Debate Negative Note Cards

First, student attrition rates — around 90 percent for some huge online courses — appear to be a problem even in small-scale online courses when compared with traditional face-to-face classes. Second, courses delivered solely online may be fine for highly skilled, highly motivated people, but they are inappropriate for struggling students who make up a significant portion of college enrollment and who need close contact with instructors to succeed.

But critics say online education is really driven by a desire to spend less on teachers and buildings, especially as state and local budget crises force deep cuts to education. They note that there is no sound research showing that online courses at the K-12 level are comparable to face-to-face learning.

you won't get as much of it with your professor, either. All colleges are different, but many feature at least some smaller classes where your absence or lack of participation is noticed quickly by the professor. In my case, it encouraged me to work harder and show up completely prepared for class; in many cases, face time with a professor encourages class participation

Most online students are adults with adult lives. That means families, jobs, and complicated schedules. Be sure you really have the time and energy to put eight to 10 hours a week into reading, researching and responding. Often the students who have had to drop my class have found it overwhelming to fit class work into already over-stressed lives. One man who did very well for the first few weeks found to his dismay that he had underestimated the effect of a new baby in the house. The needs of the baby and his need for sleep overwhelmed his ability to focus on the class.

Taking online courses is generally believed to require more self-discipline than completing a degree on campus, a belief that is supported by SCHEV -- the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (www.schev.virginia.gov). Because online schooling options often allow students to complete much of the coursework at their own pace, students must be motivated to stay on schedule and manage their time accordingly. According to the BLS, a lack of access to the appropriate technology may exclude some students, and technical problems may discourage others. Computer anxiety or a lack of technological proficiency may also impede learning, especially for adult students.

One of the biggest disadvantages is that the one-on-one interaction that students get in traditional classrooms cannot be found in online classrooms. Though the person can take the opportunity to communicate with their peers and teacher through email and so forth, they still miss the actually talking. In addition, most people point out that since this is an online class, they do not get the chance to develop those public speaking techniques that may be needed in the working world.

A healthy competition and interaction with classmates is what motivates many young learners across the world. Interacting with peers often involves exchange of notes, scheduling group discussions and organizing study circles too. In an online course, a student has to study on his/her own, and might end up feeling isolated, and even depressed.

A common disadvantage of online education is limited social interaction. While online students often engage peers in online discussions and interact with teachers via e-mail, this doesn't replicate the face-to-face experiences in a traditional classroom. The informal social interactions with peers before and after classes helps instill a sense of community and belonging. You also have more direct connections with teachers and can ask questions during class to expand insights on a topic. Many classes also use student work groups to develop teamwork skills.

A truly memorable college class, even a large one, is a collaboration between teacher and students. It's a one-time-only event. Learning at its best is a collective enterprise, something we've known since Socrates. You can get knowledge from an Internet course if you're highly motivated to learn. But in real courses the students and teachers come together and create an immediate and vital community of learning. A real course creates intellectual joy, at least in some. I don't think an Internet course ever will.

An Internet-based course demands that you develop personal time-management skills. As with most things, if you don't manage your time properly, you will find yourself buried beneath a seeming insurmountable mountain of coursework. Online courses require the self-discipline to set aside chunks of time to complete your studies. It means you have to make online studying a priority and not let other activities interfere. Sometimes, it means making difficult choices.

According to a 2009 study from the Department of Education, students who took all or part of their classwork online performed better, on average, than classroom students taking the same course work; students who mix online learning with traditional course work do even better. Sloan Consortium figures show that 77% of academic leaders rate online learning outcomes as equal or superior to face-to-face education.

Individuals who are prone to procrastination will have an especially difficult time adapting to the structure of online school. Hours of self-directed work are necessary to get through all of the material, including course lectures, video supplements, assignments, assigned textbook reading and discussions. Sometimes obtaining your online degree, especially an online masters degree, require a greater amount of work.

oday is a very exciting time for technology and education. Online programs offer technology-based instructional environments that expand learning opportunities and can provide top quality education through a variety of formats and modalities. With the special needs of adult learners who need or want to continue their education, online programs offer a convenient solution to conflicts with work, family and study schedules. Institutions of higher education have found that online programs are essential in providing access to education for the populations they wish to serve. In order for an online program to be successful, the curriculum, the facilitator, the technology and the students must be carefully considered and balanced in order to take full advantage of the strengths of this format and at the same time, avoid pitfalls that could result from its weaknesses.

While online learning has emerged as a major topic of discussion in recent years, online courses have been a part of the UW curriculum for more than a decade.3 Many of these online options, which include degrees and certificates, have been offered through the Seattle campus's professional and continuing education unit, UW Educational Outreach (UWEO).

