Online (Remote) Learning vs Offline (In-person) Learning

Pros and cons of offline education and online education.

Introduction

Rapid advancements in technology, especially in ICT (Information and Communication Technology) is transforming various industries. It is helping businesses provide a range of services to consumers, is enabling consumers to access services remotely, besides offering many more benefits to firms.

However, for some reasons, the Education sector remained one of the least digitized and most people-intensive economic sectors for a long time. The level of innovation that is commonly seen in other industries was missing from the education for a long time, until the world faced the Covid19 pandemic.

While some amount of hybrid learning – a mix of online as well as offline learning was happening in the past, remote learning using the online medium got a real boost only after the advent of the pandemic. As a result, many of the benefits due to adoption of technology is now being seen in the education industry as well, which has resulted in the increase in popularity of remote online learning.

While at one time, the traditional offline learning was the most common option available to students, due to improved technology and improved internet speeds, many students are now able to pursue remote learning via the online medium. The covid-19 pandemic helped increase the popularity of remote learning and also exposed some of the shortcomings of traditional offline learning. However, after almost a couple of years of remote learning, educators, parents and students feel that the online medium also may not the perfect medium for imparting education.

This article takes a closer look at offline learning and remote learning, study how they have grown over the years, understand the pros and cons of each, explores how educational institutions are likely to use them going ahead, and will make suitable conclusions.

What is Offline Learning?

Offline Learning refers to the traditional mode of learning where learners or students are not exposed to digital learning but rather use face to face learning. This is how people used to learn when the internet and digital devices did not exist. Offline education involves face-to-face teaching, and in this mode, learning occurs independent of the Internet; it often involves traditional activities such as reading paper-based books, writing on paper, etc.

The advantage of this method is that a teacher faces the students and is able to understand if the student is understanding what is being taught, as there is face-to-face interaction between the teacher and a student. Here, the teacher is able to provide individual attention to the pupil, is able to enforce discipline better, and there is scope for social interaction with the students.

Offline classes do not require the students to use smart phones or any other digital device. In case of offline mode of education, there is no risk of the students getting addicted to digital devices, which is a possibility with the online mode of learning.

What is Remote Learning?

With advancements in technology, businesses are now offering their services to consumers through various means, and this applies to the education sector as well. Education today has become flexible with many schools and colleges now offering remote learning.

Remote learning basically refers to learning from a distance which is usually made possible through online modes of education. Remote learning, often referred to as online learning, are designed for students who need a flexible and self-paced education. Remote learning may feature some of the same content styles as online classes, but could also incorporate a number of other instructional methods. Remote learning is enabled by using a combination of various content styles – PowerPoint presentations, discussion forums, written lectures, or scholarly articles – and is practiced through projects and online exams.

Two commonly used terms associated with online learning include Synchronous course/content delivery and Asynchronous course/content delivery.

In Synchronous course delivery, the tutor and students engage in real time, through virtual meeting, discussion forum, or conference call. It is similar to a real class but carried out using the online medium. For example, a tutor will set a meeting for a specified time; at that particular time, everybody will get connected to that virtual meeting. The tutor will then conduct the class online where the students can interact with the tutor and ask questions. Such online classes are commonly carried out using video conferencing software such as Zoom, Webex and others.

Asynchronous course delivery on the other hand makes use of content that has been recorded earlier and is made available to the students through the online medium. PowerPoint presentations, recorded videos of lectures, educational videos uploaded on YouTube are some examples of Asynchronous content, that students can access anytime they like. Asynchronous learning does not happen in real-time so the students however will need to get in touch with their tutors separately in order to seek answers to their queries.

Covid 19 push for remote learning

The Covid19 pandemic played an important role in transforming the education sector as it gave a big push to remote learning through the using of online means. In the past, there were some institutions that had the capability to deliver online learning but it was never the prominent method of teaching. However, the covid 19 pandemic changed it all.

With schools and colleges remaining close during the peak of the pandemic, educators quickly moved from offline methods of delivery to online, and despite it being an abrupt shift for everyone involved, there was no choice but to quickly adapt to the new way of learning.

The pandemic also made everybody aware of the challenges that the traditional education model faced. Students, educators, and government leaders started weighing the pros and cons of pure traditional classroom teaching versus multiple modes of digital delivery.

5 or 10 years ago, this shift towards online learning would have been very painful, mainly because internet bandwidth was not good enough for live teaching, video classes were not available or was just too expensive. However, the internet infrastructure today is far better and also affordable. As a result, several schools and colleges today have the capability to impart both offline as well as online learning.

Pros and Cons of Offline Learning

An offline environment offers several advantages such as:

• The tutor can see and have face to face interaction with the students
• Teachers are better able to assess the strengths and weaknesses.
• Teachers can inculcate discipline among the students
• Students are less likely to get addicted to digital devices.

