The Benefits of Online Learning and the Modern Approaches to Quality Education

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With technology becoming such an important part of our daily lives, being integrated into everything we do: including train tickets, ordering food, talking to friends, or sometimes even making money by working online, it is not out of the ordinary to expect schooling to move online as well. As times have changed, technology has found its way into schooling more and more. Classes have transformed from computer classes, to doing practice activities on IPads, to relying on Google Classroom for work submissions, to complete online schooling with no face to-face interaction.
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The idea has sparked controversy as educators determine whether this lack of interaction is beneficial to students and their ability to work freely and independently, or if that connection is required to gain a substantial education. As someone who went to public high school, and now takes both online and lecture style college classes, I have definitely found that there is no overwhelming difference in the education I have been provided with from either setting.

I prefer online classes because of the flexibility and independence it gives in completing work around my busy schedule. Face-to-face contact, while beneficial, is not required and can be a hinderance to students attempting to complete an education fit around their schedule.
The increase in the number of students choosing to participate in online schooling rather than the typical lecture style course has been drastic in past years. According to University of the Potomac in a 2014 comparison of online and traditional classes, it was found that about 6,700,000 students are enrolled in online classes in over 275 accredited online universities.
It was also found that over 30% of students are enrolled in at least one online class. This is assumed to be due to the fact that online classes can cost as little as 80 times less than a typical college class. When the statistics of the topic are looked at it, it is understandable why so many choose to learn online rather than in a school setting.
Other finances that can be avoided include transportation costs, physical textbooks, class fees, babysitters, or other needed help when one is away at college. (Aspillera 1) It was found that out of the students interviewed, 77% of them agreed that online classes are just as beneficial, if not more beneficial in terms of their education, with the average score of online learners in the 50th percentile. Alex Nikotina, author of Online vs. In-Class: Are we asking the wrong questions? introduces another benefit of online learning in the independence it gives students and the lesson of time management, self dependence, and self discipline it provides. By giving students the ability to manage their time and workload, they are left with choosing when they do their work, if they do it at all, and how they choose to do it.
Colleges with the option of online schooling’s main goal is, “to encourage students to apply their knowledge is to give them a certain amount of freedom and flexibility in their learning, and give them room to exercise their organizational skills” (Nikotina 1). This will be different for every student, depending on their style of working, learning, and their motivation to complete the class. Personally, having online classes with my work posted for the week and a set deadline for everything to be completed has been very beneficial for me, as it gives me the opportunity to complete everything at once and get it finished, rather than completing a small amount of assignments multiple times a week, as it expected from a typical college class.
I appreciate the flexibility and independence online schooling gives me in determining how I want to complete my work load. While I agree that schooling should not solely rely on technology in order to teach and provide students with work, I think it is beneficial to give students the option to choose what works best for them. Because education is so important and we are blessed to have education so readily available to us, I find that giving students the opportunity to decide whether traveling to a school or completing the work online would work best for them.
Alex Nikotina states, “choosing between online or in-class education has long shifted from “which one is better” to “which one works better for me”. Taking in-person classes will not work for everyone’s schedule, especially if they have a difficult work schedule to work around, or priorities at home. By allowing them to learn online when they have the free time available, students are given an equal and fair chance to learn, despite their lifestyle. For example, because my first two semesters of college were either completely online, or a majority of them being online, I have had the opportunity to work full time and save money, but next semester, because none of my classes are offered online, I had to ask to be cut in hours in order to attend school. This is something I did not want to do and will affect me negatively, but since I have almost completed my degree and these are the only remaining classes, I had to accept it. By offering classes online, I would have been given the opportunity to continue working full time, while still attending school and finishing my degree.
Overall, the debate as to which type of schooling is more beneficial to students and teachers is long past what form of teaching is better and has moved on to which form is teaching works for the specific student. The issues of personal life and responsibilities as well as availability and accessibility come into play for every student when they decide to attend school. Lester Owens, included in Camden Professor sees value in Face-to-Face teaching, by Jonathan Lai, states “access does not necessarily mean success. And success is only individual, learning is behavioral, education is a behavioral science, so we have to deal with the individual.” I think this quote, while originally used in defense of face-to-face schooling, definitely helps in favor of online schooling as well.
Every issue is in terms of the individual. It is impossible to apply one form of learning to an entire school, as we all learn and live differently. The beauty in today’s approach to learning is the flexibility that is given to every student in learning in ways that benefit them individually. This inclusiveness strengthens the appreciation of learning and teaching, instead of causing stress and confusion that is typically joined with the idea of school.
Works Cited

Aspillera, Mark. “What Are the Potential Benefits of Online Learning?” Worldwidelearn.com, www.worldwidelearn.com/education-articles/benefits-of-online learning.htm
Lai, Jonathan. “Camden Professor Sees Value in Face-to-face Teaching.” The Philadelphia Inquirer, 27 Sept. 203ADAD.
Nikotina, Alex. “Online vs In-Class: Are We Asking the Wrong Question?” OLC, 1 Feb. 2016, onlinelearningconsortium.org/online-vs-class-asking-wrong-question/.
“Online Classes vs. Traditional Classes – A Learning Comparison.” University of the Potomac, potomac.edu/learning/online-learning-vs-traditional learning/.

Erik Hubbard

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