Education has been undergoing major changes in recent times and, the pandemic has helped accelerate the process.
A few years ago, online learning was the ugly duckling of higher education, unable to compete with the prestige and recognition of in-person classes.
Nowadays, more and more students choose to study online due to the flexibility offered, being able to reconcile with their personal and professional life or even study from anywhere in the world. According to a survey published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), 77% of young people have at least one online course in their curriculum, and this trend is increasing.
When you decide to enrol in a course, the next decision is where and how will you do it.
We weighed in the pros and cons of Online vs Traditional learning, and there is a clear winner.
Flexibility
In terms of flexibility, the online study is clearly the winner.
With today’s busy life, between work and family, studying online allows students to organize themselves according to their availability and study at their own pace without the pressure of face-to-face study schedules.
Online degree programs offer greater flexibility than presential programs.
Nowadays, there are more and more digital nomads, who choose not to be tied to a particular place, preferring to travel and see the world while working and/or studying, and here, online learning is undoubtedly the perfect fit.
In presential learning, students have a fixed schedule that may not suit their personal life, creating stress and discouragement, which may lead the student to give up.
Interaction
There is still some fear regarding the interaction of students with the online school, however, this fear has no reason to be. Online learning provides students with tools like chats, blogs, videos, video conferences and shared documents making courses dynamic, intuitive and easy to follow. This asynchronous system enables students to attend classes, work, communicate, talk with teachers/tutors and access content wherever they may be, which presential learning can’t offer.
Another positive point for online learning is that it stimulates students’ proactivity and curiosity, collaborative work, critical thinking and independence.
With presential learning, students take a more passive role and have to adapt to the teacher’s rhythm, where the teacher is the primary source of information.
At this point, you might be thinking: “Sure, that’s all perfect, but what about interacting with my colleagues?”
Well, that’s an important point here. Some students may indeed thrive from the in-person interactions of a classroom. But there are a lot of online learning and communication tools that can fill that gap. If you struggle with feelings of shyness or social anxiety, interacting online with your colleagues and teachers/tutors can help more effectively. It can help you contribute to group conversations more effectively. Something that would probably be a challenge in a traditional classroom.
With online learning, you get fewer distractions and more time to work out your arguments, which will lead to better communication.
And if you love to meet new people, new cultures and discuss ideas, online learning is the sweet spot for you. You will be able to interact with students from all over the world.
Costs
An important point, and sometimes is the key deciding factor when enrolling in a course.
Online learning is four times cheaper than a UK campus degree. Enrolment fees are lower because infrastructure and other costs are also lower.
But it’s not just the enrolment costs. Think about travel and meals expenses and add those to the course expenditures.
Because time is money, don’t forget to consider the time you will be spending on travels for the campus. Make a simulation of the number of hours you will spend travelling to and from the campus, and you will be surprised with all the money and time you can save with online learning.
These are the three main factors that you can (and should!) think about before you decide to enrol.
At the beginning of this article, we say that “online learning used to be considered the ugly duckling of higher education“. As you can see, it looks more and more like the “impressive swan“.
Find out more about our Bachelors and Masters in Marketing.
