Online education: Pros and cons

Online education pros and cons.
Online education is going to be used more and more in the coming days. Actually, online education is a boon to employees who are trying to improve their qualifications or trying to acquire new skills. They can do these courses while they are working and they can improve their qualifications and skills while they are in a job.
When we are working it will be difficult for us to attend regular classes. So online classes is a boon for working people.
But for the students who are in their primary classes or high school studied these online classes may not give the desired result. The students will not have the maturity and they always try to avoid studying. At that age, they will not understand the importance of education. As such they will not concentrate much on their studies and try to pass the time somehow. If you give them a smartphone we don't know whether they are attending the online classes properly or not. Teachers can't monitor them as they monitor them in regular classes. The parents have to concentrate more on these students to see that they follow the classes regularly. But parents may not have that much time as they are busy with their job and other works, So students are not getting the desired results by attending these classes.
The present-day teachers in our country not having the skills required to teach the students online. That is why they are not as effective as they are in classroom teaching. This is also making the students lose their concentration on learning.
So I feel classroom teaching is more effective for schools, There are some limitations to online classes. Science students have to attend labs and do some experiments which are not possible online. So eliminating 100% classroom teaching is not possible.
Classroom teaching only will give you 100% expected results whereas online teaching may not be like that. A student can't get all his doubts cleared as he can't contact the teacher and talk to him directly. Sometimes because of some reasons beyond our control, we may not get the online classes and they will miss the lesson. No power, No internet or there is a break dows in the power are some problem.

I really think that online classes cannot continue forever. Neither the student nor the teacher is happy. My own wife is a teacher in a local CBSE school. There are online classes conducted from the school and from the residence of the teacher up to standard eight by all teachers. These students are also now fed up and are wanting to come to school.

Firstly, it has increased the workload of parents, more so, if the mother is also a professional, like a doctor, engineer, IT specialist, and so on. The IT people also work from home and there is tension all around. The parents are now working much more than ever before. Sundays are often used for meetings. The Principals are conducting these online meetings, thus eating away whatever little spare time was available to the teachers.

Worse, the online method is a nightmare for those in remote rural areas where internet penetration is still not okay. There is absolutely no continuity in teaching, as the student often misses out on some portion of the lecture. Even in areas where the virus is under control, the parents are afraid to send their children to school.

The students are dazed and confused. Yes. The petrol expenses have come down, there is less crowd on the streets of every town or even big villages. However, the online method can never ever become a substitute for the traditional method where the students get to meet the teacher at all times and clarify doubts. The learning from peers is now becoming difficult and almost nil. It has also lead to indiscipline. Students attend online classes by lying on their beds or from their gardens. The parents are finding it very difficult to feed the children day in and day out. Everything has changed. Life has come a full circle.

However, even after the virus fear is gone by end of 2022, as predicted by experts, and the vaccine is taken by at least ten crore people who are the most vulnerable, the online classes are likely to be the order of the day for another one year. We can possibly see a normal school and college life only in the summer of 2024.

Parents, students, teachers, and educationists need to innovate more. For example, a teacher can be motivated to collect all students to assemble from a four-kilometer radius in a community hall or even the first floor of a local house. That place can be rented, and with adequate social distancing, the classes can be conducted. The School Managements can also take the help of marriage halls in the local area and try renting out these halls on the non-marriage days. Innovation is the real need of the other. If we observe social distancing and use sanitizers and soap and also get ourselves vaccinated, there is no fear that the virus will increase in its intensity.

Online classes can never be a substitute for the formal method of face-to-face teaching.

