Online education is learning or getting education using different online plat forms like online Universities and online Colleges. The internet has massive potential to vastly improve the standard of education worldwide. In this day and age, the internet plays a significant role in the society, and it is hard to imagine our lives without it. In many ways, the terminologies ‘online’ and ‘offline’ don’t even apply anymore because in some way or form, we are always connected to the internet.
The internet has influenced the younger generation the most. In fact, unlike the generation before them, they were born considering the internet as a necessity just like water, oxygen or food. In many developed countries, the internet is already an integral part of education, and this combination is expected to spread worldwide in the coming decades.
Online Education Benefits
Online education has several benefits, some of which are already being implemented in various institutions around the world. We will look at just a few of them:
Multimedia
Visual data arguably has a massive impact on the learning and understanding of crucial text or other study material. With the help of images, graphics, animations, documentaries and slides, teachers can capture the attention of their students more easily and they study with a lot more focus.
Hence, with the use of multimedia, students might gain knowledge about a subject which they might not have by simply reading a textbook because they were just not interested enough.
Online Learning
Another positive of online education is long-distance learning, where you physically don’t need to be a part of an institution to access learning. This facility allows you take a short course online. The course material will be provided to you via emails or other online avenues, and you will be part of a virtual class and even appear for exams. One major benefit of this is that people from any corner of the globe can have access to the course and gain valuable knowledge.
Easy Contact
Contact with teachers is essential when you’re studying or else you can lose out on valuable information. With the help of emails, contact is possible at almost any time and crucial information about a certain subject or query can be shared almost instantly. Teachers can also use emails to contact parents and guardians with ease.
Projects
With the help of the internet, students can come up with innovative ways and ideas to do their projects. The internet provides students with a wealth of information and knowledge, covering literally all subjects and topics. Going through them and picking the right information is definitely a lot faster than reading several books and then carving out the needed information. The use of the internet also aids students in finishing their homework faster than ever before.
Encyclopedia
A physical encyclopedia book might not be always available to students, so they face difficulty in gaining knowledge. However, various types of encyclopediasare available online 24/7 that students can use whenever they wish.
Affordable Knowledge
Going through various books in order to do your research can be time-consuming and expensive as books cost a lot. Thanks to the online education, we now have the ability to access several websites that have encyclopedias and dictionaries, and we can use them whenever we want. These websites are also crucial for those students who are disabled and have problems going to a library.
Negatives
While there are a lot of positives when it comes to getting education with the help of the internet, there are also grey areas then we need to look into and be wary of:
Work Ethic
When children grow up with the habit of instantly getting results with the push of a button, they might lack certain qualities that make them unable to be productive. These students tend to be lethargic and not attentive and are used to takingshortcuts, not using their mind to complete a task and instead letting the internet do it for them. These qualities can be a hindrance in the student’s personal and professional life.The result can be disastrous as in the real world, they won’t always find someone to help them and will have to think of solutions by themselves.
Attention Span
This is the first thing that will suffer when students use the internet for their education. Since they know that they can log onto the net to watch their favoriteTV shows or music videos, they end up wasting their time instead of focusing on their important work. Furthermore, they are used to getting instant results and, consequently, their attention span suffers. Even when they are in class, they get bored easilyand find it much harder to stay focused, resulting in some students not wanting to go to school at all.
Cheating
Yes, cheating has been made very easy by the internet. As you can find all the knowledge that you could possibly need, it can be too tempting to resist sometimes. This lures students, who take that opportunity to complete their assignments, tests, quizzes, research papers and even exams. This can get students into hot water very quickly, though, as plagiarism, academic fraud and rampant cheating are serious criminal offences and in some countries, they can even be imprisoned for such activities.
Physical Development
Education is supposed to enhance the capability of your mind, but nowadays, students spend hours playing online games, surfing on the internet and engaging on social media. This can significantly damage a student’s physical and mental development. In order to get rid of such habits, students should be encouraged to get involved in exercise and physical activities, but if they are not given the proper motivation to do so, they will have to bear the brunt years down the road.
Now you have seen both sides of the coin. You can either fall into the trap and end up on the wrong side or maintain a balanced approach and take advantage of all the knowledge that the internet has to offer.
