With more and more students taking online courses, both the students and the colleges benefit. For example, colleges have managed to cut a significant amount of costs that would have been required to construct structures and develop systems that will ensure appropriate learning environment for students including security systems, recreation facilities, and transport systems among others. Also, students benefit from online courses where they do not have to relocate from their original homes or cities to take a course, hence saving the huge sums of money and time. However, online education has some drawbacks. For instance, a significant number of institutions offering online education today lacks appropriate accreditations, and they are offering low quality among other issues. These problems could easily be solved. First, there is a need for the federal and state government to come up with effective policies and guidelines which will ensure the institutions offering online education have the appropriate accreditations, so that whenever student enroll for courses and graduate they do not face challenges finding jobs because they are holding certificates from institutions which are not accredited. Second, there is a need to come up with quality standards for institutions offering online courses which are different from those measuring quality of education in classroom courses. If these problems are addressed, each student and colleges will benefit because, students would be able to undertake different courses even if they are working or parenting, while colleges will benefit from reducing operational cost and others costs associated with managing the institutions and ensuring students are studying in a conducive environment.
Armstrong, S. (2-13). What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Learning? eLearning Industry. Retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-online-learning
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According to the article, people in today’s world are considering education as normal part of personal and working life. This is because of the increasing need to acquire job for both career and personal knowledge. Online education has managed to offer opportunity to all learning opportunity to all interested learners, but it is important to consider some of the challenges that are undermining the effectiveness of this form of education. The author has identified several challenges or limitations to online education as compared to education offered physically in classrooms include: firstly, online educations fail to offer an opportunity for the student to conduct discussion which is important for every education program. Also, the author identified the issue of human interaction being a major limitation to online education effectiveness, where students who undertake online education tend to have issues with their social life because the school is the best place to have human interaction.
Hickey, R. (2017). Five disadvantages to consider for online education. Petersons. Retrieved from https://www.petersons.com/articles/college-admissions/5-disadvantages-to-consider-about-online-education
In his article, Hickey claims that internet has been providing people with positive information on online education including its accessibility, flexibility, and reduced cost of undertaking different courses. However, the author believes that numerous disadvantages of online education that learners need to consider before enrolling in different online colleges. The author has identified lack of appropriate accreditation as being a major disadvantage, where students do not have well-established platforms or agencies offering information about the accreditation on the institutions, where all schools from new online colleges to established colleges and universities are boosting how accredited their online education programs. Schools without right accreditation leave the learners with worthless degrees and being unprepared for the workforce, and sometimes huge amount of education dents. Also, the author indicated that institutions offering online education are offering low-quality education hence learners lack proper skills to undertake tasks in the real world.
Sharma, V. (2016). Disadvantages of Online Classes for Students . Retrieved from http://www.klientsolutech.com/disadvantages-online-classes-students/
According to the author, taking online classes offer a different experience to learners as compared to learning from teacher’s online. Therefore, Sharma argument is the advantages of offline classes are the main disadvantages of online classes. Some of the disadvantages of online education according to the author are lack of discipline. Education is one of the sectors that demand high discipline because students learn with discipline in school. Teachers have the mandate to predefine rules and regulations; hence, students who undertake the online education may lack the opportunity to be guided by teachers. Also, the article claims that students are always determined to work extra hard whenever teachers order them, hence students who lack self-discipline may not benefit from online education regardless of its affordability and flexibility.
Appana, S. (2008). A review of benefits and limitations of online learning in the context of the student, the instructor, and the tenured faculty. International Journal on ELearning , 7 (1), 5.
According to the study, lack of structure is a major limitation in online education. The study supported the previous finding which indicated that self-disciplined students have a better chance of benefiting from online education hence creating a major disadvantage for unmotivated and undisciplined students. According to the study, students undertaking online courses do not have standard meeting time or interact directly with their peers or teachers who would remind them about their assignment. Also, the study has indicated that students undertaking online education have more disadvantages regarding content because some program lack effective platforms to allow interaction with instructors through emails for resources, making the main priority in the program to pass exams. Therefore, although the programs are accessible and convenient, they may not help this group of students in their future careers.
Arkorful, V., & Abaidoo, N. (2015). The role of e-learning, advantages, and disadvantages of its adoption in higher education. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning , 12 (1), 29-42.
According to the study, the effectiveness of instructors in the online education program may be a concern for college and university administration. This is because instructors who lack adequate skill on proper implementation of online courses may contribute to the poor management of the programs procedures and poor communication strategies with the students may lead to inaccurate information. Such issues will have major disadvantage on the institution reputation, especially on established colleges and universities. Also, online education has major disadvantages on colleges and universities, where they have to hire and train faculty to offer an online course, which may be major challenges for small and medium colleges and universities.
Even though researchers and authors have identified major disadvantages on online education when compared to classroom education, there are advantages of online education that need to be considered by both the students and colleges. Firstly, online education is available anywhere and every time ( Bennett, & Wilezol, 2013 ). Due to changing social factors including tight work schedules and family demands, online education offers students with appropriate opportunity to acquire education anywhere and still manage to undertake other activities in their lives. Secondly, online education offers an education system with fewer distractions. For students who find classroom education as being challenging due to frequent movements, buzz and other distractions, undertaking online education will help them concentrate on their education ( Harrell, 2013 ). Lastly, a study conducted by Kats (2010) indicated that online education is cheaper when compared to classroom education because colleges and universities will not need to building and offices, hence it will reduce the shortage of education.
From the analysis of different kinds of literature addressing the challenges facing online education, it is important it is important to find out some ways and means of streaming the system. Some of the challenges that need to be addressed include lack of accreditation, low quality, lack of human interaction, among others. Addressing such challenges will offer students opportunity to undertake courses for career and knowledge related purposes due to its flexibility, accessibility and less destruction as compared to classroom education.
References
Appana, S. (2008). A review of benefits and limitations of online learning in the context of the student, the instructor, and the tenured faculty. International Journal on ELearning , 7 (1), 5.
Arkorful, V., & Abaidoo, N. (2015). The role of e-learning, advantages, and disadvantages of its adoption in higher education. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning , 12 (1), 29-42.
Armstrong, S. (2-13). What Are the Advantages And Disadvantages Of Online Learning? Retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-online-learning
Bennett, W. J., & Wilezol, D. (2013). Is college worth it? A former United States Secretary of Education and a liberal arts graduate expose the broken promise of higher education. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson
Kats, Y. (2010). Learning management system technologies and software solutions for online teaching: Tools and applications . Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.
Harrell, L. (2013). A learner-centered approach to online education . Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing.
Hickey, R. (2017). Five disadvantages to consider for online education. Retrieved from https://www.petersons.com/articles/college-admissions/5-disadvantages-to-consider-about-online-education
Sharma, V. (2016). Disadvantages of Online Classes for Students. Retrieved from http://www.klientsolutech.com/disadvantages-online-classes-students/