Online classes were already there before corona pandemic also but they were there with limited strengths and in limited areas. The virus threat made it mandatory for all the classes to go in the online mode and it is really a thing to feel pride that the technology available for this purpose is tested for its robustness and found working in this extreme situation. Most of the people have got the feel of these video conferencing systems and have purchased them or are using their free versions for all sort of purchases.
As people are very conveniently handling the gadgets and finding the online education a feasible activity, it is going to stay even after the pandemic is fully arrested. However the schools will not go permanently for this as there are many things other than a lecture in the schools which prepare the students in so many areas other than the pure academic ones. Extra curricular activities have their own charm in the life of a student which he can learn in the usual environment.
So, the online education is going to stay in many areas and it has practically strengthened the correspondence and distant education to a great degree and in coming times we will be seeing it as a major activity.

The corona pandemic has given new dimensions to the online learning and educational classes. Online learning is not a new thing. I remember there was a time when there was no internet and we had seen some advertisements like - Learn English sitting in your home, Learn cooking in fifteen days by correspondence etc. What we had to do was to send the fee by Money Order and they will send the course material one by one in a gap of a week or fortnight and ask us to do practice and go under some self tests given at the end of the course material. Though it was not very common at that time but many people took advantage of that especially the working people who could not afford the regular physical classes. Now, with advent of so much technology in this field the things have become too simpler and it is easy to undertake the courses in online mode. At the same time we have a huge infrastructure and facilities in terms of the institutions, colleges, and schools where physical education is carried out and there is a hiatus now because of the corona threat which is still hanging on our heads. Now we have both the options available once the corona is eradicated and we can go for the online mode or the regular one which ever suits to us.

In physical classes there is always an element of personal touch and the feeling which we get while getting education in physical mode cannot be created while we are online. In online you have all the control on it. You can pause, it stop it, or do not attend it on some pretext and there is no social etiquette or school decorum which will stop you to do so. So the discipline and attentiveness are some of the issues in the online mode. Another thing is in online mode there is a monotony of the activity. In school we had breaks, intervals, playing periods, there is company, there is fun, it is all missing there in the online virtual world. Getting online education appears to be a robotic exercise.

On the other hand for the people who are employed and working, it is a boon to have online education because they can complete all their earlier dreams in reality by undergoing the particular course they yearned for and waited long for that. It has become relatively cheaper also as there are so many online education entities providing state of art platforms and up to date course material to its students. Interestingly some internet giants for realising their future business propositions are offering some free basic courses to the aspiring people and these courses are tailored so nicely that you feel like sitting in the arena of some paid course only. I have done some such courses and am really impressed by their material and quality.

Online education has greatly helped in reducing the traffic on the roads and earlier during the school timings there was always rush and traffic jam at those spots where a large number of school buses used to stop for facilitating the students. This seems to be a side advantage of the same.

I am sure that even after corona eradication the online education is going to stay there as it has many positive points and depending upon the convenience many of us would choose it as the best option. Only problem is the young students who should not be forced for online education as they have to develop in an overall manner and not only academically and for that what best can be there except a college with academics as well as all the extracurricular activities like NCC, Scouting, NSS, cultural activities, speaking in front of a large audience etc are available.

So, the online education and physical classroom educations have to go hand in hand in the future and depending on one's convenience the people would choose the relevant one out of these two.

Both the modes are likely to stay fo the benifits of aspirants. The benifits accrued by either of the modes would depend upon the prevailing situation of the aspirants and their comfortablity status with the modes they are persuing.
Now let us consider in what way the online mode can be benificial for the aspirants persuing to acquire a course in SAP, Oracle, Networking Engineering in the midst of their involvement in their primary jobs. Some sort of certifications in these lines would boost their skills in the modules as indicated above. Passing any one of such certifications can be benificial for both the employers and the aspirants since in the former case, the employers could extract the added knowledge of the aspirants in the related fields maximising their targets and in the later case, the employees would have added financial benifits apart from quicker promotions. However, the aspirants need to choose the right plateform to reap the benifits.
While considering the cases of tiny kids and other school going children, they are not in a position to extract the benifits of the online modes due to lack of understanding of such sessions in absence of clarity of such sessions due to different issues such as internet connection issue or may be they need their confusion resolved by the provider and such issues are not being entertained by the mentors. They lack the personal touch which they have enjoyed in the class room sessions.

