I have found a number of online students posting in forums claiming that Online Schools offer all of the benefits of a traditional school and that traditional schools will thus soon close down and be replaced by online schools. There are a number of flaws in this argument. First of all, there are a number of areas in which online schools are unable to make the cut. Secondly, it assumes that all students will prefer an online program to a "brick and mortar" institution.
Let us consider some of the limitations of online schools:
1) Development of Interpersonal Skills - Learning how to interact with other human beings (you Phoenix and Devry students remember what those are right?) involves interacting with human beings. WHAT?! This makes no sense! You mean in order to develop better social skills, I must actually speak to people face to face?
Well, yes. That's basically it. Does that mean you can exchange emails or Instant Messaging to learn more about them? Hardly. There are a number of issues such as body language, eye contact and timing between words that you are not going to develop from these methods. Even video conferencing or streaming (or whatever else) does not address these issues. I know from my own experience that talking to someone on a Webcam is very different from speaking to them directly. Let's face it, there is no way that students at an online school can possibly learn to interact with other people to a meaningful degree without some type of program that facilitates this outside of school. Some online high schools have such programs, but I do not believe that it is really a priority to online colleges where they are more focused on the curriculum rather than a well rounded education.
Now, I understand that most online students are working adults, and they already have developed these skills. There is no need for them to work further to develop them. However, most college students overall are just beginning with adulthood and these skills are much more lacking. In fact, many of them may have been very socially awkward in high school and are trying to use college as an opportunity to learn to deal with people better. Others are still trying to find their way in the world by making new friends and dating. An online college may be appropriate for working adults, but not for students who still need to develop basic social skills.
Personally, if I was a manager hiring someone for sales, social work or any job that required a substantial amount of human interaction, I would not want to hire a 22 year-old who spent the last four years of his or her life in front of a computer screen, even if they got to speak with other people through video feeds. Also, as a human being I would not want to have to attend a social gathering without having the slightest clue about how to interact with the other people there.
2) Groups to Develop Various Interests - In traditional schools students can participate in many different activities to improve their physical and mental skills, as well as improve their knowledge or abilities in a particular area. I'm sure that students at online schools have these opportunities as well, but they cannot benefit from the same resources. Also, some skills just are not feasible to develop online. So the ability to join groups for self-actualization in online schools is just not practical in most cases.
3) Face-to-Face Communication in the Classroom - I have found that one of the best parts of completing a traditional MBA program was that I could speak with other students in class and learn from their own experiences and debate certain points with them (many were actually international students with interesting perspectives and experiences). I actually learned as much or more from these face to face discussions than I did from the lecture itself. I know that online schools offer the opportunities to have online discussions for class, but the experience just doesn't seem to be the same. I have taken a couple of online courses, and I really found that I didn't benefit from the face to face interaction that I would have received from a traditional classroom setting where I could at least get to know the other students I was speaking to on a much more personal level. Even in the online classes where I already knew the other students from the class personally, I felt it was still difficult to really have the same quality discussion. Even if you can still exchange information and stories effectively, you miss people's reactions and don't get to really feel the atmosphere of the classroom. I found in class that I could tell when students were bored or irritated by a comment, and could get the gist of when it was socially appropriate to make certain comments.
4) Face-to-Face Communication with Professors - I found that getting to meet professors and understand their personalities made it much easier to speak with them after or outside of class. I could tell which professors were passionate about helping students, and many professors would gladly speak in office hours about various topics that were unrelated to the course. I have even had professors who leant me books that they felt would be beneficial to me. Many students from schools such as the University of Phoenix have said on various blogs or websites that they found professors helpful outside of class, which is great if that is actually the case. But I think being able to ask a professor for help on a class assignment is actually different than having conversations about things that you can benefit from beyond standard questions.
5) Laboratory and Hands-On Learning and Limitations of Certain Majors - Obviously, really benefiting from learning science involves hands on experimentation. As an engineering student, I would not have had a practical education from an online school. There are just some majors where you really cannot get what you need from the University of Phoenix, Devry or Walden.
Now in addition to the obvious, rational factors that can affect how people are able to benefit from a physical classroom setting, there are a number of emotional reasons why they might prefer to attend a traditional school over an online school. First of all, the most obvious is the social scene that younger students are drawn to. I admit, online schools cater to a different audience that does not seem to be interested in this and to them it is irrelevant. But some of these older students are claiming that traditional schools will be closed down and obsolete as if all students would prefer online schools some day. They are clearly not in touch with the desires of younger students at all, and don't realize that the demographic that makes up the majority of college students would not want that. Good luck convincing them to give up their dream of partying, joining a fraternity or sorority and trying to find their soul mate in exchange for being in front of a computer in a bedroom in mom and dad's house. I am not saying these things are good, I am just saying that younger sudents seem to prefer having the chance to have an active social life.
Even many older students seem to prefer the traditional environment. Many of them are outgoing and I have heard some of the older graduate school students say that they prefer to be in a real classroom setting where they can interact with other students in the real world. They have said they tried the hybrid classes our school offered and they were disappointed or felt lonely because of this.
I am willing to acknowledge that there are many advantages of attending online schools. However, there are many features that online schools just cannot provide, and I feel that the likelihood of online schools fully replacing traditional schools anytime in the future is nil to nonexistent.
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