A Student's Perspective on Online Learning

By Diana Bajraktari

Online learning has revolutionized the education system as we know it. It has brought students together from all over the world and has helped them achieve their educational dreams over the years. However, in this article, we’re going to focus more on the way students see online learning and what are the benefits they take out of it. 

Online Classes Are Convenient

Traditional classes can sometimes be inconvenient. They can be offered at times when students would rather be asleep or not go to class altogether. Sometimes even the weather makes it harder for students to walk around the campus to go to the classes. That’s why students think that online learning is their savior in this aspect. They don’t have to worry about taking classes in the early morning or the evening; they don’t even have to get out of their dorm room or apartment because they can listen to the lectures in the comfort of their house at a time that suits them best. 

Online Classes Are Engaging

While a lecture room in a traditional educational setting might be the right place to deliver the lectures, they can’t be engaging enough for all the students present there. Being in a massive room with lots of students and a professor who stands at the center of the room talking, students say that sometimes it gets boring. A room full of people can also become disruptive resulting in students losing their focus. The problem they say is that they can’t always ask the professor to go back over the concept they just explained. However, with online classes, this changes. There, the professor uses interactive videos to explain as simply as possible what they’re learning as well as opens discussions to make the learning experience more exciting and intriguing. Students can always go back to those videos as many times as they need to.

Online Classes Are Flexible

Flexibility is one of the elements that characterize online education. This element might be one of the main reasons why students find online courses appealing. While in the traditional schools, the classes’ schedule might sometimes conflict, in the online platform, this isn’t much of a problem. Students can take multiple classes and not worry at all about their schedule. 

Other conflicts might occur with job schedules and social and family responsibilities. Students who attend an on-campus university might have trouble fitting everything into their daily schedules if they have scheduled classes. Online classes are the best solution to this problem. Students shared that they can fit into their schedule almost all of their daily tasks and be an active student at the same time. 

Online Classes Are Comfortable

Unlike students of older generations who still have trouble adjusting to technological advances, most of the students raised in the era of technology feel very comfortable online. Many students consider online communication with their instructors and colleagues as productive and fruitful as the face-to-face one. The online platform also offers them some “protection,” making them feel more comfortable expressing themselves online compared to the regular classes. They say that without the pressure of talking in front of a bunch of students eying you, they feel comfortable engaging more in the online classrooms.

Online Classes Are Suitable to Many Types of Learners

We know that there are many learning styles. Consequently, all students have different learning methods. Students see online classes as a great way of studying for many different types of learners. Auditory learners like to hear information that is being presented clearly. While this might not always be possible in the traditional lecture hall, online learning allows them to listen, relisten, go forward or backward on the lecture until everything is crystal clear. 

Tactile learners have also found online learning a very comfortable way of learning. They might not feel like talking in front of all the classmates, but with online learning, they feel like they have found a way to express their thoughts and ask questions when something is unclear to them. 

Online Classes Are Self-Paced

Traditional classrooms have many advantages; however, they don’t offer students the option of joining the class and finishing the assignments on their own time. Yet, online learning does. If students feel like they’re knowledgeable in a particular subject, they can skip what they know and focus more on what they don’t. In this way, students avoid the risk of getting bored and learn something new in return. Conversely, if they feel like they have to review more in-depth a certain subject, they can go back over and over until they’re sure they got it covered. This wouldn’t be possible in a traditional class, where students think twice before asking for explanations because of the pressure not to seem ignorant.  

Here you go, these are some of the benefits that, according to students, online learning brings to them. What about you? How did you benefit from distance learning? Let us know.   

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