Will Online Education Platforms Replace High Schools

Why attend school when you can get an online degree? These days you can find many online education platforms that offer a variety of courses. While online education is certainly helpful, can it be a replacement for the traditional schools? Here are some views on both forms of education that may help you find your answer. ~ Ed.

The whole world is going digital and higher education is not an exception.

Nowadays, a wide range of online education platforms offers a countless number of courses. These are prepared by the most talented professors from all over the world. It’s possible to study almost the same subjects as students from Harvard without moving to the USA and attending programs that cost an arm and a leg.

Education became accessible and that’s definitely a good thing. Every person, no matter from which country he comes from, has an opportunity to gain new knowledge in any specific area just by creating an account on Coursera or Canvas. It is really helpful for people from undeveloped countries, where the level of education is rather low.

Online education has already widened the horizons of millions of people on the Earth. It has helped people to become real professionals. Inspite of that face, lots of us doubt whether online courses will ever replace face-to-face education.

Best lecturers and educators from all over the world are convinced that online education is not a decent replacement for the traditional classroom and there are many reasons for it.

4 Reasons Why Online Education Platforms cannot replace High Schools

Though there are a few pros of the online courses, it cannot beat the charm and usefulness of the traditional offline schools. Here are a few general reasons.

The Importance of the Traditional Classroom

When having a lecture, the lecturers do their best to catch the students’ attention. They develop more creative ways of teaching in order to engage students in the learning process.

It’s also a challenge for students as they have to stay concentrated throughout the whole lecture as they can miss out. These make both educators and learners be more responsible and spend more time and effort on the educational matters.

Another undoubtable advantage of in-house education is that students have an opportunity to actually contact the teacher, ask some additional questions or share their opinion. Such a classroom experience is priceless.

Moreover, it has a positive impact on academic performance. Students’ further success is predetermined by their actively participating with peers and being surrounded by like-minded and well-educated people.

Online Students are More Likely to Cheat

Cheating is something students always used to do. A lot of faculties think that if they do so in class, why wouldn’t they be even more likely to cheat in an unmonitored exam situation?

Of course, no one can prevent the student from using professional custom writing services. However, it can be identified by the teacher in the nearest classroom session or while writing a term paper.

There are ongoing efforts to create a lots of models to prevent cheating, which is good news. Bad news is that there are still many ways to cheat as students know their way around computers better than their professors.

Online colleges do their best to hide the facts of cheating.  The heightened threat of cheating creates opportunities for online platforms to spread not only in the context of distance education but even in the broader scope of higher education.

Another issue of such platforms is that their certificates, that prove your proficiency in this or that subject, sometimes cost a lot of money.

However, they are still not generally recognized by the world’s largest companies and corporations. HR managers do not consider them to be an additional education or something that show employee’s qualification.

The matter is that even the online education platforms cannot guarantee that the person passed all the exams himself, without asking for help. This is the main reason why online education will remain an education, received for general knowledge or to have a better understanding of the subjects studied at college.

It will take years before the verification systems will start working properly so they gain the trust of the recruiters and employers.

Lack of Discipline

Discipline plays a significant role when it comes to achieving success. We used to stick to rules, regulations and deadlines predefined by teachers at school and that what made us well-organized since a very early age.

Students are eager to do their best in order to be estimated well by the teacher. Discipline becomes an essential habit for those, who want to be successful and get excellent grades.

Nevertheless, when it comes to online education there is no fear of failure and punishment. Students feel free to miss the deadlines or not to pass the exams at all.

Continuous learning is the only way to become knowledgeable. Students have to deal with countless number of tasks and do research while their studying at college. At the same time, those who are taking online classes at home can ignore all this.

We all know that discipline is hardly possible when it comes to studying at home. It is because only fear of complete failure and shame can align them to be so.

It’s All about On-Campus Experience

Despite being able to get all the necessary information on the Net and educate oneself almost as a typical college student, every scholar needs to experience such things as living in a dormitory, attending night parties, taking part in sports events.

Living on campus is all about experiences that one cannot meaningfully create online. It’s OK if the person who takes online courses has already graduated from the university. However, it may appear a great problem for those who are planning to build their entire education on online platforms.

The world is extremely globalized, so it is important for us to communicate with peers and get in touch with different cultures and nationalities in order to be a thoughtful, smart, well-educated and cosmopolitan.

Pursuing educaiton is not only about attending lectures and learn new material. It’s about working alongside professors, engaging yourself with the communities of peers around the world and having an opportunity to examine practical and theoretical issues from multiple points of view.

Wrapping Up

To crown it all, it does not seem to be that online courses will spell the end for the traditional university in the nearest future.

College years are the years of youth and freedom. It is time to meet new people, make connections that will last all life and learn to take responsibility for every action you make.

There are still too many things that computer cannot deliver. Offering a highly flexible model, online higher education is a good option for people who need to continue working while they learn. However, entering college is the best choice for who just graduated from high school.

Over to you –

What are your views about the online course and the online education platforms? Share in the comments.