What Are The Pros And Cons Of Taking Online Courses?
Every learning system has its advantages and disadvantages, and there are pros and cons of taking online courses. Often, one learner's advantage is another learner's disadvantage. It is significant that the focus in distance learning is on the learner, not the teacher. Learners bring different learning styles and preferences, different life experience and different characteristics to the learning environment.
Learning Styles
Each person has a unique learning style, and she learns best when information is presented in that style. There are at least six cognitive/sensory styles and two social styles. Of course, most people use a combination of styles, and most can learn in any style. Learning is more difficult, however, when there is a learning-teaching style mismatch, and the learner usually has to learn some adaptive skills to learn in an unfriendly environment. An example of a learning mismatch would be a child who is a physical/kinetic learner in a classroom where children are required to sit still and listen.
E-learning is usually easiest for people who prefer visual, verbal and logical learning and who have a solitary learning style. E-learning does have the additional advantage of adaptability, and auditory components and some physical learning activities can be added.
So, the learning style advantages of taking distance online courses are that works well for visual, verbal, logical and solitary learners. It is easy to adapt e-learning to meet the needs of auditory and physical learners.
The biggest learning style disadvantage to e-learning is that it is very difficult to incorporate social learning.
Life Experience
Adults and children learn differently. Children are curious about everything, and are interested in learning everything. They don't care how relevant information about dinosaur eggs is, or how they can apply learning about the construction of butterfly wings.
Adults, on the other hand, like to learn what they need to learn. They like learning to be useful and applicable. The only reason for an adult to want to learn about butterfly wings is if he is trying to adapt the information to the development of a new airplane wing style. Adults don't learn for learning's sake, like children do.
Most online curses are designed for adult learning because most of the people who take them are adults.
So, an advantage of taking online courses is that they are designed for adult learning, which makes it easier for adults to use them.
And a disadvantage of taking online courses is that few of them are designed for children. When children do access online learning, they may not be as successful as they are in a classroom, unless the courses are specially designed for them.
Personal Characteristics
It takes certain personal characteristics to succeed at online learning. You have to be self-motivated, self-disciplined, goal-oriented and good at managing your time. If you have these characteristics, e-learning is advantageous for you.
If, however, you need someone to give you a push, and you have trouble getting going and staying on task, e-learning is disadvantageous for you, and you might do better in a traditional classroom. Even if it's more boring for you, you might do better there because you need external structure to facilitate your learning.
The pros and cons of taking online courses depend on who you are, and what you bring to the educational environment with you.
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