Comparison of Online Course and Traditional Course - Essay Example

A lot of online schools are opening up and are providing quality education that is well comparable to the one offered by the traditional schools. The concept of online education has emerged with the rise of computers in general and internet in particular. While the concept of traditional courses is as old as the concept of education in the world is, the concept of online education is just as old as the internet itself. This paper draws a comparison and contrast between online courses and the traditional courses.

Online courses and traditional courses resemble in the structure of course and differ in many areas including flexibility, medium and interaction between teachers and students. Online courses and traditional courses are similar in the structure of the course. Normally, there are equal number of quizzes, assignments, class tests and end term exams in online courses and the traditional courses. In both types of courses, “It is usually given to students at a common interval, such as monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and annually” (Edurite, 2012).

Internet is a common medium of research in both online and traditional courses. Students are usually required to submit their assignments electronically in the traditional course like online course. These days, both online and traditional courses are offered for all kinds of subjects. . In an online course, result is also declared similarly, except for the change that the result is released online. Students have a whole network of friends that is just as strong in the online courses as it is in the traditional courses.

The only difference is that the friends might not be able to get together on daily basis in the online course like they do in the traditional course, yet the interaction takes place frequently through emails and social media websites. Online courses are much more convenient both for the students as compared to the traditional courses. Students find it very manageable to do a job along with studies when the studies are based on online courses (Best Online Universities, 2012). This is because of the fact that online courses can be scheduled as per the convenience of a student.

Online courses basically have no fixed time for college. Unlike traditional course, online course requires maximal use of internet, even for the students’ interaction with the instructors that takes place through email and occasionally on social media websites and live chats. However, traditional course provides this advantage over the online course that students can converse with the teachers face to face. In online course, a student can browse the internet anytime of the day he/she feels like and download the lectures as well as the relevant assignments and also upload the ones which were due.

Online courses save the students a lot of money. While the students have to spend a lot of money in arranging the transport for the school for a traditional course on daily basis, buying snacks and regular food items from the college cafeteria, giving treats to the friends, and most importantly, compromising upon the job in order to seek education, all of these