The Benefits and Challenges of Online Learning in Higher Education

Question:

Identify and analyse the Benefits and Issues connected to both Online Learning and face to-face learning in higher education. Support your discussion with evidence and examples.

In the world of education, the technology has brought a big revolution. The face-to-face learning in classrooms has been facing tough competition from online learning. With the advancement of technology, students across the world now prefer the new method of learning and that is changing the structure of the method of learning. Formal education started with face-to-face teaching and learning. After the introduction of internet, people got the access to resources and with time, the universities have opened their doors for those who cannot afford to migrate to a different country for higher education (Jaggars, 2014). Online learning has been a great help for these students. This makes the background of the report.

This report will address the benefits and problems of both the online and face-to-face learning in the higher education. Its purpose is to compare and contrast the effectiveness of both types of learning and the trend in the popularity of them. The report will focus on various aspects of the online and face-to-face learning and will try to find out the weightage of each of the type. The outcome of the report will help the universities and online teaching websites to restructure their teaching methods to attract more students from across the world.

Online learning

As the name suggests, online learning refers to the method of study that allows the students to attain the degree or certificate without attending the classes. This study method is implemented over the websites and portals and is usually self-paced. Online learning method is aimed at the students, who want to study for a higher qualification while working full time or part time, or have other commitments or cannot migrate to other countries to study due to lack of money (Zhu, 2012). The universities and various other private educational institutes have been launching various online teaching processes for the convenience of the students. Through online self-paced courses, video sessions, CDs and DVDs of the classroom courses and online exams, these institutes enables the facilities for higher studies for those, who cannot attend the classroom teaching due to some constraints. This method is also known as E-Learning (Salmon, 2013).

Benefits of online learning

There are many benefits of online learning. Those are as follows.

• Online learning is cost efficient as there is no need to travel, no parking is required or no babysitting cost is needed for parents.
• The courses are designed in a way that can easily fit into the schedule of life, work and family of the students.
• It allows the students to avoid the classroom problems, such as, late arrival, class distraction etc. (Shalev-Shwartz, 2012)
• The students can access the courses anytime and from anywhere as per their convenience.
• The foreign students do not need to migrate to another country to avail the courses.
• Usually 24/7 helplines are available for student assistance.
• It helps the students to improve their technological skills through such courses.
• The instructors are always approachable and accessible.
• Such learning provides flexibility to the students regarding timing, schedule, duration, etc.
• It also helps the students learn any course as per their necessity.
• There is huge variety of courses available from various institutes, ranging from traditional subjects to vocational subjects, such as, cooking, photography, tourism and hospitality etc. (Zhu, 2012)
• Self-paced learning helps the students to customize the schedule as per their convenience and complete the course in their own times.

The Benefits and Challenges of Face-to-Face Learning in Higher Education

Issues of online learning

Online learning also has some issues. Those are listed below.

• Adaptability struggle: The students sometimes face the challenge of adaptability on the online learning. Since, it is a switch from classroom learning to online learning, the students sometimes face the difficulty to understand the course management systems and the process for computer based learning (Xu & Jaggars, 2013).
• Technical issue: Many people do not get the access to the required bandwidth of the internet service, required for the course. Along with that, sometimes, the course requires installing a new software or application and the user is unable to purchase that or install that due to some technical issues.
• Computer literacy is another big issue in case of online learning. Technological proficiency is a most essential requirement for following the online courses. When a student does not have the basic knowledge on computers then it becomes difficult for him to proceed with the course.
• Time management: Online learning requires intensive hard work and effort on part of the student and hence, time management ability is extremely essential for such learning. The students must be able to manage their time in a way so that they can complete the course within a stipulated time.
• Self-motivation: This is a very significant requirement in case of online learning. Marchand & Gutierrez (2012), points out that many students lack this and hence, the effectiveness of the course gets reduced. These students lag from the natural pace and finally, they tend to give up.

Face-to-face learning

McConnell et al. (2013) highlights that face-to-face learning is the method of study that requires the students to attend the classes and have direct interaction with the teacher or guide. The teaching and learning takes place in a same place, at a definite time and occurs in-person. This type of learning is not suitable for part time or full time workers or for those who cannot travel only for studying.

Benefits of the face-to-face learning

Like online learning, there are some benefits of face-to-face learning.

• Networking: This is the most significant and dominant aspect of face-to-face learning. Since, the learning method occurs in person, hence, the networking and personal interaction is very much effective.
• Engagement and focus: In this type of earning, the student must focus on the classroom teaching and learning, since, there is no scope of going back to the course again and again. This aspect makes the student to engage themselves fully into the sessions and pay attention to the course material that is being taught (Sacob.com 2017).
• Adaptability: Face-to-face learning enables the students to be adaptive about the courses and the environment. At the same time, the instructors are also adaptive and flexible to meet the students’ needs. This happens quite easily in this type of learning, as both the teacher and the student are present together.
• Discussion: Face-to-face learning has a huge scope for discussion, which is very helpful in gaining in-depth knowledge about any subject. Debates and detailed discussions among the students or with the teachers can bring about many great things, which is not possible in case of online learning (Gaya, 2013).
• Scope for one-to-one session: As every student is different, his or her learning capability is different too. Face-to-face learning provides that scope to the students to have a one-to-one discussion with the teacher in case any confusion arises or any clarification needed.

