According to Eric Fredericksen (2015), there was an analysis showing that online learning can have both advantages and disadvantages for e-learner.
Firstly, I am going to discuss the positive points of online education. From my perspective, there is a wide variation of attractions associating with e-learning. The main benefit associated with e-learning is its flexibility. To illustrate, you are able to learn in your most productive time and comfortable atmosphere or whenever you feel the most energetic. For example, some mandatory classes in university begin at 8 AM and you are not the morning person, it is extremely difficult for you to come to class when you still feel tired and unable to gain the information. Since online learning can provide a variety of courses in a different amount of time, you can choose the schedule that fits your type and have a better academic result. Online education offers great convenience to working people in getting an additional qualification or certificate. To be more specific, if you are currently working and you do not want to quit your dream job, however, you still strongly desire to learn or simply want to acquire more qualification, e-learning is one of the best options to achieve that. Due to its flexible time, working people are able to watch the video lessons at night after working or listen to the audio via their electronic devices (e.g. smartphone, Bluetooth connecting with the car) while commuting or driving to work. Besides that, online learning can boost self-motivation and self-discipline. The reason I say that is during online course, you will not come to physical class and take attendance. Hence, you have to schedule your time-table and you are the only person who remind yourself of learning every day. It will also improve your time-management skills and using technical skills as well. Otherwise, you can take advantage of learning via the Internet since it will save a large amount of travelling or commuting to the physical school. If you are currently living in a different country or city, far from your dream university, you can be able to save the expenses if you moved to the new country.
For all of its advantages, online education is still a double-edged sword. One of the prominent drawbacks concerning this digital learning is that it could not offer verbal interaction. Basically, when you go to school, you involve yourself in the class activities and have a face-to-face discussion with your peers or professors. You can expand your social circle and develop your personal skills or learn how to use eye contact, make new friends, thus, and become more confident. Furthermore, I believe that some majors require practical experience such as nursing, chemistry or science are not appropriate for learning online since the online course cannot fulfill the need of a laboratory.
Otherwise, for people who would like to begin a business, there are some existing benefits and challenges as well. Here are some positive sides if you are interested in making online course:
- Reach wide audience
- Learn soft skills e.g. design content, make videos, technology, etc.
- Generate revenue by selling courses and saving travel expenses
- Become an influencer and have better retention
- Save time for commuting
Nevertheless, there are many drawbacks of selling online courses:
- Have to learn a complex IT program if needed
- Time consuming when creating videos and materials i.g. planning, writing the script, recording, editing, etc
Online Learning 