We have been told time and time again that “Education is the key to success”. It opens doors for many opportunities in life but what if the education system that we are used to is slowly replaced by a new one? Will it unlock a better future or should we stick to the key that we are using now?
The traditional setting of education is having direct contact with the teachers and students, more access to school activities and hands-on training. A student will experience the learning environment first hand which plays a vital role in shaping the person’s decisions, perspective and actions. While online courses offer flexibility for students since they can access it in the comfort of their homes. Some people find it convenient because it is cheaper, not time-consuming, allows students for self-paced learning and it is modern. It has become extremely popular nowadays, as more and more institutions and companies are offering courses online.
However, with online educational systems, plagiarism and cheating may happen because students are using computers so it is easy for them to cheat on exams and plagiarize essays and other assignments. The probability of losing motivation and discipline while learning online courses is high because a student can be exposed to many distractions online. It isolates students that can result in low social skills unlike in the traditional system, students are able to interact with their teachers and peers face-to-face that helps students become more confident and good communicators. Even though the traditional education system is less cost-effective and limited in the flexibility of time and convenience, it still enables the students to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses through interactions within the learning environment and allow others to guide them in making decisions.
There are many roads to learning but as the saying goes “experience is the best teacher”, there is nothing like the school experience. The traditional education system does not only give us learnings that are useful as we go higher in education but also in real-life situations. Learnings such as building good personal connections, social interaction skills, personality development, public speaking and coping up with the environment that the online educational system could not give.
Article by Melanie Vizcarra
CCS IoN+ 