Activity Guide and Evaluation Rubric

Unit 3 – writing forum opinion article

Student:

Erika Harbleidy Cubides

Código: 52965739

Teacher:

Milton Andrés Sánchez Camargo

Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia – UNAD

UNAD ENGLISH: B1 – INTERMEDIATE
Junio del 2023
 Topic: Online/virtual education: Pros and cons.

Introduction
Today, online learning allows us to access high-quality education from anywhere in the

world, tailored to the needs of students who are in control of their own learning. It is a very

comfortable and flexible method that has allowed many people to return to training

successfully and as an alternative to traditional training. However, there are still many

important aspects that require additional efforts to increase the effectiveness of the learning

process. It stands to reason that there are always pros and cons to something, and it's

important to take an in-depth look at some of them.

Positive Aspects
It's comfortable: Well, with online education, the problems with the number of students

per class of the traditional method have been eliminated since the capacity becomes

unlimited, this being beneficial both for students and for training organizations.

It is profitable: As if that were not enough, we also save money with this type of learning.

Thanks to online training, everything happens at home, so we can save money for travel

and even food.

It's immediate: Gone are those days of anguish that students suffered when we wanted to

know the grade we had obtained in an exam. This teaching method not only provides

immediate content learning, but also offers the possibility of seeing the results of the

activities and exams that are carried out immediately.

New forms of communication and interaction: In traditional training, the only way we

had to receive information or communicate with our teachers, now we have communication

applications such as email, WhatsApp, video conferences, among others.

Immediate updates: If it differs from traditional teaching for something, it is because of

its speed to update given the format in which it works, which is continually changing and

improving, making learning even easier thanks to the wide variety of applications and tools

that are emerging.

Negative Aspects
Excess time in front of a computer screen: the number of hours you have to spend in

front of the computer to learn. This exercise, if carried out continuously, can lead to health

problems of a visual or physical or muscular type.

Self-discipline is required: In traditional teaching, just by going to class it seems that we

are already fulfilling that requirement, however, in this type of learning modality one does

not have to get up to go to class. That is, there is no one to motivate and "force" to connect

in this sense. Therefore, one has to do it and has to force himself to sit in front of the

computer if he wants to finish what has been started.

Possible failures at a technical level: We all know what we mean when we talk about the

possibility of suffering technical problems. These can be transferred from complications

with our laptop or with the Internet connection, to failures in the platform itself or in the

content that the teacher has uploaded to it.

Rigid schedules for conferences: In This the problem is that not all of us can connect at

the time or time of the conference, since some of us work or due to other circumstances and

it is impossible for us to connect at the same time.

Requires laptop and internet connection: We may not always have access to a Wi-Fi

network. Sometimes we may be moving from one site and we need to connect to our

laptop, so this is configured as a disadvantage.

Personal View

Virtual education has been a fundamental tool that has several

Advantages One of them and most representative of virtual education is flexibility in all

aspects. The flexibility of schedules, academic load, place of study and even the flexibility

of payments distinguish this type of academic training. Online education is quite cheap

compared to face-to-face education, since significant costs such as transportation, meals,

book purchases, printing, among other payments that are made in a face-to-face university

are avoided.

Conclusion
• Virtual education is provided through interactive and easy-to-use online portals or
platforms.
• It consists of a multimedia system, which includes text, audio, video and image elements.
• It is a cheaper training compared to face-to-face academic training.
• The learning methodologies are flexible and can be adapted according to the needs of the
course and the possibilities of the students.
• The student becomes the center of the training process and self-training is encouraged.
• The courses are much more personalized than in face-to-face academic training, where
there are usually a larger number of students under the charge of a single teacher.
• Teamwork and active communication are encouraged.
• Open doors to new professional profiles.
• Course materials are presented in different formats. For example, if before the course
material was found in a single book, today it is possible to obtain more information in other
digital resources such as videos and infographics.