However, this medium also has its own set of challenges.

• Too much dependence on offline learning can cause disruption to learning if there is a major crisis, such as a pandemic.
• A teacher simply can’t pay attention to 50 students (for example) at one go. As a result, maintaining the right teacher-student ratio is very important in this environment to maintain class control.
• Assessing the students through practice tests can be time-consuming using the offline medium.

Pros and Cons of Remote Learning

The covid-19 pandemic revealed the true advantages of remote learning.

• Students do not necessarily have to come to the school or college in order to acquire education. This can be a great advantage during crisis like pandemic, and also to students living in remote areas.
• The younger generation is also good at using digital devices and seem to be comfortable with online learning. The flexibility to go back and forth (in case of recorded lessons), learn at their own pace, can lead to better learning for students.

However, remote learning also has its own set of challenges.

• Remote or online learning is a bit of a challenge for children below 5 years mainly due to the ability to follow instructions, attention span, and even handling a device like a computer.
• The other issue is that face to face interaction is reduced and the students are easily distracted when they are taking the classes from home.
• Despite improved internet and computing infrastructure, students and tutors do face challenges such as adoption to new technology and technical issues (bandwidth, device issues, etc.).
• Students can get addicted to digital devices and may end up spending more time on the internet.

While it is true that initially most educators were unable to deliver high-quality lectures remotely as they were not comfortable using the technology involved, tutors today have got accustomed to Video Conferencing tools and can use them with ease.

Future trends in Education

As educational institutions reopen after a prolonged lockdown due to the Covid19 pandemic, many of them are now better aware about the pros and cons of the traditional offline learning as well as remote learning via use of technology.

While, the shift from offline to online has been an emergency response, many expect online education to grow from here on and become an important medium for imparting education. Having said that, educators and parents have realized the benefits of the traditional offline way of teaching as well. So, one can expect educational institutions to use a blend of offline as well as online learning, more of a hybrid model going ahead.

Schools and Colleges prefer the offline medium as they have more control over the proceedings and feel that they can better observe the weaknesses of students and also inculcate better discipline in students. However, as more students and parents are now comfortable with the online medium, schools and colleges are providing a hybrid model.

Schools and colleges can also use the advantage of online learning by teaching more vocational and hobby-based subjects. The pandemic taught that live classes have fairly good completion rates, even though they may be teacher dependent. Live classes are the closest today in providing a classroom-type experience, so schools and colleges may use that for teaching certain (vocational or hobby based) subjects, along with the regular offline classes.

Lot of educational technology companies that started off with online remote learning through use of website and offline are now opening offline centres in order to provide a more impactful learning experience to students who want to have a physical element in addition to online teaching support. These companies are combining the best of technology, teachers as well as learning formats to provide a better learning experience to students.

However, studies also suggest that the Hybrid model is leaving a lot of teachers (especially in India) exhausted, which means the school or college need to better plan how the learning will be imparted to the students.

On the other hand, educational institutes operating in the lucrative market for online courses and degrees have moved much ahead in the use of technology. Besides using video conferencing applications, they use a plethora of new platforms and technologies that are based on cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. Their educational platforms make use of machine learning to automatically grade assignments and also deliver adaptive content and assessments to students based on their skills and capabilities.

Conclusions

Despite its importance, Education remained one of the least digitized and most people-intensive economic sectors in the world. As a result, there is lot of scope for technology to play an important role in education, and it also means that the sector is more prone to disruptions due to less usage of technology and poor internet infrastructure in remote places.

The Covid19 pandemic hastened the move towards online learning, which proved to a boon during the pandemic, as educators were able to teach students remotely through use of technology.

With schools and colleges now reopening after a prolonged lockdown, there is better awareness about the pros and cons of both offline learning as well as remote learning. As a result, it is expected that schools, colleges and universities will now provide a variety of hybrid learning modalities that will use a combination of in-person and remote learning.

They are likely to use a mix of offline as well as online learning, but will deliver the core learning using the medium which will benefit majority of their students. Schools are likely to use offline learning for the younger children in order to inculcate discipline and reduce addition to gadgets, colleges may opt for a mix offline as well as online learning in order to provide more flexibility of learning to the students.

Also, technology can play a much bigger part in education. For many educational institutions, use of technology as of now is limited to the use of video conferencing software. However, applications like data analytics and artificial intelligence can help reduce the administrative burden of teachers and also help in delivering adaptive content and assessments to students.

References

Asynchronous and Synchronous E-Learning

How artificial intelligence will impact K-12 teachers

The Pandemic Pushed Universities Online. The Change Was Long Overdue

What is Hybrid Learning? How can countries get it right?

studymumbai

StudyMumbai.com is an educational resource for students, parents, and teachers, with special focus on Mumbai. Our staff includes educators with several years of experience. Our mission is to simplify learning and to provide free education. Read more about us.