Online studying has been popularized after the world was hit by the Coronavirus pandemic.
The countries’ education administration had no option but to send students home and have their education administered online.
While that is the main reason why students have to study online, the determiner of whether it is worth it, is the students.
Students share different opinions about online learning. Some prefer virtual classes while some prefer the conventional way. Let’s have a look at why they hold these opinions.
Reasons why students prefer online studies
It is less costly
With the financial strains brought during this pandemic, the last thing we want is to have huge amounts of student loans piling up.
Online studying has tried to help parents minimize school fees by charging reduced tuition.
Studying online also allows students to save money that would rather have been used to pay for student dorms, gas money, and all sorts of extra charges we encounter when studying from school.
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Convenience & Flexibility
We have to give virtual learning the credit. It has made education far more convenient, flexible, easily accessible for everyone and most importantly, it is cheap.
Students enjoy the fact that they can wake up at 7.30 a.m and be set for class at 8 a.m.
You don’t have to feel like you are running out of time to get to school or have your lunch prepared before leaving.
International students have been saved the need to relocate as they can now join remotely from their respective homes thousands of miles from the institution offering the education.
It is also flexible to attend other courses and have more than two courses from different institutions running while you attend another class.
Less school bullying
School bullying has been a big issue and one that has challenged the education system for a long time.
Before parents opted for homeschooling just to avoid their children being tyrannized, however, with virtual learning, kids get to attend school from the comfort of their homes.
Bullying and physical fights in school have significantly, if not totally, reduced. This, therefore, becomes one of the top reasons why some students prefer studying from home.
They don’t have to feel left out in the latest fashion trends or get unsolicited opinions about their weight, height, skin color, and other factors that promote school bullying.
Why students dislike online studying
Less interaction
For most of us who’ve had our classes administered the conventional way, we can attest that the greatest part about school was the interaction with other students.
We got to make friends and do all sorts of fun together.
With virtual learning, most of these have been limited and we can only interact with friends from the neighborhood.
This is one of the reasons why students who’ve transitioned from studying at school to home face. They miss this important developmental stage.
Less participation
Part of learning online means that students get to participate in class less often.
It can either be because of technical hinges or because the administration or the teacher is not as strict as they would have been in school.
Teaching practically has also been a challenge. This has led to some sort of disappointment from students as well as teachers.
However, there are ways to maximize participation in virtual classrooms.
Distractions
Let’s face it. We have all seen awkward videos of meetings gone wrong.
Distraction is a major challenge when learning online. You never know who might just walk right into your workspace or study room.
Home has always been a place associated with fun activities and nothing remotely attached to schoolwork (well, except the homework part.)
This association has affected how students engage in class and how well they get to learn the course content.
Conclusion:
We have looked at some of the reasons why students tend to dislike or like online classes.
This cannot be a complete list of the reasons as everyone has their experiences learning online.
It is only fair to say that whether one can like or dislike the course will depend on how well the participants engage with each other and how the course content was presented.
Some people do enjoy virtual learning while some cannot wait for normalcy to return.
