Online vs Offline Education

Do you think online education will play a significant role in days to come? t is quite evident that there are shortages of teachers and infrastructure.Teaching online help a single teacher to reach out to many more students.By online education I do not mean viewing recorded classes. I propose the use of remote teaching software where the students and teachers interact in real time on one-to-one basis.The effect of interactive classroom is as good as face to face classes.The only issue of internet connection s gradually being solved. All this allows me to hope that learners are going to use interactive online classrooms in a big way in future.

Reply 1

MINUSroid

Original post by sengupta

I personally believe that online education will play a significant role in the future. I personally developed a quick E-learning (Basically online or software based education) program during my work experience which was made to demonstrate the benefits of E-learning to a University running a basic computing short course. I feel as though online education will act as an extension of offline education rather than as an alternative to offline education, whereby it can be an important medium for tutoring, a means to teach a topic so it does not have to be studied during face to face time, or a means of teaching a specific course which may not have been taught during.

I do see a space in the future for Online education and interactive classrooms to be used, it will just take time for its values to be widely recognized (which should happen soon as we are in the 'digital age' where people are accepting technological alternatives more and more) and for people to not moan about how these things are 'not traditional'.

Reply 2

alilora

Original post by MINUSroid

I do see a space in the future for Online education and interactive classrooms to be used, it will just take time for its values to be widely recognized (which should happen soon as we are in the 'digital age' where people are accepting technological alternatives more and more) and for people to not moan about how these things are 'not traditional'.

I fully agree with you. Unfortunately, online edurcation is still not as widely recognized as it should be. My school had an e-learning platform that supplemented the face-to-face learning in class. It worked quite well, as we had to hand in assignments and homework over the platform, but my friends from other schools who didn't have it had huge reservations about this concept. I don't say online learning should fully replace the sitting in class thing, but it can help to add to the learning experience.

Reply 3

Francis Urquhart

Online education will take-off BIG-TIME just you wait.... :smile:

One million more students in the UK by 2020, and i don't see lots of teachers lining up to teach them. Online education is going to play a massive role in the future, not just supplementing learning as it does currently but perhaps (especially in home-learning environments) it will take over the role of teaching and it could effectively lower the amount of classroom disruption due to the distance learning approach. However it could also backfire spectacularly.

Only time will tell.

Best regards
Francis.

Reply 4

skeptical_john

Original post by sengupta

At the moment most of the online education is coming through existing institutions. The Govnt are about to open up awarding degrees to private companies which I think could help make education more dynamic.
The main problem with online is drop out rates (some moocs have a drop out of > 95%!) I think VR might make some ground on this being in a virtual classroom.

Reply 5

M14B

Original post by sengupta

Definitely!!
I get better lectures on Utube than in my Uni

Reply 6

username1204031

Original post by Francis Urquhart

Online education will take-off BIG-TIME just you wait.... :smile:

It would be the perfect solution, but it's not going to happen with a government run by technophobes and cavemen. They fear progress and will oppose it until we get rid of them. Michael Gove did everything he could to take us back to an older system, contrary to all the evidence available.

I think online education might start playing more of a role for higher education, though. There are some great courses offered by top unis like Harvard and MIT, but I don't know if employers take them seriously yet.

Reply 7

999tigger

It already plays a significant role.
The question is would it reduce the cost of getting a degree. Even the OU raised its prices, so dont be surprised by a greater participation, but dont expect degrees to become significantly cheaper.

Reply 8

ckfeister

Original post by sengupta

Oh no no, I did online school and your stuck in your house... don't even consider it. I'm glad the 2 years are over.

Reply 9

username2228735

Yes, I do think it's the future. As someone who works in the education sector, this trend is growing fast amongst some of the world's most prestigious institutions. With employment becoming more competitive, and a degree simply not being enough to get a job, more people will opt to choose distance learning programs. I don't think traditional campus-based education will disappear but its importance will definitely fall.

Reply 10

llys

I think so, yes. Everyone who doesn't want to go to school (for whatever reason) should be able to learn online. Eventually, I would like to see teachers as professional consultants and schools as environments where they work 1-1 with pupils, more like professional tutors, I suppose. I would then allow teachers to the select the pupils they want to work with (for example, based on behaviour).

Reply 11

username1410667

I've personally been part of an online school for nearly 5 years now and for me it's been great. The class sizes are a lot smaller (10 students at most per class), and there are a lot more course options. They also don't force you to do set qualifications or a certain number, they just let you choose what you think would be best to learn out of the qualifications they offer.

It's also really great for people who just can't/don't want to go to a mainstream school, whether they're to ill to leave bed, have faced bullying, have to move house a lot,etc.

Reply 12

34908seikj

Original post by sengupta

Look at places like Kahn academy, quite a lot of schools in America use it to teach in schools. Not just that hundreds of thousands of people from poorer counties use it to educate themselves. It might not be as mainstream in the UK, but online education is a very big "thing".