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Hermine Semita Landrine DJIMOUDI

Is Online Learning as Good as Face-to-Face learning?
2/22/2016

Professor: Mr. Michael Sharpe

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Hermine Djimoudi
First Year Experience
Mr. Sharpe
Research Paper
2/22/2015
Is Online Learning as Good as Face-to-Face learning?

Is online education as efficient as traditional education? That should be the question we

should ask ourselves before taking online classes because as we see, in the world today nothing

is more confusing than making decisions about your education. In April 2000, K12 online

education was born (Sanders p-82.). That was a new type of education where students can just

learn at home instead of going to a traditional school. Some of them, instead of having a virtual

professor or teacher, they have their own mother or sibling teaching them everything. If that

seems great at the first look, it can be bad for them. Nowadays, the reason why most parents

don’t like seeing their children playing on their PlayStation or video games all time is because

they are just starring at a screen, pressing buttons and having sometimes some rest to go get

something to eat or to go to the bathroom. That can be dangerous for their heath. However, isn’t

it the exact same thing they are doing with online education except that they are learning? Face

to face schooling, in my opinion, is better than online schooling.

Even though traditional learning is much better than online learning, there may be some

benefits for choosing online learning. One of those is that online education costs much cheaper

than traditional education. For instance, face to face learning in college can required the students

to be in class at a given time of the day. Students have no choice. They got to be there at that

specific time if they want to pass that class. Also, in order to get there, students need to drive or

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ride the bus or even be staying in the dorms (residence halls). All these things require students to

pay for it. While with the online learning you just sit at home or wherever you want and do your

school there. You don’t need to pay some extra money for dorms or gas for your car. As Brian

said “Online learning costs as little as eighty times less than traditional learning. In fact, while

the average cost of traditional degrees is 85,000 dollars, online degrees cost only 30,000 dollars”

(Brian p-91). So, instead of paying thousands of dollars to attend college you can still pay less

than what the traditional school required and take your classes online.

Another benefit of online learning is that it helps many students with health problems to

complete their degrees. I recently interviewed an American student taking online courses and

what she said impressed me. “I am more comfortable with online classes, because I don’t have to

worry about what other students think of me,” She said. In fact, she is suffering from obesity like

many American students and she said she feels like when she walks in a classroom, everybody

talking about her or her weight. Another student I interviewed was a handicapped student in a

wheelchair. “I like more online classes because I don’t have to worry if the school facilitates the

buildings access with elevators, ramps…,” He said, “I can just sit in front of my computer and

learn the same things I could learn in traditional school”. Those are of the main reason why many

college students take online classes.

Online learning is helpful for working parents who want to complete their college degree.

We all know it’s not evident for young parents who have a full time job to get their degree. It is

difficult to take care of their children, have a full time job and attend a traditional class. It is very

difficult for this type of parents to make it especially with all the requirements traditional schools

have. Online learning helps them get their degree but still take care of their family. For example,

a working parent who has to go to college in addition to his full time work will not have enough

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time to spend with his family, which is very important. With online learning, this parent can still

spend time with his family even though he has a full time job because he doesn’t need to be

physically to college. Also, we have noticed that many college students get pregnant and are

obliged to stop going to school as the birth date approaching. Online classes can be very helpful

for them, because they can take their classes at home and forget about problems the pregnancy

can have or judgments people can have towards them.

With online learning, students don’t have to fight traffic, find parking spaces, leave work

early to go to class, or miss important family time. However, is online education as good as face-

to-face learning?

Even though online learning can be efficient for some circumstances, it is not as good as

traditional learning. Foe multiple reasons, online learning can give you the sufficient tools to

succeed in your study or get your degree. However, let’s be realistic that education is not limited

by what we know only. As a New York Times article editor, Alex T. puts it, “Face to face

learning teaches students much more than just academia.”(T. n.p). That’s strongly true because

when you attend a public or private school, you learn how to be on time, how to work as a team

or to work under the directions of a leader. I think Face- to- Face learning is much better because

traditional school our professors don’t just teach us how to add or subtract, or how to write an

essay. They are amazing because they don’t just do what their job required them to do. They do

more than that. They teach us skills to help us succeed in our life after graduation. Indeed, what

will happen if in the future a student who took only online classes throughout his life, get a job

and doesn’t know how to manage his time in order to show up on time? They will get fired for

sure.

