Is Online School effective in delivering education?
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools have relied on online learning to deliver their education. Online learning has advanced since the first fully online program was offered in 1989 in the University of Phoenix. With the goal of educating students to suit their personal learning pace, online school has become the only option for education in countries like the Philippines where in-person learning has been suspended. During the COVID-19 outbreak, schools have resorted to online learning to protect the health of their students and teachers. According to UNICEF, more than 1.5 billion children have been affected by school closures. Through considering its benefits and drawbacks, this article will explore whether online learning is as effective as in-person classes in terms of delivering a high quality education for students.
The case for online school
Firstly, online school is better than in-person school because of the improved time efficiency. Whether it is the stress of waking up early, changing into your uniform, or being stuck in traffic, online school allows you to prepare in less time and gives you more time to sleep in. Instead of commuting to school and wasting precious time,, you can also spend more time studying for upcoming exams because of zero travel time. According to onlinecolleges.net, approximately 90% of the students surveyed believe that online learning was better than physical studies, with one of the main reasons being time efficiency.
Online school is also better than in-person school because it is more convenient. Online school allows students to attend class from any place in the world. In my year group, more than ten of my classmates are outside of Manila because they are unable to travel back to the Philippines due to pandemic restrictions; one of my classmates attends our classes from more than 10,000 kilometers away, in London Despite the eight hour difference that London has, she can still participate in every class as if she was in Manila. While attending class from a different time-zone has its difficulties — such as changing your sleep schedule — it allows for students to remain connected to their education from half-way across the world.. Along with this greater sense of freedom, you can easily eat a snack while you are in class, which would have been impossible otherwise. How else would you be able to eat a plate of spaghetti or a bowl of ramen while you attend class? Eating during class is a privilege that you frankly do not have in face-to-face school.
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The case for in-person school
While online school has all of its advantages, in-person school provides opportunities for personal interactions. It is common to ask for help from teachers and friends whenever you are having trouble completing an assignment. In-person school allows you to ask for help by raising your hand or asking a friend. On the other hand, online classes make it harder for teachers to watch students do their work and identify those who are struggling. This can be an issue as it is harder to detect whether everyone is on the same level or if some are falling behind. There is much less communication in online school, and therefore it is harder to make new friends. Games such as hide-and-seek and tag encourages interactions with one another to play and gives you the opportunity to talk and get to know someone new. These personal interactions lead to the building of meaningful relationships, which is a lot harder to do in online school because there is very little socializing outside of class.
In-person classes provide irreplaceable physical activities to balance out the academic lessons. In PE class, students are able to participate in team sports. These sports require interaction between multiple people. In basketball or in football, you cannot pass the ball to your teammate through Zoom to work together to reach a common goal. This is why physical activities promoting teamwork are irreplaceable. Physical school also provides access to specialized classrooms and equipment such as a science lab, so that students can learn by doing instead of just reading. Laboratory experiments that involve fire or hazardous material which can be dangerous without proper supervision, can be conducted in schools because of the proper equipment and safety environment. These are not allowed in online classes, and in some ways the learning feels incomplete.
Which is better in my opinion?
I believe that both schools both have their positives and negatives, however in-person school is irreplaceable. Despite my preference, I think that we will have to be optimistic for the time being, as we will likely be in online school for a bit longer.
Written by Isabella
Originally published at http://winstonroars.com on May 23, 2021.
