Despite distance learning and online courses are no longer news; this kind of education still generates a lot of discussion about its effective.
Even with it undeniable accessibility and convenience for the student, many still raise doubts about the worth of this innovative learning method.
Classroom education and online education
Classroom education is the traditional form of education, that one that we all have to go through and that involve the presence of a teacher and students in a classroom. Old model of education, despite presenting results, it has been facing big and necessary changes with the technological advance and the resulting facility to access information.
With the advancement of IT and Internet access everything has change and education was one of the first areas to feel this revolution. This advance brought the distance learning possibility and its many advantages have been helped a lot of people that do not have conditions to go to a school to learn or those who are searching for new skills in their free time, without having to leave home. But there is still a lot of discussion about this subject and to make some aspects clear we answer here the most common doubts.
1- Create and update an online course demand great expenses.
MYTH. It is possible to create online courses with many familiar and easy to use tools like PowerPoint, for example. Another way pretty simple to do it is to record a video and make it available on Youtube or Dropbox. After you are done producing the content, all you have to do is to host it in an online platform like Coursify so that your clients have access and you can upload update material by yourself, without extra costs.
2- Lack of interaction with the teacher in a virtual environment disturbs the learning process.
MYTH. With the right didactic and method it is possible to create a totally interactive environment, in which the student is encouraged to complete and pass phases. There are a lot of tools and free apps available on Internet to help to teach and keep the student attention. Besides, this way of teaching makes the student to assume a proactive posture about his/her own learning process.
3- It is impossible to compare distance education to classroom education.
TRUTH. It is impossible to measure the difference between results of this two learning methods. According to Stavros Panagiotis Xanthopoylos, executive director of FGV Online (Getúlio Vargas Foundation), “what we can affirm is that Internet, and especially the arrive of Web 2.0 with social networks, brought a new communication dimension that allow us to leverage our personal and professional life and school education. This phenomenon is irreversible and has been revolutionized pedagogical processes, without prejudice to learning results when compare with traditional methods”.
4- Online learning threat the role of the teacher.
MYTH. In both methods the role of the teacher is necessary. A classroom teacher can also be an online course teacher and vice versa. In fact, there are follow-up tools developed to online courses that make possible for the teacher to monitor the student performance better, besides give him/her the chance to apply more tests and activities to help to stimulate the learning.
There is no doubt left that online learning come to stay and improve the chances and quality of education. If you are a teacher and want to put your content online, get in touch with Coursify through the email hello@coursify.me, we will be happy to help you. If you are a student looking for knowledge, browse our website and see the options we have available, it will be a pleasure to help you too.