Online education has become a popular channel for many students to pursue their studies. Fact shows that most online students have successfully completed their degree program but 40% of them failed. Most online students pursue their studies online because they see many advantages of online education that can benefit them, but 40% who fail are not aware of the disadvantages of online education that cause their failure. In order to avoid becoming one of the online education failure statistic, you must first understand the pros and cons of earning your degree online before making your decision to obtain your degree through this online channel. Here are the main advantages and disadvantages of online education that you should know:
Advantages of online education
In today’s busy lifestyle, most people do not have time to go back to school even if they have the intention of getting more grades for career advancement, job promotion or simply to learn something new. This is where one of the advantages of online education will benefit these people. Online education can provide you with a flexible learning environment from anywhere as long as you have an internet connection.
With proper time management, you can easily plan online learning sessions to fit into your busy schedule and keep pace with your studies to complete your degree programme. Another major advantage of online education is that you can attend online classes from the comfort of your home or wherever you find convenient for you. This also means that you can enroll in any online degree program offered by any universities around the world as long as they offer their degree program online. With that in mind, you don’t have to worry about not being able to find a degree that doesn’t meet your career or lifestyle requirements.
Generally speaking, you can complete an online degree in a shorter period of time when compared to the same offering of courses in campus-based programs. Unless you intentionally delay your cycles due to failure to properly manage your time. In terms of tuition fees, though this is not always true, but in general, online degree programs cost less than campus-based degree programs as most of the educational materials are in a downloadable format and the credit hours required to complete an online degree program are comparatively less. Hence, you can save some money by getting your degree online.
Disadvantages of online education
Advantages of online education can become disadvantages if you are not the right candidate for online education. Flexibility in planning your schedule in online education may be the disadvantage for you if you are the type of person who probably cannot manage your time between work, family, and studies. If you are this type of person, a pre-plan schedule may suit you well, and allowing yourself to study at your own pace on your own schedule may cause you not to complete your degree program.
Since most online learning materials are in text format, if you are not comfortable with this format and would rather listen to the lecture than read it. Then, this will become a disadvantage for you and you need to reconsider your decision before you choose online education as the channel of your pursuit of your degree.
Are you able to communicate well through chat and chat forums? You must understand that these media are the main channels of communication in the online learning environment and you must be able to adapt to them or they will become unfavorable to you.
summary
By understanding the advantages and disadvantages of online education, you will have a better understanding of how these factors will affect you if you choose to pursue your studies online.