EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ONLINE

EDUCATION AND THE EXTENT TO WHICH ONLINE

COURSES CAN REPLACE TRADITIONAL CLASSROOM
TEACHING

BY

BIRUNGI DAPHINE JEMIMA

R2204D14217716

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Introduction
When it comes to human civilisation, education has been crucial. Knowledge of all human life
innovations from a variety of origins has always come from education. Hence, there won't be any
recognised civilisation without education. Different forms of education continue to change over
time in response to societal norms and societal demands (Bahasoan et al., 2020).

Technology has altered how higher education is perceived. Initially, the only method of training
where the teacher and students actually met in person was the traditional physical learning. Due
to the ability for students to complete their course work remotely without traveling to a school or
being physically present in a classroom, online learning also began to gain prominence during
the 1990s(Singh, Steele and Singh, 2021).

Online learning is a general term for any form of education that is offered via digital technology
(e-learning). The integration of texts, audios, videos, animations, and other visual graphics along
with a range of digital platforms, such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and
Google Classroom, is a common component of e-learning tactics. Students can study and put
their 21st-century abilities into practise through the use of communication and information
technologies in the electronic age (Basar et al., 2021).

Many students have enthusiastically embraced the prospect of taking classes online, and the
advantages related to online learning are numerous for example; By expanding educational
opportunities and fostering the creation of innovative educational approaches, online education is
poised to revolutionise the public education system. Also, it might help students and teachers
both learn more quickly, effectively, and stress-free(Butnaru et al., 2021).

Academic institutions were required to abide by the COVID-19 pandemic's restrictions. Some of
the restrictions included steps to isolate oneself from society and massive closure. With the aim
of easing the academic process for students in high schools and colleges, providing support
networks, and promoting interaction during the closure of academic institutions, a variety of
applications, systems, and educational resources were introduced to assist teachers and academic
institutions. In the beginning, technologies were made to send and retain course material for
online courses in a manner similar to how a teacher would do it in a classroom, allowing students

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to access it frequently as well as at a later time. But, because online learning gives students now
convenient access, they seem to value it (Butnaru et al., 2021).

Active elearning allows students to explore websites and digital libraries to learn new topics.
Online education may foster more effective self-learning since students may select how much
time they invest in studying, what they study, and how they truly understand it. Also, students
can study difficult material until they are confident that they comprehend it(Basar et al., 2021).

In addition, according to Fauziana (2020), students can review their lessons by viewing
recordings that the teacher has made, as well as learn new information from the internet or
books, in the hopes of deepening their understanding (Lapitan Jr et al., 2021).

According to Chen (2021), the benefits of online learning include;

1) The ability of the system to keep track of each student's login and logout times, which
makes it possible to detect tardiness, early departure, and absenteeism. It can also
instantaneously indicate if students are online. This helps the teachers to effectively
monitor the attendance of the students.
2) The arrangement of the students in the physical classroom will obstruct learning in some
way since it will be more challenging to interact with those in the middle and back rows.
The seat-distance restriction can be removed in online learning, allowing the students to
listen to and see their tutor well.
3) To supplement students' knowledge, the teacher can directly provide online information
and web pages for instance by playing for the students educative YouTube videos as well
as providing links for educative material.
4) In comparison to physical education classes, pupils are more inclined to speak out and
ask questions, and those who are shy when it comes to speaking are also willing to write
down their thoughts. This enables the students to clearly understand what they are being
taught.

Even though some students perceive courses online as a fantastic potential, others still feel they
are much less advantageous than traditional in-person classes.

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In a study conducted by Eman (2021), 56 percent of the students revealed that online assessment
tasks were satisfactory however, 30% of respondents felt unsatisfied. The study indicated that
students who were satisfied with online assessments may have had strong critical thinking
abilities or found it simple to duplicate information from several sources which lowers the value
of assessments. As a result, educational institutions resort to open book exams because it is
challenging to steward exams on Zoom or other online learning channels. Unfortunately, open-
book exams call for critical thinking, which many students lack thus resulting in poor academic
performance(Eman, 2021).

The time it takes to complete a course online varies depending on how quickly you can connect 
to the world wide web and how much internet packages cost. According to Basar et al. (2021),
students who study online often have limited access to the internet because of their physical
location or a lack of cash to pay for internet packages. This suggests that it will be difficult for
students to profit from accessing class materials online if they live in places with inadequate
internet connectivity or don't have the money to purchase internet packages.

Butnaru et al. (2021) acknowledges that online learning is seen as being less interactive than
traditional education. This is so that they can interact and work together in a traditional
classroom atmosphere. Traditional learning is also easier to understand and helps students
acquire social skills, which are crucial in later life. When learners work in a physical setting with
other learners, their overall competence and desire to accomplish more grow.

To a greater extent, online courses may replace traditional classroom teaching. This is because
students have the opportunity to develop self-learning skills through information technology,
such as information literacy and meta-cognition control.

Given that learning will likely be provided in a number of formats in the future, web-based
learning should be seen as an essential element of higher education. The advancement of
educational forms would result in more accessibility for pupils.

Nonetheless, web based education platforms would assist learners who felt that online learning
was a better fit for their lives while face-to-face education programmes would stay operational.
Hence, administrators of educational institutions should put in place facilities to serve students

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from various backgrounds and with a range of objectives and to educate them in a number of
styles (Thomas and Stritto, 2021).

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References
Bahasoan, A.N. et al. (2020) ‘Effectiveness of online learning in pandemic COVID-19’,
International journal of science, technology & management, 1(2), pp. 100–106.

Basar, Z.M. et al. (2021) ‘The effectiveness and challenges of online learning for secondary
school students–A case study’, Asian Journal of University Education, 17(3), pp. 119–129.

Butnaru, G.I. et al. (2021) ‘The effectiveness of online education during covid 19 pandemic—a
comparative analysis between the perceptions of academic students and high school students
from romania’, Sustainability, 13(9), p. 5311.

Chen, F.-H. (2021) ‘Sustainable education through e-learning: The case study of ilearn2. 0’,
Sustainability, 13(18), p. 10186.

Eman, S. (2021) ‘Shifting from Face-to-Face Learning to Zoom Online Teaching, Research, and
Internship Supervision in a Technologically Developing’Female Students’ University in
Pakistan: A Psychology Teacher’s and Students’ Perspective.’, Psychology Teaching Review,
27(1), pp. 42–55.

Lapitan Jr, L.D. et al. (2021) ‘An effective blended online teaching and learning strategy during
the COVID-19 pandemic’, Education for Chemical Engineers, 35, pp. 116–131.

Singh, J., Steele, K. and Singh, L. (2021) ‘Combining the best of online and face-to-face
learning: Hybrid and blended learning approach for COVID-19, post vaccine, & post-pandemic
world’, Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 50(2), pp. 140–171.

Thomas, R.A. and Stritto, M.E.D. (2021) ‘What is the future of online education? The
perceptions of instructors with over a decade of online teaching experience’, Online Journal of
Distance Learning Administration, 24(4), pp. 26–27.