Introduction
Citizens of this world are currently living in an era guided by technology and a lot of other innovations. It is a time where things that are formerly done manually are already being done in a whole new way—the digital way. Before, people used to pay their bills and shop for things by going to business centers, shops and the respective offices of the services they want to avail. Now, people can do all those things without having to live the comforts of their home, right in front of their computers.
A lot of things can already be done online. This brings us to the topic about online education or the process of being able to complete a course, or even acquire a degree without having to go to a formal classroom. In this process, students will have to read on their own, and practically, do everything related to the course on their own. This paper discusses whether formalization and legalization of such practice can be advantageous or otherwise. This paper also covers some practical solutions that universities and concerned authorities can do about the situation.
The Students
Introducing online courses is like introducing a new learning scheme. And there are several things that have to be considered before the authorities should let this new scheme kick in. One of the primary things they have to consider is the students (Vargas & Vargas 8).
The authorities that are most likely concerned here are the State Departments and Local Government Units responsible for monitoring and facilitating the integrity of an education system in their respective state. Some faculties and individual organizations and institutions should actually be concerned about the issue as well because legalization and formalization of the online learning scheme can make them obliged to do a lot of adjustments (Li 5).
The role of these authorities is to ensure that the students learn what they have to learn and that their minds are constantly filled with knowledge. They always have to consider what’s good for the students. Theses authorities are also responsible for creating new ideas that will further encourage the students to learn and explore. And right now, the online course system is what they are proposing. Will it really be helpful for the students? Or is it just a new fancy way of acquiring knowledge without any formal benefits at all?
Schedule Flexibility
Proponents of the online course scheme suggest that with this new learning and education strategy, students will be able choose a course and finish it in a way that will not harm their schedule. It would be beneficial to compare the current learning scheme with the online course scheme. Traditionally, it is the students who adapt to the schedules being offered by the school and the availability of the instructors and proctors. But with the approval of the online course scheme, things can get quite different. The students will no longer be the ones who will adjust their schedules. All they have to do is to choose class schedules that fit their personal schedule.
One of the main reasons why online courses are developed is the fact that there is a significant percentage of students worldwide who study while working or are busy with either their personal or married life (Zhang et al. 75). Sure, undergraduate students fill most of the available slots that a university offers but it would be prejudicial to not consider that there is also a community of students who want to study and earn another degree while being busy with another thing. This scheme actually promotes the use of multi-tasking. With the implementation of the online course scheme, students who are enrolled will be able to get the most out of their time.
Save Time
Not all students have houses near schools and colleges or live in areas with a nearby school or college. There are students in rural and even remote areas who also want to invest in education and earn themselves a college degree. Obviously, without access to these educational institutions, they will not be able to realize that goal. But in case these students would insist, they would have to travel a long distance from their house to the school every class days and that is actually another serious business. With the approbation of the online course scheme, all they have to have is a stable internet connection and a computer or laptop with updated hardware devices at home and they are all set to earn that degree. Students won’t have to travel long distances and suffer from the stress that long commuting hours induce just to be able to attend a class.
Save Money
There are two options that students who live far from a school or college can consider. First, they can just persevere and continue going to school even if it’s quite impractical to do so. Second, they can just rent for an apartment situated near the college they are attending or more practically, stay in and rent one of the dormitories available inside the school. These two options have something in common: They require money. Money is not really problem for students who belong to a middle-class family. It gets different when we are already talking about students who only rely on scholarship grants to study. Evidently, online courses will help such students save money. Students will not have to pay for their everyday transit fares and monthly apartment rents anymore because they can already study at the comfort of their homes.
The Need to Interact with People
The fact that there are students who could use some self-confidence programs cannot be neglected. In a traditional classroom, students are almost always required to participate in class through oral recitations, and class discussions & reporting. Introverts or those who typically encounter uneasiness when they are in a group can benefit from the online course scheme. Firstly, they can simply stay in a room where there are no other people but themselves. Secondly, most of the conversations and interactions are between the student and the instructor only.
Lack of Communication
It has been proven in Reigle’s (1-8) study that one of the problems that both students and their online instructor can encounter whenever they are conducting online course classes is the lack of communication. For example, there can be instances wherein the student is left with a task to be completed in the next couple of minutes and then the instructor turns offline and promises that he will come back after the specified number of minutes to check the student’s progress. Should the student have some questions and clarifications about the task, he cannot contact his instructor that easily. Communication between the students and the instructors is usually more solid and constant in a traditional classroom setting than in an online course class setting (Allen & Seaman 1). Tamashiro (2-3) have also pointed out that there are usually more meaningful and quality communication and exchange of ideas in a traditional classroom setting than in an online learning class. In an online learning class, communication between the instructor and the student can be very limited and dependent on hardware and internet connection.
Technical & Connection Problems
The only thing that connects the student and his instructor in an online classroom setting is the computer and the device that lets both of them connect to the internet. Without these two things, conducting an online class can be barely possible. According to Sinn (1-10), some of the major problems that students enrolled in an online course encounter are technical and connection problems, especially if the student uses a wireless type of internet connection. A simple technical glitch from either the student or the instructor’s part can cripple their efforts. Soon, they will have to delay conducting the class until all hardware and equipment are fixed.
The Instructors
Another important consideration here would be the instructors. The amount and type of knowledge that the student can obtain depends on these people, their expertise and the organization of their teaching process.
