Online Programs vs. Traditional Classroom: How Digital Education is Booming
Technology has changed every aspect of human life and has become an inseparable part of everyone’s life today. Whether you are doing your job or learning anything, there is technology involved to make things faster and easier for you. Today, learning is not just limited to traditional classrooms and colleges. You can learn from anywhere at any time. Online programs allow learners to check in from anywhere and continue learning without the need to be physically present.
In this article, we will explore both online programs and traditional classrooms, the benefits they offer, and how technology is helping people learn in their comfort. So, let’s get started with a brief understanding of Traditional classrooms.
What are Traditional Classrooms?
Traditional classrooms refer to the age-old offline learning method in colleges, universities, or any learning center. In this approach, there is a teacher and a bunch of students who meet at a class to study. Everything happens face-to-face in traditional classroom-based learning.
Benefits of Traditional Classrooms
1. Structured Learning
Traditional classrooms provide a structured learning environment with proper syllabuses and schedules, which can help build interest and discipline in learners. This routine also ensures that learners are focused and follow a proper path.
2. Face to Face Interactions
When you opt for classroom study, you get direct communication and face-to-face interactions with your teachers and other students. This can help build social skills and a feeling of community for learners, which can further enhance their learning abilities.
3. Immediate Feedback
With the teacher present, you can easily get immediate feedback for lectures, assignments or doubts. The immediate feedback can reinforce your learnings, and you can clear doubts immediately, which can save you from grasping the concepts wrong.
4. Accountability and Motivation
In traditional classrooms, attendance is monitored regularly, which can make the person accountable for their learning progress. Moreover, by learning with the same set of people every day and developing a healthy competition, you get motivated.
5. Hands-on Learning
Some subjects require hands-on learning, and you can only learn them in traditional classrooms. You can learn all the theory, but if there is no hands-on learning, you may not grasp the concept clearly. Traditional classrooms have the necessary tools to enable hands-on learning.
Disadvantages of Traditional Classrooms
1. Costly
Traditionally, classroom education is costly as it involves fees, accommodation for students, and transportation. Moreover, for hands-on learning subjects, you may incur additional costs.
2. Geographical Constraints
Traditional classrooms have geographical constraints, and every student needs to be physically available at the place of study. This can limit access to high-quality education and become a barrier for many people who want to learn but aren’t physically available at the location.
3. Less Flexibility
Such a learning approach is rigid, and there is seldom room for flexibility. Traditional learning has fixed schedules and syllabuses and requires complete commitment, which may not be the best choice for students with other responsibilities.
Having known the benefits and disadvantages of traditional classrooms, it is time to learn more about online programs in the next section.
What are Online Programs?
As the name suggests, online programs are online learning options where the students and
teachers are not required to be physically present in a classroom. Online programs are conducted through the use of technologies like video calls and learning management systems.
This provides more flexibility and even better reach to teachers as they can cater to a wide audience without geographical restrictions.
With a basic understanding of online programs, you should know the benefits of such a learning approach and some disadvantages, too. So, let’s start with the benefits in the next section.
Benefits of Online Programs
1. Self Paced Learning
Online programs provide self-paced learning opportunities so students can learn at their own pace and don’t feel any pressure. Around 36% students stated that online courses is much easier than learning physically in the Traditional classroom setting. Due to this, they can revisit doubtful areas multiple times and clear their doubts before progressing.
2. Cost-Effective
When you enroll in online programs, you don’t have to worry about traveling, accommodation and other such costs to learn the things you want to learn. This is much more cost effective than traditional classrooms, where you need to spend a lot on extra stuff apart from course fees.
3. 24/7 Accessibility
Online programs are designed so that the content, course materials, and other resources are available 24/7 to every learner. This makes it easy for learners to learn whenever their schedules permit, and they can manage other commitments easily.
4. Usage of Technology
Today, online programs are delivered through the latest learning management systems and other technologies like video lectures, interactive puzzles, and others. With the use of technology in learning, it becomes easier for anyone to learn if they are familiar with the basics of technology.
5. Access to a Wide Range of Courses and Instructors
There are many online programs offered by different instructors on the same topics, which makes it easier to find the best courses for your learning needs. Moreover, you can easily switch between courses when you don’t like the instructors, which is impossible in traditional classroom courses
Disadvantages of Online Programs
1. Reduced Hands-on Learning
Online programs are an excellent choice when you want to learn theoretical subjects, but they can become challenging once you move to subjects that require hands-on exposure to learn better. Simulations and other technology-aided hands-on solutions may not provide an accurate experience, and this can leave a gap in learning.
2. Distractions
Learning online comes with a lot of distractions. Learners can easily be distracted due to household responsibilities, social media, or other people around them, which can reduce their ability to grasp topics.
3. Lack of Face to Face Interactions
In online programs, learners usually interact with recorded video lectures or notes and this eliminates human as well as face-to-face interactions. This also reduces the ability to focus as there is no supervision and hinders real-time discussion on topics.
4. Technical Issues
As online programs rely on technology to deliver learning content, any technical issue can cause learners discomfort. Technical issues like connectivity or broken devices can negatively impact the learning experience for users.
By now, you may think that online programs provide much better value, and with the addition of technology, they are much easier. So, let’s take a look at how technology plays a vital role in this experience.
How Digital Education is Booming Through Technology?
1. AR/VR Enabled Content: As AR/VR technology improves, it has found a way to digital education and online
programs. They can help provide awesome hands-on experiences in digital learning and assist learners in grasping content better.
2. Scalability
Technology helps you to scale your learning programs easily. Whether you have 1 learner or 1 million learners, an online platform can easily scale and cater to a large number of learners if it is built correctly. This also helps people from across the globe learn from the instructors of their choice.
3. Personalization
Technologies like AI/ML can be added to learning platforms to enable features like personalization and customization of learning content according to learner preferences.
Whether you have the time to visit traditional classrooms or not, it is always better to get an
online program. This way, you can always learn better and clear your doubts easily by reading
the content multiple times or exploring other online resources. Moreover, the flexibility and cost savings are tempting when choosing online programs. So, if you want to learn something the next time, you know what you have to choose.
Author Info
Harikrishna Kundariya
Harikrishna Kundariya, a marketer, developer,
IoT, Cloud & AWS savvy, co-founder, Director of eSparkBiz
Technologies. His 14+ years of experience enables him to
provide digital solutions to new start-ups based on IoT and
SaaS applications.
