In recent years, online learning has emerged as a convenient alternative to traditional classrooms, enabling flexibility and cost savings for students. Online learning platforms offer a complete classroom experience involving lectures, tests, quizzes, and assignments. These platforms also benefit students by promoting collaboration and engagement. But, given the myriad of online classroom platforms available, it is important for one to consider a few factors before choosing an option for their learning needs.
Benefits of learning through an online classroom
1. Flexibility
Among the several benefits of online classrooms, flexibility for students and parents remains at the top. To learn through an online classroom, one only requires a stable internet connection and a device to attend the class—like a laptop, tablet, or desktop. This allows students to attend the class from any place with good and consistent internet connectivity, eliminating the need to physically travel to an educational institution. Furthermore, such platforms even allow one to attend the class via a smartphone if other alternatives don’t work.
Additionally, by allowing one to attend class from anywhere, these platforms eliminate the need for parents to pick up and drop off their children at school. They also allow parents to organize their children’s learning hours to suit their professional and personal responsibilities.
2. Recorded lectures
Today, many online classroom platforms offer the convenience of lecture recordings. So, if a student is unable to attend a class, they would still not miss out on the learning. With recorded lectures, they would have the opportunity to revisit the lecture and catch up with the rest of the class. Moreover, with recorded lectures, a student does not have to rely on their speed of note-taking. Instead, they can keep revisiting and rewatching the lecture as and when needed.
Additionally, several online learning platforms offer just recorded lectures and not live classes. Such platforms can benefit students by allowing them to study at their own pace. With recorded lectures, a student can also attend the class at any time of the day, revisit challenging topics, and identify areas that need improvement. This particular feature can be especially beneficial to individuals who are pursuing a full-time job.
3. Easy to attend remote schools and institutes
Online classroom platforms have even made it possible for one to attend remote schools. This allows one to enroll in one’s dream institute (if it is located in a different city or even a different country) without relocating. Besides relocation expenses, this would also help one save on the cost of rent, food, and daily commutes to school.
4. Unlimited access to course materials
Most online classroom platforms offer students the required study and course materials—such as notes, e-books, and video essays. Besides, these platforms also grant students access to their e-library, helping them further expand their knowledge. This helps students save significantly on course materials compared to printed textbooks and allows easy access to these resources whenever required.
5. Immediate results
Certain online classroom platforms provide faster and, in some cases, immediate feedback to students, making learning faster and easier. This helps them deepen their knowledge of the course material and correct mistakes quickly. Meanwhile, in traditional classrooms, students usually wait for days or even weeks for the results of their tests, quizzes, and assignments. By eliminating the long wait, online learning platforms allow students to identify their areas of strength and those requiring improvement quickly, promoting self-regulated learning.
Factors to consider when opting to study in an online classroom
While online classrooms offer several benefits to students, before opting for a particular platform, careful consideration of various factors is necessary to ensure one makes the best choice for one’s educational needs.
1. Ease of use
This is an important factor to consider before opting to study in an online classroom. One can start by checking if the user interface of the platform is easy to navigate and has all the functions one needs throughout the course. One must also confirm if the online study resources and the e-library are easily accessible. Most online classrooms also offer demo classes for students to check the ease of use before signing up. This also helps them assess the affordability of the platform.
2. Course format
Different online classrooms offer varying study formats. Some may offer live classes, while others may provide only recorded lectures. Likewise, different classes will also have different styles of conducting tests, quizzes, and assignments. So, before signing up for a class, one must check these factors and determine if they align with their learning style and goals.
3. Engagement
Unlike traditional classes, it is not as easy to communicate and network with peers in an online learning platform. So before signing up for a class, one must also check if the platform of one’s choice offers such an opportunity. Some classes may also require the students to team up for assignments. In such instances, one must check how easy it is to network with peers through the platform. Along with that, one must also check if it is easy to connect with the tutors after a session for personal guidance or feedback. Since networking allows for fostering useful relationships and gaining valuable insights, this is an important factor to consider before signing up for an online classroom platform.