Well-Organized Lecture
The biggest obstacles that disable instructors to teach the students what they are intended to have learned are noise and inattentiveness caused by distractions. These hindrances are most commonly present in traditional classroom settings. Because of the sheer number of students & and the noise they create as well as the outside noises (for non-soundproof classrooms), the ability of the teachers to teach the students as well as the ability of the students to comprehend what their instructors are trying to explain are impaired (Hall & Mengal 1-3). In an online classroom setting, there can be less distractions, and noises. There are only a limited number of people involved in the conversations so there is a higher probability that both sides can easier understand what each one of them is trying to say. Overall, it can be a more organized lecture, one that promotes learning and comprehension of the topic at hand.
More Access to Informational sources
The internet has been of great help to both instructors and students alike. Because of the internet, students and instructors can now access a wide array of resources; from premium databases up to informative websites that publish scholarly and peer-reviewed articles. This relatively increases their potential to learn more. In a traditional classroom setting, students and teachers often solely rely on textbooks and sometimes, printed journals for references. By employing a new online learning scheme, instructors will have more access to teaching materials and learning resources which they can share to their students. Although textbooks are still considered the bread and butter of learning, it would really help if the students will be exposed to a more evidence-based approach in learning through reading the latest published journals and studies that are related to their course. In addition to that, Taylor (1) also suggested that “depending on the subject of the course, an online course component could be used to provide sources of supplementary materials.”
Efficiency in Grading Students
Grading students can be a tedious task. It demands a significant amount of time and it also requires concentration because the instructor has to make sure that the students are graded properly and their performances have been recorded accurately. Through online courses, instructors will probably not have to use a lot of criteria from which the total grade of their students is based on (Binder et al. 12). They do not have to consider oral recitation grades that much because most of the conversations are done in a chat box. All the students have to do is to pass the exams and submit all of the course requirements in time. In that way, the instructor will be able to more effectively evaluate whether the student has indeed learned something out of the course.
Higher Susceptibility to Cheating
In the academic field, cheating is highly discouraged and is actually punishable. It is one of the things that instructors and college Deans despise. For many years, colleges and universities have employed their own methods and rules to discourage and even force students to avoid cheating. Instructors and students in an online class typically do not see or even hear each other, unless a web camera or a microphone is utilized. Therefore, the instructor will not be able to sense what the student is actually doing; if he is cheating or not. Some of the online courses that are highly susceptible to cheating are the ones that require emphasis in memorization and regurgitation (Neuman 136).
Labor and Time-Intensive Class Preparations
According to Neuman (136), one of the risks of electronic education for instructors is the fact that they have to have everything prepared before they enter the e-classroom. Instructors are compelled to produce higher quality teaching materials to compensate for their physical absence. Preparing those types of materials has been proven to be more labor intensive and challenging for instructors. Online course classes also require the instructors to have everything organized due to the fact that online classes are perfectly timed and their interactions with the student are very much limited.
Universities
Aside from the students and instructors, the universities, colleges and schools should also be considered. Will the implementation of a new learning strategy option influence the revenues of these institutions or even cause bankruptcy? Will it enable them to transfer the current generation’s knowledge to the next generation of professionals?
More Access to Students
An online school is a world-wide school. An educational institution that offers online learning courses can practically provide educational services to students who live in any place as long as it has an internet connection. Traditionally, these institutions can only cater the academic needs of students who live in a particular state or municipality. Now with this new scheme, universities will be able to cater the academic needs of students from technically around the world.
Profit
Online courses are usually more expensive compared to traditional courses whose classes are conducted inside a classroom. This is because these courses can be more strenuous for the instructors and subject organizers and the student typically interacts with the instructor one-on-one. This can then result to an increase in revenue for the institution which could then be used to improve the facilities of the school and the quality of education.
Training the Teachers
It is the responsibility of the university to expose their teachers through seminars and training camps for the benefit of the students who will be handled by these teachers. Approbation of the new online learning scheme requires the university to train their instructors and other concerned staff in a way that would make them more suitable and effective for online course classes. This is because handling an online course class can be totally different from handling a class in a four-cornered classroom.
Profit
Combining the aspects of online and face-to-face courses can prove to be a more effective solution, considering all the advantages and disadvantages of the online course scheme. This can be done through a so-called Hybrid course (Xu & Jaggards 41) wherein the student enrolls in both online and face-to-face courses. However, it should still be part of the rights of the students to choose the type of setting they want. Meaning they can still choose to enroll in a purely online learning course, a purely face-to-face-course or a hybrid one. With regards to plagiarism, the instructors can easily solve such problems by using a premium plagiarism detector software solution—the one that scours all the web pages in the World Wide Web to detect whether the students have cheated or plagiarized. Through these solutions, universities can cater to the academic needs of students not only in their respective state or region but worldwide.
References
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Vargas, E., & Vargas, J. Programmed Instruction: What it is and how to do it. Journal of Behavioral Education. 1991.
Xu, D., & Jaggards, S. Online Hybrid Course Enrollment and performance in Washington State Community and Technical college CCRC Working Paper. Columbia: Community College Research Center, Columbia University. 2011.
Zhang, D., Zhao, J., Zhou L., & Nunamaker Jr., J. Can E-Learning replace classroom learning. Communications of the ACM.
Tamashiro, R. Pros and Cons of Online Learning: Conflicting Perceptions among teacher and education students. St. Louis, MO: Webster University. N.d.
Taylor, R. Pros and Cons of Online Learning. Journal of european Industrial Training. 2002.
