Online Education: A Change or an Alternative?

Abstract

Online education connects a teacher/lecturer and a student/pupil or who is not in the same physical location and not necessarily even in the same time zone. This system can operate through almost any electronic device connected to the internet. Students engaged in distance learning in real time , with teachers giving live streaming classes via the internet, are performing “synchronous learning”. “Asynchronous learning ” offers prerecorded classes that are always available to students. Students access these recordings when convenient for them and study and practice at their own pace. Online education has advantages, e.g., increased access to knowledge and learning and reduced teaching costs, takes less time and enables learning at one own speed, but it also has disadvantages e.g., decreasing the “market value” of an academic degree, weakening the learning quality, limiting dialogue with lecturers/teachers, and hurting academic research. Its success depends on the optimal combination of technology and pedagogy — two aspects that demand training. Regarding technology, practitioners (teachers/lecturers) must have a strong grasp of the system underlying the online courses; and regarding pedagogy, they must understand approaches for integrating technology and pedagogy, to advance innovative teaching paradigms, and promote partnership and peer learning and workshop and modular learning. The effectiveness of online education can be assessed at a number of levels: the reactions of learners when asked about their satisfaction with the learning, knowledge or ability acquisition, improvement in implementation/application, development of life skills, the degree of economic worth whileness, the relevance of the content, etc.