Issues in face-to-face learning

There are some common issues in face-to-face learning. Those are listed below.

• Lack of flexibility: This type of learning lacks flexibility as it needs to attend the classes at a specific place and at a specific time. This makes face-to-face learning difficult for the working professionals or for those students, who cannot travel due to some issues (Erstad, 2017).
• Lack of 24/7 assistance: In face-to-face learning, students do not get assistance from the instructor 24/7. This can create problems for the students if they get stuck at a point during the holidays.
• Time bound courses: The face-to-face learning is not self-paced, hence, the students must complete the course within the timeframe allotted for it.

Online versus face-to-face learning

There are some fundamental differences between the two types of learning.

Table 1: Comparison between online learning and face-to-face learning

(Source: Erstad, 2017)

The preference towards one type of learning depends on people’s personal choice and convenience. Some people prefer the traditional way of learning with textbook and lecture notes, some prefer to access the ready study materials from the online sources and study in their comfortable time, while some people prefer the best of both the methods (Jaggars, 2014).

Kolowich (2012) mentioned about a survey by Elaine Allen & Seaman, conducted in 2011, on the above topic and found that the professors, who teach online, did not have a positive feedback regarding the effectiveness of online learning in relation to face-to-face learning. It is found that 66% of the respondents said that the learning outcomes in the online learning is inferior or somewhat inferior compared to that for face-to-face learning, while less than 6% found it to be superior or somewhat superior and nearly 28% believe that the outcomes of both the methods are almost same.  

(Source: Kolowich, 2012)

In another survey by Elaine Allen & Seaman (2012), that focused on the comparison of online learning and face-to-face learning in the USA from 2003 to 2011, it is found that, more than two-thirds of the respondents said that online outcome was almost same or better. This implies that one-third of the respondents said that they think that learning outcomes for online courses are inferior to the outcomes for face-to-face learning. It is also found that the trend is going downwards over the nine years during the tracking of this dimension, there are not much substantial change.

                                                                             (Source: Elaine Allen & Seaman, 2012)

Conclusion

From the above report, it is found that, both the methods are popular among people, while opting for one method depends on many factors. As per the survey records, many people perceive that the learning outcomes are almost same or somewhat inferior relative to that of the face-to-face learning. Both of these methods have advantages and disadvantage. However, people’s perceptions are changing. As online learning provides more flexibility and convenience, the working people prefer these courses more than the face-to-face learning.

References

Elaine Allen, I., & Seaman, J. (2012). Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States, 2011. Onlinelearningsurvey.com. Retrieved 29 November 2017, from https://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/goingthedistance.pdf

Erstad, W. (2017). Online vs. Traditional Education: What You Need to Know. Rasmussen.edu. Retrieved 29 November 2017, from https://www.rasmussen.edu/student-life/blogs/college-life/online-vs-traditional-education-answer-never-expected/

Gaya, J. (2013). Pros And Cons Of Campus Learning Vs Online Learning. eLearning Industry. Retrieved 29 November 2017, from https://elearningindustry.com/pros-and-cons-of-campus-learning-vs-online-learning

Jaggars, S. S. (2014). Choosing between online and face-to-face courses: Community college student voices. American Journal of Distance Education, 28(1), 27-38.

Jolliffe, A., Ritter, J., & Stevens, D. (2012). The online learning handbook: Developing and using web-based learning. Routledge.

Kolowich, S. (2012). Conflicted: Faculty and Online Education, 2012. Insidehighered.com. Retrieved 29 November 2017, from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/conflicted-faculty-and-online-education-2012

Marchand, G. C., & Gutierrez, A. P. (2012). The role of emotion in the learning process: Comparisons between online and face-to-face learning settings. The Internet and Higher Education, 15(3), 150-160.

McConnell, T. J., Parker, J. M., Eberhardt, J., Koehler, M. J., & Lundeberg, M. A. (2013). Virtual professional learning communities: Teachers’ perceptions of virtual versus face-to-face professional development. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 22(3), 267-277.

Sacob.com. (2017). Face to Face Learning vs Online Distance Learning. Sacob.com. Retrieved 29 November 2017, from https://www.sacob.com/blog/face-to-face-learning-vs-online-distance-learning

Salmon, G. (2013). E-tivities: The key to active online learning. Routledge.

Shalev-Shwartz, S. (2012). Online learning and online convex optimization. Foundations and Trends® in Machine Learning, 4(2), 107-194.

Xu, D., & Jaggars, S. S. (2013). Adaptability to Online Learning: Differences across Types of Students and Academic Subject Areas. CCRC Working Paper No. 54. Community College Research Center, Columbia University.

Zhu, C. (2012). Student satisfaction, performance, and knowledge construction in online collaborative learning. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 15(1), 127.