Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning becomes mandatory. The ability to relax at home and use our private computers to earn college credit (often at a lower cost than purchasing face-to-face courses) forces more students to leave the classroom and pursue online education. However, does it seem appropriate that we are moving toward using online learning within our colleges and universities? In fact, learning the traditional way is better than online learning.
While it may seem appropriate to adapt our style of understanding to keep up with the technology available to individuals, there are reasons to consider that online courses are not as valuable to individuals as traditional style instruction. This guide will examine the top three reasons why online courses are far less valuable to students than face-to-face classes.
Online Learning Lacks of Interpersonal Skill Development
Online learning requires little time to interact with other classmates and teachers. Homework information can be presented online and can be done on your own time without attending class meetings. While this benefit is nice, it lacks the interactive elements of a regular class that help students develop important social skills for their future.
In a class, students are often asked to speak. They may have to give presentations or speeches. Online courses don’t require any of that. Companies often tell universities that they need graduates who have better interpersonal skills. They say this is essential to their success on the job. Traditional learning teaches these products.
Of course, when companies tell universities they want these skills, there is room for advancement within traditional curricula. But online courses are not the solution. If anything, online courses will only hinder a student’s ability to speak and interact with different people to help them in their life and livelihood.
When it is essential for students to interact with their peers and teachers, they gain confidence in speaking and interacting with them. Because online learning does not provide a hands-on experience of collaborating and communicating with different people, students’ value is much less.
Traditional Learning Results in Stronger Memory Development
Why do so many students enroll in online courses? One reason is that they don’t have to take an authentic course and can find out at home. A more serious and often unspoken reason can be the simple fact that online learning does not require students to study or memorize material in the same way as traditional learning.
Students who receive an online test or quiz do not have to worry about a teacher catching them cheating. Students have the option of using a book or quickly finding answers online during exams. Since many online tests are timed, and many professors don’t mind using a novel, this is the way a student should study. When someone doesn’t have to study and memorize something, it doesn’t stick in their long-term memory the same way it does when they have to retain what they’ve studied to get a closed-book internal exam.
This is a major flaw in online courses: they don’t encourage memory development. Students may not make it into a difficult class, but they will better appreciate the education they receive if they have to work harder for it. A child doesn’t know how to spell when they look up words in a dictionary; they understand how to describe sentences from memory when they spend time writing class. This is what allows them to learn.
Online Learning Results in Lack of Student Motivation
One problem with online courses is that they too often inspire people to reach a level but never to learn. If a student is afraid to speak, the classroom is the perfect place to practice and overcome that fear. When students receive verbal feedback and constructive criticism face-to-face from their own teachers, it instills in them a motivation to expand their practice and build on what they hear. Pedagogical connections and partnerships cause face-to-face learning to gain motivation to improve their work and learning. It gives the result that online learning is lacking of.