Research Traditional Class Is Better Than Online Class (Essay Sample)

Traditional Class is better than Online Class
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Traditional Class is better than Online Class
Education is undoubtedly a critical investment, and will always be, especially with regards to prevailing conditions. The contemporary society esteems education more than at any other time in history. With more countries looking to embrace knowledge-based economies, it is certain that education will only become more important. However, this growth has spurred new controversies that were initially non-existent, but are important nonetheless. Prominent among these controversies is the debate surrounding the traditional brick-and mortar-class and the modern online class. Since their advent, online courses have registered an influx in growth, from both a popularity perspective and credibility perspective. Nevertheless, despite the popularity and credibility online classes have garnered, many people are still skeptical about their suitability. As a result, the question has always been whether the traditional class is better than the online class or vice versa. Thus, this write-up adds its voice to this ongoing debate by arguing that despite the massive strides that have been made in the technological realm and elsewhere, traditional classes still reign supreme over online classes.
The biggest advantage traditional education boasts over online education is the face-to-face interaction it permits between tutors and their students. This interaction provides room for meaningful exchanges between instructors and learners, making it possible for everyone else to follow concepts as tutors explain them (Bird, 2014). In the course of a conventional lecture, a learner may ask an insightful question that prompts the instructor to give an elaborate explanation about a given concept (Ni, 2013). Anyone who misses such moments can read afterwards, but may never be able to understand the same concept as they would if they were present during the lecture. The simplest way of bringing this point home is to consider a student who misses school for say a week. While they can copy notes, and ask fellow students to help them understand complex concepts, there will always be an aspect of what was taught while they were away that will cause them trouble despite their best efforts to internalize it. A lasting solution to such a problem Based on this analogy, an online student is akin to a student who perpetually misses school. Their performance will always suffer. There is a slight distinction, however. Online learning programs have well established support structures, which help learners through their course material (Aspillera, 2010). Nevertheless, when the need to seek immediate clarification arises, the only option one has is to go online and try to connect with support providers or virtual instructors. Problem is, there may be no one to respond to the query on the other end at that particular time. Alternatively, technological failure can chose to occur at that critical moment, forcing the learner to wait for a later time. With these possibilities in mind, traditional classes turn out to be the best insofar as teacher feedback and guidance are concerned.
The second reason that gives traditional learning preeminence over online learning is the fact that it provides learners with a socially interactive environment that guarantees the development of subtle skills that every individual who has been to a traditional college possesses (Ni, 2013). Anyone who has been to college understands that the book knowledge they acquire and the accompanying papers are just a portion of what people come out of college with. In other words, college education extends beyond what is taught in lecture rooms to entail every experience a student undergoes in the course of their college tenure (Ni, 2013). A traditional college environment offers learners lots of opportunities to interact with and learn from colleagues, the entire student body and the faculty in general. Concisely, any traditional learning institution functions like a community complete with its culture and mores. Therefore, as a student goes through college, they get ‘schooled’ in lots of other things besides book knowledge. The end result of this ‘schooling’ is the air of sophistication that is typical of college graduates as well as well entrenched values. This extra schooling also gives learners a positive world view coupled with a sense of responsibility towards the rest of society. Needless to say, online learning programs provide none of these. One of the strongest selling points for online education is that it offers unprecedented convenience and flexibility (Aspillera, 2010). While this is true, what does not come out vividly is that one can choose to isolate themselves from the rest of the world as they take their online courses. When this happens, they miss out on the numerous benefits of a socially active environment. They can accumulate the requisite book knowledge quite well, but may find it difficult to fit in the job market due to the lack of subtle skills that traditional institutions offer generously.
Thirdly, traditional learning institutions are mostly designed to provide ambient environments for purposes of learning (Ni, 2013). This implies that a student in a traditional learning institution can concentrate more easily either in the class room or the school library and study without any interference because that is the purpose for which the institution was built. Concisely, every aspect of a traditional learning institution seeks to enhance the learning experience of students. When the various elements of the institution combine, they work synergistically to ensure that the institutional environment is the best for studying. This characteristic of traditional learning institutions is in direct contrast with online learning. Since online classes are taken at home or as claimed, anywhere else, it can be guaranteed that those places were neither designed for learning purposes nor conducive for the same. Take for instance the claim that one can take their online class on a train, in an airport lounge or under a tree. While such a claim appeals in the sense that it propagates the idea of flexibility, a student studying in any of those locations cannot compare with one who is tucked away in an institutional or even a library. Considering all the basics of effective studying disqualifies all these locations as places for studying. Alternatively, one may choose to modify a special room in their home to serve as a study room. Such a move can provide a reasonable study environment, but the cost of transforming a regular room into a suitable study room will add to the overall cost of the online course, making it not as cheap as argued. If one chooses to visit a local public library and conduct their online studies from there, it should be remembered the public library has been part of traditional education for many years and as such, involving it as...