Online Learning Effectiveness

With the advent of the pandemic, the rapidly growing online learning market has skyrocketed into the mainstream. This begs the question – how effective are they at teaching compared to conventional in-person classes? A holistic analysis reveals that beyond just serving as functional alternatives, online courses are a vastly superior option in numerous cases. Before diving into that question, it’s important to clarify the mode of online classes this article will discuss. Only online courses which are off-the-shelf will be discussed. Live online courses will be excluded.

Most research that used student grades as a metric to gauge the relative performance of online courses versus in-person courses found no significant differences between the two. In several cases, online students had significantly higher grades than in-person learners. However, apart from this, there are several factors that make online learning a more attractive option.

Online learning is highly flexible in a number of ways. An individual has complete freedom over the speed at which he or she chooses to tackle different sections of a course. Unlike an in-person course which, in most cases, must standardize the time spent on a particular section, individuals can choose to speed through sections they are already familiar with or spend more time working on sections they find difficult. According to this study, students in online learning classes claimed that their flexible schedules led to better learning outcomes due to psychological reasons, like lack of stress. Online courses also eliminate concerns like transit time and reduce the likelihood of clashing commitments. This is especially useful to individuals with multiple personal commitments, who can now afford to spend time on education. Like all courses, it is essential to be cautious before enrolling in any online course. Check for accreditation from reputed firms or government agencies. Courses that have an unnaturally low amount of requirements or those that require individuals to put in very few hours are often scams. Evidence shows that institutions do not differentiate between students with an online degree and those with regular degrees, provided the course is accredited.

A commonly levied criticism against online courses is that students often do not complete the course. It is indeed true that self-motivation is necessary from the student’s end to complete the course. However, in this process, students can learn important skills like time management. Online course offering institutions can also mitigate this by placing a cap on the number of days for which the course is accessible. It is safe to conclude that the potential disadvantages can be worked around and are minor in comparison to the flexibility and conveniences that online classes offer