Synergy: High level of dynamic interaction between the instructor and students as well as among the students themselves. Ideas and resources are shared, and continuous synergy will be generated through the learning process as each individual contributes to the course discussions and comments on classmates' work.

\"With an online course, nobody knows who you really are,\" says Jordan, who works for the Tennessee Board of Regents, ​ the state's higher education system. \"They don't know your ethnicity unless you have a picture on your profile. I felt like, 'I can do this. There is no one stereotyping me.'\"

A great disadvantage of taking online class is that if you are not thoroughly committed to getting your degree, it can take years to obtain. Doing your assignments, reading the required materials, interacting with your professors and peers, and taking exams are all up to you. As opposed to an on-campus experience where your sheer presence in a classroom filled with other students and a present professor helps to add pressure and urgency to fulfilling commitments, when you are on your own there is a greater temptation to ignore these obligations. If you are easily distracted, you may procrastinate, and worse, if you do not have your eye focused firmly on earning your degree, you may drop out if you don't feel inspired.

Some veterans, for example, say they learn better when they have face-to-face interaction with peers and instructors. Others want the camaraderie and networking that come with student veterans groups.

Few rigorous research studies of the effectiveness of online learning for K-12 students have been published. A systematic search of the research literature from 1994 through 2006 found no experimental or controlled quasi-experimental studies comparing the learning effects of online versus face-to-face instruction for K-12 students that provide sufficient data to compute an effect size.

Transferring credits - Some schools still do not acknowledge online schools in the same light as on-campus schools, making it difficult to transfer credits to an on-site college. Financial aid - Financial aid is not available at all online schools so students may be required to find other financing or find a school that does offer financial aid.

Research suggest that college students in online learning programs spend more time developing cognitive and critical thinking skills (Barr & Tagg, 1995) and less time in the social domain for growth and development creating a sense of isolation, not because of distance, but from the instructor and fellow learners. Isolation occurs when students are unable to interact with their peers, are not computer savvy while experiencing technical difficulties and often suffer from academic deficiencies; these factors may lead to unsuccessful online experiences

Nearly one-half of institutions report that the economic downturn has increased demand for face-to-face courses and programs. Three-quarters of institutions report that the economic downturn has increased demand for online courses and programs. The economic impact on institutional budgets has been mixed; forty-seven percent have seen their budgets decrease, but twenty-seven percent have experienced an increase.

Over 7.1 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2012 term, an increase of 411,000 students over the previous year. The online enrollment growth rate of 6.1 percent is the lowest recorded for this report series. Thirty-three percent of higher education students now take at least one course online. Only 5.0 percent of higher education institutions currently offer a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), another 9.3 percent report MOOCs are in the planning stages.

If an online course has any sort of discussion element, it is usually written discussion in the form of an online post. For students looking to become successful outside the classroom in any career that requires verbal communication skills, this could be considered a significant drawback. A big disadvantage to middle and high school students is the lack of one-on-one support. Many at-risk students are behind in reading and math. If they are using online courses to \"catch up,\" they may find themselves faltering for further explanation or intervention when they don't grasp a concept.

What was entirely absent was the sort of \"genuine, advanced knowledge that a faculty member normally imparts,\" Stimpson said. \"I believe in faculty who know things. We really do need the informed guidance of a good teacher.\"

On top of that, in a physical classroom I learn new things from my students every day. They ask interesting questions, bring their own examples, and at the end of each class I often feel as if I've learned something as well. In an online class, however, I don't get feedback until much later — after preparing, taping, and polishing the lectures. At this point, when the class has started, I do get to enjoy the feedback, but it is less connected to my efforts.

A March 2013 survey of college and university presidents by Inside Higher Ed found: \"Presidents remain unpersuaded by, if not skeptical of, MOOC mania. Only 14 percent of presidents strongly agree, and another 28 percent agree, that massive open online courses have 'great potential to make a positive impact' on higher education; 31 percent disagree or strongly disagree, and the rest are neutral.\"5 The presidents were much more optimistic about the potential of a number of other innovations, so they were not just being skeptical about everything. It is appalling how little is actually known about the learning outcomes produced by various forms of online learning.

Much of what passes for an \"online course\" these days could more accurately be described as the electronic version of class hand-outs. These courses usually consist of a course description, a syllabus, lecture notes, reading lists, and assignment checklists. In other words, whatever materials a student might have viewed on paper in the past are now read onscreen, and whatever presentations a student might have watched in the classroom are now observed on their screen. Perhaps this suffices to replicate the classroom experience for students who are participating at a distance, but is this the best way to use the capabilities of a computer to support learning? It's not unlike typing text into a slide presentation without realizing you could add sound, images, animations, colors, links, and videos.