Online Vs Traditional Education

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02 Nov 2017

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Virtual universities and their courses are rising in popularity, in this essay we intend to discuss online education and traditional education and the advantages and disadvantages for both of systems, we will argue this for many aspects like the cost of both, ease of access and their effects on social life, we will also check a comparison made for the result of each kind’s grades. The courses offered by each system will be covered and discussed and some innovative ideas to make full use of both systems and help students to have a better understanding of their materials then give arguments for the future of online education.

It is believed that since the beginning of human existence every generation tried to pass its knowledge to the next generation; at first it started orally, and by the time writing was invented they started writing it in books and after that education developed until education systems as we know them started. After that education system had stayed the same since then.

In the 1960s the University of Illinois invented a system that connect teachers with students and it was limited to letting students read their study materials and communicate with their professors by text. And in the 1990s a new education system emerged, it depended mainly on computer technology and the internet to submit homework or read required material, and in the end of the century many private universities started offering academic degrees online. Now there are nearly 1.6 million students who took at least one course online through many universities and websites offering full degrees online like Coursera, Udacity and the University of Phoenix.

Virtual courses are easier to access. Preparing oneself with a skill has become a necessity and online education presented the best alternative to traditional education for working adults and people living in remote places. Online education is easy to use. While traditional education requires one to have easy access with tolerable distance from the class, lab or any other learning centre at a specific time, online does not require that standard at all because it is not limited to any place or time; it is online, all one would need is device with access to the internet and he/she would have immediate access to the course at any time seven days a week. Even registration for an online course does not require anything other than a scan of one’s high school diploma.

Online education is cheaper. Many people cannot afford tuition fees for universities thus, university cost is one of the most crucial factors upon deciding the universities. Online education offers courses that was once -and still is- expensive in real universities in competitive prices so almost anyone can afford it, and although online education was meant for working adults, a growing number of students are preferring online courses due to low-cost tuition fees. Some argue that traditional education needs to cost higher because of the money spent providing resources and facilities whereas for online education it is all virtual so other than teachers’ payment there is no money spent on textbooks, transportation and facilities. Both traditional and E-learning are equal in scholarships offers as most of them provides numerous seats annually for free and financial aid packages.

What Distinguishes traditional education from online education apart from the activities which can help one developing his personality, manners and perspicacity, is the environment where one can meet with his colleagues in real life, socialise and interact with them, the classroom provide a healthy environment for classmates’ direct discussions and competitions scenarios which motivates students indirectly to study more and the easily approachable teachers which can clear any question or doubt. In online education you are limited to discuss only course materials with your course mates via text chatting or webcam. But online education’s main advantage is the one-on-one experience which provides you with personal attention of the tutor which has a good effect on students’ understandings, attention span and prevents them from daydreaming because of the individual attention while the traditional education lacks that because of the attention being divided on the students in the classroom.

Traditional education is wider. While online education covers and discusses topics which are directly related to courses the students registered for, while in traditional education the lecturers frequently covers many points which does not relate directly but considered important or common-knowledge materials. Traditional universities offer a wider range of courses than online ones; many courses cannot be taught online due to lack of labs and operational work and take for example medicine study, even if someone studied all the books he still needs to practice in labs before operating on real human, and that cannot be offered in virtual universities. On the other hand, online education excels in many other courses especially computer-related ones like Computer Science, Information and Technology Systems and Computer Engineer.

Due to traditional education’s discussions in the classrooms and online education’s one-on-one teaching methods, it has been controversial which the best method is in term of students’ grades. In the fall of 1996 an experiment was made to get an answer, the students of California State University, Northridge were divided into two halves, the first half’s students were taught virtually online and the other half’s students were taught normally by the traditional education systems; it was assumed that the traditional’s group will have better understanding for the material. However, the experiment and the produced data have shown the opposite, that virtual interaction produces better results. (Schutte) The finding could be explained that the virtual group students had a hard time contacting the teacher face-to-face and ask him directly which strengthened the bonds between the students to cooperate to reach an answer. This collaboration experience was enough to decide virtual education was a better way of teaching.

Online tests relief students from stress. Traditional education exams are normally held in a quiet classroom and an observer where many students get stressed out and that reason usually affect students’ grades. While some online courses also require on-campus exams, but that is not the majority especially if the students are outside the country; most online courses request open-books exams which provides more realistic indication of the students’ understanding of the course. Also, online education exams materials are always covered in the given texts, audio and videos while in traditional methods there is hardly specific materials students have to cover, they rely on notes and points covered in lectures.

One use of online education and traditional education is the integration of both; this offers students with a variety of studying method which will indirectly motivate students to work harder and study more, assignment can be dealt with online and lectures would still be held in classrooms.

Another use is making online courses as default then make the exams and lab work on campus.

An online education program can be a very rewarding experience for those individuals who are self-motivated, well-organized and independent learners. Online education is gaining increasing popularity among students and working adults because of factors such as convenience, affordability, flexibility, and accessibility. But on the other side younger students, and students who are dependent learners, may face number of problems towards adapting this unconventional kind of education. (Online Education Vs Traditional Education, n.d.)

It is undeniable that People who pursue higher education would still prefer traditional education in real classrooms and companies would still favour traditional students over online ones, but if someone is seeking to hone a minor skill then online courses are considered the best place for him/her. But as long as the internet is expanding, online education will continue to grow bringing more solutions and new ideas. Although online students are still not treated equally as normal graduate students but that is believed to change. On the other hand, many cases have been reported about an increasing number of students dropping out, it is not yet a serious problem that would affect online universities anytime soon but it is there and it has to be dealt with.

In this essay we discussed points for and against online education and traditional education systems and that online courses are convenient in both time and cost, while they lack the variety of courses provided and deficiency of human direct interactions, whereas we found that traditional systems emphasise on human social interaction and help builds one’s personality and give pre-work experience due to lab work and training. Many ideas to use both systems simultaneously were mentioned which can improve education experience. The future for both systems look bright and would undergo many improvement and upgrades.



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