also need to spend time and money on transportation. The students waiting for buses at bus stops and searching parking spaces on campus cannot be ignored. They are already busy studying and working every day, why should they spend time on transportation and that time definitely makes no sense. More importantly, the most active time for everyone is different. Some people prefer sleep early and get up early, while some other people prefer stay up late and get up late. A morning course is absolutely not appropriate for the second type of people. They will have to get up early while their brains can hardly work to go to school to take the class. If they live far away from campus, they will even have to wake up earlier. And during the class, they will be sleepy and inefficient. They will be wasting their time and tuition. It might also have a bad impact on their health. If they can take online classes, they will be able to arrange time. They can study while they are clear-eyed and efficient.

        Online learning can also make sure that every student is participating in the class, taking part in discussion. In a class on campus, when the instructor is talking, there might be always those active and aggressive students answering questions and making discussion. On the other hand, some quite or shy students are never talking and sharing their thoughts. The purpose of having a class is not only the teacher teaching and students learning, the students need to participate. If it is an online class, and the instructor gives a topic for the students to discuss, then everyone will have to talk about their thoughts. Every single student is sharing their thought, no matter if he or she is aggressive or shy, which is good for them.

        More importantly, online learning is not limited by location. Different students are able to take a same online course in different places like their homes or even in different cities, different states and different countries. Wherever they can access to the internet, they can take the class and learn the same thing as the class on campus.

        On the other side, learning on campus has some advantages for students, too. As Rachel Farhi said in her article “Online Education Innovators Should Be Wary”, taking courses on a computer at home deprives students of a practical, social education. Taking online classes only requires students to type in with a keyboard, while taking a class on campus will ask them to listen and speak with classmates and teachers. If the student is only one of lots of number of students in the online class, he or she will hardly be able to learn social skills or develop personal relationship with the classmates or the professor. Even if the students can successfully pass the class with a good grade, they might be lack of social skills. However, professionals need socials skills as much as they need qualifications. Social skills are not the only problem of online classes, the students may also be lack of enthusiasm or self control to study. If the students are sitting in the classroom, it will be easier for the instructor to teach actively and make the class more interesting and the knowledge more vivid. There will be interaction in the classroom between the instructor and the students so that it will be easier for the students to focus and learn the information. If they are only sitting in front of their computer, looking at the text book online or watch a couple of video made by their teacher, they will easily be bored and miss some information because they are not very focused on the topic. Students using computers to take a class are not very dedicated because they can be easily disrupted by some other information from their friends through facebook, or text or an email. If they are taking a course in the classroom, instructors will ask them to turn off their cell phones so that they can be focused to the course and learning more efficient.