With students and staff staying at home owing to the coronavirus pandemic, higher education institutions of all levels are hurrying to offer their programmes online, ready or not. Online education was becoming more and more popular before the current outbreak because of its many advantages, including price, flexibility, and accessibility. But it was still called “the future of education.” How does it do in comparison to students’ expectations now that it is our current reality?

Over 7,400 current and potential international university students were polled by educations.com to better understand how students feel about attending classes online.

The Good Factors

Online education has been confined to the most primitive level and colleges—as a result of the worldwide pandemic. Long-distance commuter students see it as a more convenient and flexible alternative because the education comes to them rather than the other way around.

Working groups that want to advance their knowledge or learn something new might consider online education. It is more flexible, enables people to fit projects into their already-existing schedules, and lets them do tasks without significantly detracting from their day jobs or chores.

Online education is more economical when compared to college costs, which benefits aspirants who wanted to attend college but weren’t able to.

The following are some of the key advantages of online learning:

1. Spending extra expenses: By implementing online education, we will be able to spend less on things like travel, hotel, and food, and these cost savings will translate into cheaper costs for online programmes.
2. No Restriction: Digital classrooms have no limits, in contrast to conventional classrooms.
3. Flexibility: The local student population is constrained in physical classrooms, but in digital classrooms, faculties will be able to address both the local and worldwide student populations. Faculty will also not be limited and we will be able to hire qualified individuals from anywhere in the world.
4. Nature-friendly: By turning digital, we are helping the environment. Since trees are used to make paper, fewer textbooks would be produced, which would result in a large reduction in the number of trees being cut down.
5. Time saver: Unlike the traditional methods of instruction, which require years of study and months of waiting for the results of the final exams, the digital implementation of the classes allows us to access the material immediately, administer exams while comfortably seated at home, and receive the results instantly (or within a few days) on our smartphones and laptops. This reduces stress and saves a great deal of time.

Statistical Data Report

The size of the global e-learning market exceeded USD 315 billion in 2021, and from 2022 to 2028, it is expected to grow at a 20% CAGR.

Industry growth will be fueled by the increasing adoption of the internet globally. Due to the booming telecom and broadband industries, internet connectivity has become more affordable. The number of internet users worldwide rose to almost 4.9 billion in 2021 from 4.1 billion in 2019, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). More people will have access to e-learning platforms as more people are using the internet and taking courses or finishing degrees on them.

What is the effectiveness of online learning compared to in-person learning?

There is evidence that learning online can be more efficient in different ways for individuals who do have access to the appropriate technology. According to several studies, pupils generally remember 25–60% more information when learning online compared to merely 8–10% in a classroom. Mostly because students learn more quickly online since students can re-read, skip, and move through ideas more quickly with e-learning than with traditional classroom instruction.

However, different age groups experience online learning in different ways. Children, especially younger ones, are generally regarded as needing a structured environment since they are more susceptible to distraction. According to Dowson Tong, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent and President of its Cloud and Smart Industries Group, to fully benefit from online learning, there needs to be a concerted effort to provide this structure and move beyond simply recreating a physical class or lecture through video capabilities. Instead, using a variety of collaboration tools and engagement methods that promote “inclusion, personalization, and intelligence.”