Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Classes

According to the Oxford English dictionary, the word “online” is defined as the available on or performed using the Internet or other computer network, whereas the word “studying” means the action in which people dedicate their time and attention in order to gain knowledge of an academic subject. Paul Henry (2001) states that online studying is defined as the suitable application of the Internet that aids in the distribution of learning, skills and knowledge in a holistic approach not limited to any particular courses, technologies, or infrastructures. It is also known as e-learning or digital education.

With the increase of the implementation of online studying in education, especially for higher educational institutions in this generation, may bring certain impacts to students’ lives and they may have possess different opinions towards the fully or semi-adoption of e-learning. According to the studies that have been carried out in Jönköping International Business School, and 2Mälardalen University, Sweden, it is proven that the use and adoption of new strategy at the schools seemed to affect students’ perceptions greater than the individual background variables. Some students did not regard access to digital education on campus as an advantage (Christina Keller and Lars Cernerud, 2002). There is also a report that shows some students think that online learning is good to be implemented in their studies as it can be a useful learning tool. However, it can only enhance your study but cannot fully replace the traditional method, which is having lectures in classes (Brotherton et al, 2002).

Undeniably, the adoption of online studying brings advantages and disadvantages to students’ lives. One of the obvious changes to their lives is helping them to develop soft skills. Soft skill is defined as the personality traits or behaviours you show in varied situation instead of the knowledge you have. E-learning enables students to develop communication skill as lecturer seemed to be more approachable in the online setting. Moreover, students feel more comfortable to talk or discuss during online rather than face-to-face (Mark Aspillera, 2010). Chris Blake states that students will develop self-discipline and commitment skills in order to complete the online courses successfully.

All in all, the presence of these articles and certain studies that were carried out by people around the world enables us to identify the advantages and disadvantages of the implementation of online studying for students and their different point of view towards the adoption of e-learning. Although there’re some students agree with the implementation of e-learning, but they think it can only use to enhance the traditional method, but not to fully replace it. Moreover, we also able to know the ways students develop their soft skills after the adoption of online studying in their learning processes.