Introduction
Over the past one and a half years, the world has quickly transitioned to online education from traditional education. While the first-world countries have coped up pretty nicely, the third-world countries still face difficulties in ensuring proper online classes. Getting used to these new circumstances was difficult for everyone, but eventually, people have adapted to the situations. This pandemic has given us a new horizon to think about the benefits of online classes and why they can be the future of education.
This article will talk about 8 Key benefits to online classes that you may not have thought about.
Convenience :
Think about how much a hassle every morning of your life was, waking up, taking a shower, eating breakfast, getting late, and running to your school. Also, the tight schedule at school is severe stress to your brain, which is mostly unnecessary. Between this over-scheduled life, there is so little time for our other social, familial commitments.
Online classes have made schools so much convenient. All you need to do is open your laptop and sit down with an earphone. That’s it. No running or driving whatsoever.
It also provides extra flexibility in your schedule. You can lie on your bed and login into classes from your home (although that is not something I would recommend)
Time is money:
An online class saves about 1-2 hours from your life every single day. You need to get in your car, drive for about 30 minutes and then reach your institution. The time wasted on the road is ultimately saved. If a person saves 30 minutes per day, he has an extra 150 hours considering 65 days of vacation. Of course, it varies from person to person; some might even save about 300 hours a year.
Not only does it remove the time on the road, but it also saves a considerable amount of time wasted between classes. You can use that time to spend with your family, write a journal, review your lectures, and whatnot.
Work while you study:
Online classes provide a wide range of convenience and flexibility to our schedules. Also, it saves our valuable time, which we can channel to the important stuff. For example: Getting a part-time job.
Students can pursue a part-time job while attending classes online. When you attend classes physically, you come home feeling exhausted and drained. But that is not the case for online classes. You attend lectures in a good study environment, so you are less likely to feel fatigued. This gives you an excellent chance to pursue a part-time job besides your education.
Studying in a familiar environment
We all have a study corner in our homes where we feel the most comfortable studying. It is better than the lecture halls of your institutions or even the libraries. The study space at your home is the place you feel the most productive.
One of the key benefits to online classes is that you can attend lectures from a familiar environment. You can arrange the class environment according to your need. It will make you feel comfortable and focused in the classes. (But don’t get too comfortable ).
Reduced expenses:
Did you know, A single course at the University of Chicago costs about $4,489? Just imagine how much you would be paying for a four-year degree then.
Students would do anything to cut the cost. And online classes can reduce expenses in different areas of a student’s life.
- No cost of transportation: According to location, every student is spending an amount of money to attend classes.
- No dormitory fees: Students don’t need to pay dormitory fees because they can attend classes from their homes
- Supplies less: You will be cutting the cost of every accessory that you have to bring to your college every day (almost), pencils, notebooks, pens, calculators, and more.
This might not seem significant. But if you calculate four years, this amount sums up to a substantial amount. You can use this money to go on a great vacation or plan your wedding.
Geographic boundaries
Suppose your best friend is getting married in a different city and he has invited you to attend the wedding. You are excited, but missing classes will hamper your grades gravely. At this moment you have to choose between your friend or your grades. Although you might feel that friendship is what you would prefer, it would be a tough choice if you have worked hard the whole year.
But online classes can make this situation so much simple. You don’t have to miss anything. Anyone from anywhere can attend classes. There are no geographical boundaries. You don’t have to miss a destination wedding, nor do you have to sacrifice your grades.
Reviewing is easy
Among so many benefits to online classes, reviewing is one of the crucial ones. You don’t get to record your traditional lectures while sitting in a gallery in front of your teacher. But you can do it in an online class.
You can record a lecture and review it anytime you want. Humans forget about 70% of the information after 24 hours, so a person is not likely to remember anything about a lecture that happened one week ago. But online classes allow us to review anywhere and anytime.
Increases focus
If you are not concentrating, you are not learning. In a traditional class, it is really easy to get distracted. There are hundreds of students coming together to one place while you are sitting beside your dearest friends. How do you think you can escape distraction?
But an online class environment is calm and quiet. You are at your own study space, which you arrange. It is possible to remove distractions any time you want. There is no one around to disturb you or hamper your attention. This is why online classes are better for retaining concentration than traditional classes
Online class Vs. Traditional Class:
Now obviously, there is no unmixed in the world. For all the benefits to online classes, there are lots of disadvantages too.
Here are some listed below :
- Students fail to communicate freely with the teachers because there is an artificial barrier of technology among them. This barrier usually affects introverted students who are not good at overcoming their shyness.
- Students use 5 hours on the phone on average per day. These online classes add to their screen time which is not so pleasant for their health.
- Adaptation issues are one of the core downsides of online classes. From the beginning of school, students have been following a particular way of education and suddenly, coping with the new circumstance is not as easy as it seems.
Students easily get lost in cyberspace because one notification is all they need to pull them into the social media world.
The list goes on and on. Here is a list of all the advantages and disadvantages of online classes from the research done on students of Indiana State University.
Conclusion
Despite having disadvantages, I think the fundamental problem is that we are not yet adapted to it. All our lives we have been taking classes in one method, we can’t change it suddenly.
Besides, traditional classes help us to better interact with other students and teachers too. A hybrid system of mixing both of them should be the future of education and learning. Only then can we enjoy the benefits to online classes as well as avoid their disadvantages.