Online Colleges vs Traditional Colleges - Essay Example

of the of the of the Online and Traditional Colleges A college has all the qualities of a community and thus it constitutes a small and independent community. There will be a vibrant civic society within the college, and similar to the members of a civic society, college students participate in social activities and extracurricular activities. Everyone in a college community is compelled to participate in such activities. Furthermore, if anyone abstains himself from participating in cultural activities, then such a person would be considered to be a selfish person. Therefore, all the college students have to interact with each other, and should not restrict their activities to merely pursuing their studies (Horowitz). A student who attends college with the sole objective of achieving high grades in studies and who concentrates only on education is termed as a selfish person. However, such a perception is absent in the case of virtual universities or online classes. The only activity that occurs in the online classes’ scenario is the payment of money by the student and the supply of the study material to the student. In order to get good scores in the examinations, the student has to devote greater amounts of time and energy to understand and learn the content of the study material. Otherwise, it would be well nigh impossible for excelling in studies and the money invested by that student would be wasted. Thus, the student has to invest both money and time in online courses. Virtual classes adopt all manner of marketing techniques to attract potential students and convince them to invest their time and money. The students have to become industrious and develop their human capital, in order to obtain good grades in the field of their interest. All these activities are conducted privately, without the interaction of a traditional classroom (Resnick). The potential advantage provided by the internet in the field of distance education has to be analyzed. It is also important to assess, whether these internet class rooms enable students to attain expertise in their subject of study and whether virtual classrooms are as beneficial as the traditional classrooms. Higher education demands considerable concentration by the students to learn and understand the course work. Moreover, it imparts highly sophisticated skills and voluminous information to its students. These are the fundamental goals of higher education. At this juncture, it can be argued that in order to achieve these goals, alternative methods are to be adopted, which prove to be cheaper and more effective than the traditional classrooms. If such alternatives exist, then there is no need to attend real time colleges for acquiring higher education. However, college education is not limited to those two goals and has wider application of other skills. Such additional skills and expertise can be even more important than the basic objectives. Traditional college education includes the teaching of moral conduct and socialization practices. These additional qualities are embedded in the curriculum. Furthermore, there are extracurricular activities in the traditional colleges, in which the students have to participate. These activities would be immensely beneficial to the students in their life outside the college. Thus, traditional classroom education constitutes the best way of learning for students (Resnick). Traditional colleges and classrooms provide moral as well as civic education to students. The method of education adopted includes the long established face – to – face educational methodology. Thus, traditional education methods require interaction between the students and their instructors (Resnick). The teachers in online classrooms must be qualified to teach the courses to their students. This is mandatory for teachers in the traditional real time schools. Thus, the regular school teacher can teach online students, and they can prepare the subject material for online students. However, online the classroom environment lacks the traditional interaction between teachers and students. Moreover, the online teacher teaches the subjects with the previously prepared material, which cannot provide students with the latest information. As such, the procedures and practices that are followed in the regular schools can be implemented in online virtual schools. The online students obtain professional support; and the coordinators or counselors provide such support to their students, in order to address doubts or for the purpose of future development (Davis and Rose). The teachers in regular schools require good communication skills and teaching expertise, because they have to interact with the students. The teachers who work in online virtual classrooms must possess a higher level of these qualities, as they have to teach the students without the aid of visual cues. Most of the communication transpiring in the virtual classrooms is based on textual content. The interaction with students is done through emails and discussion forums. Such communication requires good written communication skills. Moreover, there are other skills that are also compulsory for online teachers. For instance, if the communication with students is through audio means such as telephone and conference calls, then the teacher must have the ability to listen and answer the queries of the students by adopting verbal communication skills (Davis and Rose). Furthermore, it is very important to ensure that the students have developed these skills in virtual classrooms. In order to provide quality teaching in virtual schools, there should be interactive and collaborative activities within the virtual community. These activities must be developed by applying creativity and care. These are the most common pedagogical aspects that are found in the traditional system of education. In addition to them, the online teachers must possess the ability to determine when the support is to be provided to the students. They also have to determine the ways and means of communicating with the students, and should ascertain the communication method that would be most appropriate for the virtual community (Davis and Rose). Online teachers must have thorough knowledge of the subjects they teach, and they should possess an instructional approach. Although these are common requirements for traditional teachers as well online teachers, the latter must have a greater degree of these qualities. Online teachers have to motivate their students with this additional knowledge and tutorial expertise. To increase the learning capacity and success rate, online teachers are required to deal with each student individually and monitor their learning pace and the extent to which they have acquired knowledge in the subject being studied. These practices are known as case studies, and they represent the success rate of the online community. New online teachers must study these case studies and adopt the best coaching practices. They are also required to develop their own mentoring methods and approaches. Apart from this, the quality of online teaching depends on the capability of the teachers to utilize technology and sophisticated infrastructure. If they have high levels of such ability then they can deliver the best quality education (Davis and Rose). Students are provided with an extensive choice and innumerable prospects due to online education that is of an exemplary standard. Moreover, a large number of courses are on offer, and this enables students to select the course that is best suited for their individual and unique requirements. As such administrators and policy makers, who have expertise in deploying the available resources, and who are very good at collecting and evaluating data regarding education in non – traditional areas, are essential for the success of virtual schooling (Davis and Rose). It can be surmised that distance learning generates interactions between people from different social, educational and employment backgrounds. The current perception is that virtual classrooms are in no manner inferior to conventional classrooms. However, this requires the teachers of the virtual classrooms to be knowledgeable, good at communication and willing to fully utilize the communication technology made available to them. As such, virtual classrooms provide a wide opportunity to learn the latest developments in any field of study. Works Cited Davis, Niki and Ray Rose. Professional Development for Virtual Schooling and Online Learning. 12 September 2008 . Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz. Campus Life: Undergraduate Cultures From the End of the Eighteenth Century to the Present. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987, P.41. Resnick, David. Community, College Life and Civic Engagement. 29 July 2000. 12 September 2008 . Read More