Education in Online Environment - Essay Example

Should collegiate education transition to an online environment exclusively? During the last decade, online learning has undertaken a dramatic change not only to become as a viable learning environment but as a sole methodology to deliver academic instructions which were previously deemed to be exclusively given by the traditional brick and mortar classroom (Pailoff and Pratt). What was used to be taken as a less strenuous, less rigorous and less challenging alternative to the regular completion of a course or degree, online classrooms has evolved for it to be accepted as a mode instruction that could deliver high quality education and that completing an online course is no longer viewed as one that breeds laxity and complacency among students but also entails hard work, a healthy amount of discipline and focus not to be distracted by other activities that can be done online. Online learning is increasingly becoming more common that most universities have included this in their programs. Thus the consideration comes to the fore, “should collegiate education transition to an online environment exclusively?” The main consideration for posing the above question is that if online learning through virtual classrooms and its other auxiliary function is capable of delivering an equally rigorous, high quality education, then why not substitute the traditional brick and mortar classroom with online classroom? The first and most important reservation and consideration against collegiate education which is quality has already been responded in the affirmative and it now becomes high time to make classrooms virtual to benefit of the many advantages of a technology based education using internet as a platform instead of the traditional classroom. Many if not most academicians agreed that the learning outcome for their students such as incorporating active learning techniques such as working collaboratively on assignments, participating in small-group discussions and projects, reading and responding to case studies, role playing, and using simulations can now also be done online (Paliof and Pratt). Its many benefits includes financial pragmatism which is very important today because are still in the process of recovering from the financial crisis. Online classrooms will save student a huge amount of time and money and these saved time and money can be channeled to other things that are productive thus optimizing the time and resource of students. Students are able to save time in an exclusive online classroom in attending college because he or she no longer has to commute beginning in enrollment, going to class and attending to school documentary requirements. The saved time and opportunity cost saved are huge that the students can either used it to engage in other productive endeavors such as engaging in interesting hobbies or getting a job to help finance college. Speaking of finance, along with the saved time is also money. Commuting to and from college costs money and it is increasingly getting expensive due to the perpetual increase in the price of petrol. It would also save the student clothing expenses because he or she no longer has to purchase additional clothing that are suitable for going to class. If the student has to board near the school, online classroom will no longer require that. Instead of paying board and lodging just to be near school, the student can stay in the comfort of his or her house without the added cost of board and lodging. He or she has to pay only for the utility bills which are very minimal compared to paying room and board inside or near the university. It is also safer because students no longer have to leave house and expose to many elements outside the house that could pose danger to the student. Danger such as road accident, mugging or being shot by a distraught student who has gone amuck is virtually absent if the student stay in the house to attend class. Campus dangers such as rape dating, acquiring the bad habit of drug and alcohol dependency will not happen because the student is not in the university campus but instead in the comfort of his or her house or somewhere else. The idea however of shifting education an online environment exclusively is not without criticism. White for example contended that assuming the learning outcome that can be facilitated by a brick and mortar classroom can also be achieved by online class that it is equally rigorous, will make student work and of high quality, social issues still cannot be handled effectively. The tendency of people to become more lose online could be transposed in an online classroom and it would be very difficult if not impossible to contain or regulate. Undesirable behavior online such as “loose talks and aggressive behaviors” “can be seen as revealing a weakness in the medium, a flaw in its design, operation, and communication processes. In an environment where students feel less bound by convention and less concerned with consequences, conflict can be seen as something to be avoided” (White Chapter 12). This problem is not only exclusive to online classroom but is the general tendency of people online be it in social networking websites or online classroom. Also, other social aspect of learning which is not academic but also equally important cannot be taught and facilitated online. Social skills such as networking, ability to work with other people cannot be taught or facilitated online because the human interaction is limited and virtual, you cannot even exchange handshakes. In other words, virtual classroom can only be effective in enhancing the cognitive ability of a student but is very limited in the social quotient dimension whose aptitude which is also necessary in the modern integrated workplace. The modern and real work place does not only require that a prospective employee has the cognitive ability to do the job (which is the dimension of academics) but also requires that he or she can work along with others, handle stress, and can easily adapt. These skills cannot be written in a curriculum but is rather facilitated in the dealings of students with each other. Making classrooms to be exclusively online will remove this social dimension of learning. The ideal learning methodology should be appropriate to the setting of which it is intended to – the modern workplace and to be relevant in today’s society. The modern workplace requires diversity and integration and it follows that preparation in the academe should also be diverse, adaptive and integrative. Specialized knowledge may still be needed but the world is shifting towards integrative learning where it requires more of generalized knowledge than specialized knowledge. The modern workplace does not require cognitive ability from its employees to be productive. Workplace today consists of projects which require professionals from various fields that would enable teams and organizations to benefit from the expertise of its diverse human resource. The requirement of working cross functions requires a healthy amount of social skills to be able to work with others and ability to adapt to other fields that is outside of one’s field of study or specialization. These skills can never be learned online and thus poses a valid limitation on online learning. There may be advantages in making college education exclusively online but these advantages are not enough to offset its limitation. These limitations are in fact acknowledged in a study of Garza Mitchell that a degree program cannot be completed totally online (110). In the study conducted, there were 114 academic institutions respondents and none of them agreed that online environment cannot replace the classroom in completing a collegiate education (Garza Mitchell 10). Works Cited Garza Mitchell, Regina L. Online Education. Wiley Periodicals, Hoboken, NJ, 2010. White, Ken. “Chapter 12: Dealing with Challenging Situations: Communicating through Online Conflict”. Online Teaching Guide, The: A Handbook of Attitudes, Strategies, and Techniques for the Virtual Classroom, 1e. Prentice-Hall, Inc. , 2010. Retrieved from Palloff, Rena; Pratt Keith. “Chapter One: When Teaching and Learning Leave the Classroom”. Building Online Learning Communities. Effective Strategies for the Virtual Classroom, Second Edition,John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2001. Retrieved from Read More