There are 2 aspects to everything. While these online classes are proving to be beneficial for children, there are some disadvantages as well.

Some of the disadvantages of online studies that are being watched -
Children are definitely studying from online studies, but they are not getting the knowledge they should get. Not every child is being completely focused. Children are getting used to it by the frequent use of mobiles. The use of mobiles for a long time is having the opposite effect on their eyes. Along with this, children also feel very irritable. Online classes also face a problem like Internet connectivity. The theory of reading in online classes is not as much a problem as a practical subject. Children can also misuse it by having mobile in their hands, such as playing games, getting to know other information online which they never need. The kind of environment students find at school, where they learn a lot, and the same environment we do not find online. In online classes, children are alone and have no direct contact with anyone, so that they soon become bored. Due to a lack of a learning environment, we do not understand much. Due to the lack of a school environment in online classes, the concentration of children in education is also relatively low.

Advantages of online education -
In this, students are having a class with video chat, from which they are technically accomplished. This is the reason that in today's date almost all children have a good knowledge of technical gadgets. Children have learned a new way of using technology with online classes. At the same time, teachers have also learned a new way of teaching from online classes and have found new avenues to teach and increase interest in children.

Everything has its advantages and disadvantages so has the online leaning too. In this pandemic when everything was shut down school and colleges continued their service through online classes. Although it has disadvantages too but still it was helpful for the students. Here are few pros and cons of the same:

Advantages:

1. Online learning is an efficient way as it helps teacher to deliver their lessons in a good way. Online teaching includes some modern tools like PDF, videos so they make teachers more efficient to explain the topics they teach.

2. Also it allows students to access from any location and It also allows schools to reach to the students living in interior unlike schools which have geographical limits.These online lectures can be recorded and can be referred whenever needed.

3. Also online learning costs less. It is more affordable than offline learning which includes cost of transportation, student meals, space cost, electricity and water bills. Additionally all the course material is available online thus making it paperless learning environment and saves paper cost.

4. As online classes can be taken from any location so there is less chances that a student misses a class. As during offline classes if a student is not well he/she can not come to the school but one can take up the online class at home even if he/she is not well.

5.Everyone has his own style of understanding the things like few people like learning things by videos , some like to do it through audio. Similarly some likes to learn things in the classroom and don't like to be distracted by the people. The online learning system provides the perfect learning environment suited to the needs of each student.

Disadvantages:

1. It's not easy for everyone to focus on the screen for a long time. With the online earnings one has to devote long period of time in watching the screen which may affect eye sight. Also there are chances that the student may get distracted by the social media or other sites. Therefore it's essential for the teachers to engage students in their lecture by making their study material interesting and interactive.

2. For many students, one of the biggest challenges of online learning is to focus on the screen for long periods of time. With online learning, there is also a greater chance for students to be easily distracted by social media or other sites. Therefore, it is imperative for the teachers to keep their online classes crisp, engaging, and interactive to help students stay focused on the lesson

3. Students learn from others so going to the school is important as they meet others there. However in online learning there is no physical interactions among students. Although schools organise conferencing and other programs but still it's not better than the offline classes.

4. Online learning requires teacher to have a good knowledge of technology. And many times it's observed that they lack it and so it becomes difficult for them to train the students. Also online classes require necessary resources and tools for teachers to take classes. Therefore schools need to invest on the training of the teachers so that they may further utilise it to train the students.

5. Also children have to spend long hours in front of the screen which affects their health. Sometimes children also develop wrong posture of sitting and some physical problems after sitting for long hours in front of the screen. This problem may be resolved by giving suitable breaks in between the classes so that they may refresh their mind and body.

Despite of the disadvantages online classes have been useful as during this pandemic children could not go to the school and in this time online classes have been useful.

