Essay on Distance Learning vs. the Traditional Classroom

Adam Savage once said “I think one of the defining moments of adulthood is the realization that nobody 's going to take care of you. That you have to do the heavy lifting while you 're here. And when you don 't, well, you suffer the consequences.” Now, what if we replaced “adulthood” with the term “higher education”, or more specifically, “distance education”? The words become almost synonymous when you define what it takes to succeed in either field. In the article, College Distance Education Courses: Evaluating Benefits and Costs from Institutional, Faculty and Students’ Perspectives written by Simon A. Lei and Rajeev K. Gupta, distance education is defined as “technology-based instruction in which students are at a location physically separated from their instructor during the entire course of study” (Lei and Gupta 616). In Lei and Gupta’s article, there are many drawbacks of distance education defined, but distance education remains an amazing opportunity because the benefits and the platform to develop useful life skills far outweigh said drawbacks.

Many advocates of distance education are ardent about their venue and very critical of traditional education. These online education devotees view traditional classes as being unchangeable, inflexible, teacher-centered, and static (Angiello, 2010). However, proponents argue that many simply would not be able to get a degree without distance education—the full-time police officer, the mother of four, or the individual living in a rural area approximately 100-200 miles away from any educational institution. Many individuals desperately need distance education courses because they "have jobs, families, civic responsibilities. They are thirsting. But some want us to say, 'Sorry you don’t want to drink the water there, but we can’t bottle our fresh spring water, so you’ll have to come here or drink nothing" (Baker, 1986). Proponents contend that distance education is "as good as" traditional education. In other words, learning occurs as much in distance education as it does in traditional education. However, is this really so? Does distance education work better for some students

With all the publicity over online courses, great professors alike have been determined to find out whether online courses are just as effective as face-to-face classes. There have been some controversies over the situation; therefore, several studies have been made. One study by Adam Driscoll, Karl Jicha, Andrea Hunt, Lisa Tichavsky, and Greatchen Thompson shows that given the appropriate pedagogy or instruction, online courses is just as an effective teaching format as face-to-face classes (Driscoll, Jicha, Hunt, Tichavsky, & Thompson, 2012). The study showed that when comparing online courses against face-to-face courses, the midterm scores for both teaching platforms are the same. Given that the GPA of the students is taken into consideration, the test grades do not improve or become worse when the class is taken online. The same study showed that when comparing online courses to face-to-face courses, the student satisfaction does not increase or decrease when

*According to the NCES non-traditional student is defined as someone being over 25 years old, who has come back to complete a higher education and has dependents and other responsibilities.

A non-traditional student is defined as a student that has one or more of the following qualities: delayed enrollment after high school, full-time employment, part-time college attendance, financial independence, and/or does not have a high school diploma (Cox 7). The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) estimated in a 1999 report that almost 75 percent of all undergraduates possessed one or more nontraditional characteristics. However, according to the 2012 studies of research studies in higher education, just 17 percent of college students are considered traditional (Harpe and Kaniuka 250). With the overwhelming amount of non-traditional undergraduates in America comes three major challenges: institutional, situational, and dispositional.

All three participates feel that there is a lot that can be done with distance learning. The technology is there. Participant one stated “we have the technology, but our students still

Distance learning is more suitable for adults who is sophisticated and committed. Threlkeld & Brzoska (1994) said successful students needs to have a number of characteristics such as tolerance for ambiguity, a need for autonomy, and an ability to be flexible. Not all students can grasp

There are others, like myself, who feel that online learning is better. The supporters of this back their claim by stating that online classes can be more beneficial for teachers and students. For example, fewer distractions in a classroom like other students disrupting class. Students can come into class late after the teacher has already started class and cause a disruption or talk during the class. With online classes the student can control their environment. Also, a teacher can provide in writing just the basic information a student needs for an assignment. This way there is less of a chance for the student to get confused on the assignment when the topic

In today’s society, so many people are continuing their education beyond high school. We realize that in order to make a decent living, a degree is most likely a requirement. In some cases even a bachelor’s degree is not enough to qualify for many positions. Nevertheless, thanks to technology, we now have the option to learn online or in a traditional classroom setting. There are very few differences between the two, and students need to understand that as much time and energy will need to be devoted to the online courses as on a campus. “A 2010 meta-analysis and review of online-learning studies concluded that online learning was as good as or slightly more effective than traditional face-to-face instruction” (Mendenhall, 2011).

Distance learning (education) has become an integral part of the education process over the past few decades and is growing in popularity as technology advances.(Willis 1992) describes distance education (as) "the organizational framework andprocess of providing instruction at a distance. Distance education takes place when ateacher and student(s) are physically separated, and technology…(is) used to bridge theinstruction gap." (Coutts 1996). Furthermore, "distance learning activities are designedto fit the specific context for learning, the nature of the subject matter; intended learningoutcomes, needs and goals of the learner, the learner's environment and the instructional echnologies and methods." (American

However, advocates of classroom learning believe the online method isolates the students from one another as well as their professor minimizing the overall value of taking the course. They also claim that students learn better when working together with their instructor and their fellow classmates. Students learn better when they are given the opportunity to ask questions, join in class discussions, and they move the process of learning forward through their participation. Face-to-face advocates firmly believe that this kind of interaction is not possible over the Internet; and for many types of education, e-learning will never meet the potential of live human interaction in the classroom. An article in the New York Times titled, “Second Thoughts on Online Education,” backs up the points made above. A recent research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, comes to the conclusion; “A rush to online education

On the other hand, an online course permits students the option and availability to enroll in a vast array of course choices regardless of their location. In so doing, it allows a student a unique opportunity to further their education anywhere in the world. After all, if one is in the United States or on a military base in Japan students can still attain an education from their home country and in their mother tongue via the Internet. However, lessons that take place in a physical classroom are confined to that location. Thus, students situated within the nearby vicinity of the school building typically can access the instructor’s lessons. Consequently, this creates a clear disadvantage to any student residing outside of the classroom’s surrounding area.

A student may learn effectively at his own pace.With the distance learning you have the opportunity to replay audio/video or aportion of it or repeata particular partwhich is not clear enough for you.You can have a personal rhythm of study without missing tutor support, and chat or email with the tutor and classmates about any doubts any time. The distance learning provides student the one on one attention he usually miss with traditional learning.It is worth to be mentioned that effective distance learning is dependent on the needs of candidate, requirements of the class.Distance learning also allows for enhancepotential of students. Distance learning would be more effective in countries where thepopulation is dense or the population is dispersed in a large area, and in the developing countries. A huge population with limited resources in developing countries is an obstacle to get learning with the traditional ways. Distance learning is a better solution to this problem and more

Education is an important part of people’s lives; it will either make them or break them in the future depending on the careers they choose. Education is greatly diverse today in comparison to the 1950s because of advancements in teaching and other great inventions that provide easier techniques of teaching. One major issue that has been raised is distant learning courses and online education.

The online distant learning programs displayed are only filled with false promises. It also makes life more boring and lonely for students and teachers alike, depriving us of our vital learning communities that make up the joys in our very own intellectuality. Classroom learning programs are the oldest, most efficient ways of learning any criteria, it has been taught by instructors since the age of time within a classroom, making learning is less frustrating when taught by a good instructor, does not ask for a constant computer and internet access in order to do essential academic course