Will online education be able to change the conventional mode of teaching? This is one of the most debatable issues now to which there are various types of opinions. E-learning enables the teachers to access unique educational sources they could not think about in conventional methods. With advancements in technology, teachers are using different teaching methods and tools, making it easy to impart knowledge.
Though e-learning benefits more than just a few ways, it cannot fully replace the conventional teaching method yet. This is because e-learning comes with its challenges, which the traditional method did not offer to students. Technology is advancing, and it is not flawless yet, and some still prefer conventional methods over e-learning.
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There have been great changes in the educational world due to the introduction of online learning methods and benefits. The online mode has made it convenient for the ones in remote places to access educational material and take part in university courses they couldn’t think of. These are some prominent advantages when looking at e-learning vs conventional learning and how technology has helped students.
But it is not wrong to say that online education is somewhat an elite concept, and without access to the latest technology, one can be part of online classes or education from home. It requires a stable internet connection and a laptop to be part of online classes. These are discriminatory and exclusive for a specific category of students in society.
Considering these, online education can be challenging for some, while others would love to appreciate the e-learning advantages over any other mode. It proves that the ones who can avail the set up for online education will find this mode highly beneficial over the traditional one. Some advantages and disadvantages below shall help you understand the difference between the two modes better.
What are the factors that differentiate classroom teaching from E-learning?
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Convenience of Learning
The eLearning offers convenience irrespective of place and time, and you can be part of it from the convenience of your home. However, some require completing assignments within time, and therefore, content should be engaging enough to retain students’ attention for long.
On the contrary, classroom learning is part of a regular schedule where students have to attend class on time. The class encourages us to stay up with better learning speed and create motivation in one to complete study in the classroom space.
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Style of Imparting Knowledge
In classroom teaching, it depends on the teacher’s preference for imparting knowledge. However, in the case of online learning, you can choose the tutor whom you want guidance from as per convenience. In the classroom, you may not find teachers’ approaches appropriate to learn. However, you can choose the one you find interactive to understand the curriculum better for online classes.
Online, the teaching mode and the content are important to make it easy for students to grasp the subject matter easily. The online tutors try to make the online content an engaging one and use different approaches to make it interesting for students. This helps students to achieve the same level of education and help in knowledge retention.
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Ease of Interaction
Online sources adopt different interaction methods, like game play, case studies, speakers, and problem-solving methods. The main idea is to give a realistic and interesting feel to the students. This may be lacking in the classroom method, and it has only the direct mode of iteration. Here, students can have face to face interaction to get their queries solved.
In this relation, it can be time taking for students to get in touch with learners as they are not available online most of the time. In such cases, you can take help from video tutorials that would help solve your queries.
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Touch of Personalization
The level of personalization depends on the teaching method and how well the teacher can understand the learner. Depending on what they understand, they can offer different types of material for the students’ help and help them in better understanding. For the classroom mode of teaching, this can be time taking.
However, the personalization in content is easy and convenient for online teachers. They try to organize quizzes and different course methods that would suit the level of efficiency of students. Online, it is a convenient method of content personalization that is mainly to achieve the same objectives.
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Better Analysis of Education
Classroom education facilities on-spot discussion with students, and therefore, students can expect to have a quick review of their work in classroom mode. However, this may not be possible in online teaching and would depend on the teacher’s availability. If the student can produce the work within the time of teaching, they may expect to get quick analysis. Besides, the online tutor offers better behavioural insights that contribute to better course development.
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Availability of Educational Content
The availability of content depends on the teaching style. In classroom teaching, the content may vary depending on the source the teacher prefers to teach from. It can be different books, notes, and others. In the case of online, the materials are available in plenty, and you can download them for future reference as well.
This, in online teaching, reduces the number of notes and books as students can get access to content via different search engines and save the information for later use. Students can store it online and access it as and when needed.
Therefore, this part shall help you understand the e-learning advantages and disadvantages, and it differs from classroom methods of teaching. Both come with their set of benefits, and the online method could not completely replace the traditional method. However, the classroom set up is convenient and better for students during the tender ages before they come to terms with online methods in higher classes.
The difference on Greater Level
Other than financial challenges, there can be social challenges when students are unable to concentrate from home. This may not be the case when studying from campus as they could concentrate better. The learning environment matters when the students opt for an online mode of teaching. Students from different universities have discussed how they are under social constraint and find it challenging to focus on studies when they go back home.
This is where a campus seems to be a better place for some as it helps facilitate learning in the best way possible. It helps students focus and learns better, which is often missing at home. It works as an equalizer as fellow students also get access to the same service, education, resources, and the like.
In addition to this, the scope of one-to-one interaction on campus with teachers, scope to attend lectures, seminars, and access to plenty of books in libraries are benefits that the online education at home may not provide. One should be careful about these when applying for future education abroad.
What Changes to See in Future Classroom?
These days, students are more into self-instruction than tutors as the subjects interest them, and they try to find the solutions themselves. If a platform can offer both quality content and interaction, it would interest them to better eLearning. The students are free to get access to online content whenever they wish to.
If students want to be part of lectures or seminars, they can do so without even visiting the place, from home comfort. This is the most significant benefit of future online classes that empowers study helping the tutors to offer easy guidance.
But eLearning cannot replace traditional teaching methods as each of them has its set of benefits, and it may not change even in the future. However, a collaborative educational environment may come with better learning techniques. This will surely engage and help students learn topics better with a better supply of study resources. Therefore, the main idea is to offer the best environment for students to give their best.
Immersive Campus Life –Different from Virtual Life
Besides lectures and textures, the university campus offers a holistic education experience for students to study in a group with friends. A student gets to meet people across different parts of the world with a scope of debate on different topics and better social adaptability and knowledge gaining scope. The ability to adapt to a new culture and learn things better shall a student’s development skills other than education.
While you are part of a classroom curriculum, students get the confidence to ask the teacher about any doubt, which is a different scenario for online teaching. So, eLearning comes with both benefits and disadvantages over traditional methods of teaching. The teachers should try to offer a suitable level of teaching in both forms.
Digital learning has its pack of benefits, though it takes away the advantages of developing new skills and finding new skills. However, in the wake of the pandemic, online education is favoured over the traditional mode as the educational institutes are encouraging the online teaching method.