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While I was looking for some opinions of people who took online classes, I found a

comment in a blog about online learning that really strengthened what I thought about this new

type of learning. “I took two online classes: World Geography and Spanish. I don't know where

Greece is, and cannot count to 40 in Spanish, much less make multiple sentences. It is ridiculous

the amount of information one can miss from online learning. After completing the online

classes, with A+s might I add, I have had much more trouble than I should have with anything

that had to do with Spanish or World Geography,” the surfer said (Debate.org n.p). In fact with

online learning no one is there to make sure you understand the course. And when it comes to the

test, there is a much higher risk of cheating than a printed test or standardized test. So, students

can still get A‘s at their tests or assignments, but not due to their understanding of the course.

That’s why some people who took online degrees graduated with high GPAs but are ineffective

at the workplace.

Another problem with online learning is that it revolves around a screen mostly

computers or tablets. And we all know that students love screens. Also, nowadays many students

are addicted to social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many more, that they are

even using their cellphones during normal classes while the professor is teaching in front of

them. Taking online classes can also be a disadvantage for the student success because he/she

can be tempted to go visit the social media instead of learning what they were assigned to learn.

If online learning better suits for shy students, face-to-face learning can help them be

more confident about themselves, if they have to stand up and present their project to the all

class. Of course in the beginning, it will be difficult for them to adapt to the environment or talk

in front their classmates but as the time goes it will become easier. Before getting in the

workplace, they will need to present their researches in front of a jury so that they can be

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approved to graduation. Also, after their graduation, they will need to present their projects in the

workplace maybe in front of investors. If they failed to do so, that can be very hard for them. So,

the face-to-face learning making them be better public speakers.

From the beginning till now, we went through the advantages and disadvantages of both

online and traditional schooling. But we also noticed that both of them are essential for our

education. Under some specific circumstances, each of them is essential. However, if both of

them have some advantages, why not try the blended learning which is both online and

traditional learning. By taking both online and traditional classes, we can make profit on the

advantages on both, therefore, make our education more efficient. For example, we can take

some classes like computer class as online classes. However for some classes like mathematics,

it is essential to take a face to face class in order to have a good understanding and also be able to

ask questions to a real professor instead of a virtual one.

Face to face schooling is better than online schooling for many other reasons. Online

students don’t have as much trouble understanding the lessons, you can connect with you

teacher, have more creative time, and overall get a better education (Tichavsky p-7). Also, you

don’t learn only about school stuff, but you also learn about skills for your life after graduation.

As students have the responsibility to show up on time at school, they will probably do so when

they will get a job later on. However, even though online learning is not as efficient as traditional

learning, it is necessary in some circumstances. I think students should think more about blended

learning which combined online and traditional learning together.

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Works Cited

Schulden, Katherine. “Is Online Learning as Good as Face-to-Face Learning?” New York

Times posted April 7, 2011 4:51 AM

“Is online education as effective as traditional on-campus schooling?” Debate .org

Lagos, Taso. “Pro: Are online courses good for higher education?” Seattle Times posted

August 18, 2012 at 6:01 pm

Motii, B. Brian1, and Tom J.1 Sanders. "An Empirical Analysis Of Student Learning

Outcomes In An Introductory Microeconomics Course: Online Versus Face-To-Face Delivery

Methods." Global Education Journal 2014.3 (2014): 81-96. Education Source. Web. 26 Oct.

2015.

Tichavsky, Lisa P.1, lisa.tichavsky@nau.edu, et al. "It's Just Nice Having A Real

Teacher": Student Perceptions Of Online Versus Face-To-Face Instruction." International Journal

For The Scholarship Of Teaching & Learning 9.2 (2015): 1-8. Education Source. Web. 26 Oct.

2015.

Smith, Julia, and Aschbel Gansore. "How to You Feel about Taking Online Classes?"

Personal interview by Hermine Semita Landrine Djimoudi. 19 Feb. 2016.

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