Everything has a good aspect as well as a bad aspect likewise, online learning to has many pros and cons.
In many aspects, online learning proved a boon for us. As we all know for one year, the entire world has been suffering from covid-19. We all were compelled to stay in the home. All school and colleges remained closed for a long time. In such a situation, online learning was the only source of education. School and colleges goer children learned a lot despite remaining school close. Many office goer who want to take an extra degree but lack of time they can't attend class. For that person, the online class proved a boon. Moreover, If any student misses an online class due to some reason then no need to worry he/she can easily get a video/ pdf of that lesson. A student who is staying in a remote area can get benefit from an online class.
Online learning has many disadvantages which are as:-
-Online education is not an effective way for teachers as well as the student. As I observed children don't take interest in this learning because of a lack of physical interaction.
-In this method of education, there are more chances of distraction from the study as many social sites are available which can distract from the study.
- In our country, very few people have technical knowledge. So, nowadays, In many schools teachers are not handling this teaching way nicely.
- A big drawback that I felt during online education is the connectivity problem. During the online class, so many times either children or teachers get a disconnect.
- There is a vast difference between regular classroom teaching and online teaching. children lack all extracurricular activities which are done during school days like sports, dance, quiz etc.

Due to pandemic online classes was one of the unique experience for students. Many students  enjoyed this new ways of study and many of them find it as boring.

As far advatanges are concerned some of the points may be considered.

- It was an interesting way of study. Students had not to go schools . It gave them 100% attedence status.

- They had not to worry for lunch. They could have their meals at home. It also cut their transportation fee which school takes from parents.

- It improved the efficiency for online study. In western countries online learning is common. Due to pandemic students became habitual for   online classes.

- They could attend classes from any location

- Online study classes could be recorded and they could study again when they had extra time.

- Those students who're interested in visual learning it was best for them.



As far as disadvantages are concerned following points may be considered.



- Students were not habitual of online classes ,therefore many students could not adjust themselves.

- Students find themselves comfortable in classroom so it did not benefit them fully.

- Mostly teachers were also not trained for online study so they could not teach students efficiently.

- In rural areas poor network created  problem  for students.

- Students were not able to focus on screen for several hours continuously .

- Students learn better in group as they do in classroom. Individually they could not learn up to the mark.

- Small children could not understand fully what was taught to them . If parents were not educated they could not help their children .

- Sitting before screens continuously made them feel body pain especially in back.

With the rising pandemic situation and the schools & colleges being shut down, students owe a lot to online classes. The technology has built huge platforms for aspiring students. Not only the regular school, college classes but also students can learn a variety of skills with the help of these classes. And speaking of job-goers, they benefit a lot from these classes who don't have enough time to blend with their job and higher education. So, putting altogether the facts, there are more pros regarding online education and so do the cons.
Pros:
Online classes led a way for the students to attend classes even from a remote area.
Of course the overall cost is comparatively less.
As we all know, the sources are not limited. Kids these days can keep on learning.
The greatest facility is time flexibility(not for all). We can attend classes whenever we want and at whatever place.
There are many creative videos which helps the students to learn more practically and effectively.
Cons:
There will be a lack of personal guidance in the online education world, because there will be no direct interactive session between the mentor and students, also among the students.
This may or may not affect the discipline of the students. We should agree that, a student learns discipline at home and school, and if child is going to learn from home, he/she may not know how to get on with others. It also affects the mental health of the child.
Online classes need a lot of self-dedication towards learning. The mentor will teach everything,it is our duty to do put some efforts into learning process. As there will be no one to motivate us, we require self-motivation.
Not everyone is aware of the technology and its online world. There are people who lack proper knowledge and lack facilities for the online classes. For example, poor internet condition is a lack of facility and it affects a lot.
There will be some cases where students cannot learn everything from online source. For example, Commerce students may need an industrial visit, science stream may require practical sessions.

Putting altogether, we can say online education is a boon but not to a great extent. Students might need at least some live sessions. Online classes might do good for some people like employees, but not for the students. Students need a healthy environment for their education because only this will make them prepare for a better work environment. We can't help them there with the online classes.