The battle of recent time: Online v/s Offline Education

Online Education– 

Online Education is a very flexible learning system that allows students to study solely via the internet on their own computer at home, or wherever they see fit. 

Basically, student-teacher face to face meetings are not required, allowing students to study anywhere in the world. Online learning involves courses offered by postsecondary institutions that are 100% virtual, excluding massively open online courses (MOOCs). Online learning, or virtual classes offered over the internet, is contrasted with traditional courses taken in a brick-and-mortar school building. It is the newest development in distance education that began in the mid-1990s with the spread of the internet and the World Wide Web. Learner experience is typically asynchronous, but may also incorporate synchronous elements. The vast majority of institutions utilize a Learning Management System for the administration of online courses. As theories of distance education evolve, digital technologies to support learning and pedagogy continue to transform as well. 

Offline Education– 

Also referred to as traditional training. Offline Education means a student needs to go in a school, in a classroom, and attend a class face to face with a teacher. offline learning requires you to physically travel to a training centre or a school and be present at fixed hours, online learning allows you to study wherever you want, whenever you want. Offline learning is sometimes described as a proactive type of learning that can work forward on the basis of evaluating the static data sets that it has at its disposal. Because there is no continual influx of information, the program and its human operators can benchmark the results of the training set and apply them to future phases of operation. Some experts call offline learning a form of eager learning, which means that the system is working proactively to make decisions, as compared to lazy learning where the machine learning program’s work may be event driven. 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Learning 

Benefits  of Online Education	Disadvantages  of Online Education
Location doesn’t matter	Isolating
Flexible hours	No competition
Time saving	No interpersonal skills development
Cheaper	Limited topics
Convenient	Must have self discipline
Class recorded

Advantages and Disadvantages of Offline Learning 

Benefits  of Offline Education	Disadvantages  of Offline Education
Individualised monitoring	Fixed location
Structured & disciplined setting	Fixed schedule
Face to face interactions	Study materials
Interpersonal skills development	Dependency on the teachers
Competitive atmosphere	Transport & Accommodation

Is Online just as effective as Offline Learning? 

There is no definite answer to this question. Only because, the efficiency of a class, being online or offline, all depends on one’s motivation and drive to success. 

As we saw previously online learning requires a lot of self discipline. You need to get up, open your laptop and be there during class without anyone always reminding you to be there. 

If you don’t want to join the online class, the teacher won’t come for you. But you’ll get behind real quick. That’s where self-discipline comes in. 

Just as in an offline setting, online learning requires you to do homework, research, group assignments and turn in papers on time. So nothing new here. 

What will be different though in an online course, is the use of digital learning technology such as videos, interactive white boards, games and other online study material you can access anywhere, anytime, with a laptop, tablet or mobile phone. 

Also the opportunity to engage with more day-to-day resources as additional study resources and integrating it into your habits, such as social media and shows in the language you’re learning. 

Through digital learning resources, engagement with the class activities is increased, students have more fun interacting with the lessons and as a consequence will learn better and faster, than in traditional learning. 

Which study is better, online or offline? 

Again, this question is difficult to answer, as everyone’s situation is different. One might prefer a type of learning rather than the other according to their needs and availabilities. 

If you have a training center close to your location, prefer to travel and study in another place than your hometown, then offline learning is absolutely fine. 

If you prefer to stay home, need more flexible hours, don’t have the budget for a far away school or just learn better with digital technologies, then online learning is a great option.