With the development of technology and the popularization of informational network, online courses emerge because of demands.

Although increasing umber of people have begun to accept online studying believing it is not comparable; actually, there should be more appealing choices. In my essay, I will evaluate the online and traditional face to face study by evidences, as well as point out that optimizing the combination of study methods depends on needs benefits study most. The supporters of online learning claim that it has many advantages. To begin with, convenience is the major advantages of online study. "The adult is a person with employment, family, and social obligations; and so for an adult there are costs in enrolling in an educational course." says Moore and Kearsley (2005), "The cost can certainly be measure in dollars but, more importantly, it costs time and effort that must be taken from the marginal time and energy remaining from what id spent on the normal demands of adult life." For part-time learners, internet access is so convenient that people can arrange their personal timetable, which is flexible to accommodate their limited time. For the learners from distant area, online learning saves time on commuting. Compared with spending a large amount of time on commuting while go to school, Internet study only require learners to click on some internet links to finish their learning. For aged, they can study at home rather than going to traditional school, as their actions are likely to be not that dexterous because of their senior age. In addition, online study proponents suppose that online course will be money saving. Take IELTS classes for examples. In China, traditional face to face IELTS VIP course is about 16,000RMB for a overall course while online VIP classes is about 4,000RMB for an equivalent level course.Obviously, online classes is much cheaper than the original courses. Actually, online course is flexible for teachers, on time condition, and avoid the expense of teaching field, which lessen the costing of courses. As a result, online learning is more economical. Lastly, reviewing will be remarkably effective by using online study. Because online learning is not time-limited and learners can replay any educational material section by multimedia. By and large, online course will be more effective in reviewing period as it is more capable to aim at the weakness of each people. According to the above reasons, it seems that online study is unparalleled; however, the arguments provided by the supporters of face to face study are also convincing. Firstly, the opponents of online study believe that instant feedback is the most impactive advantage of traditional course. In the traditional face to face class, teachers can tell whether the students understand from their response and facial expression. No matter how vivid the message that delivered by internet media is, there is still a large distance between teachers and students. In other words, there will be less immediate feedbacks while having online course.

HU Mengying

#40229

BEP PLUM

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More importantly, Online course require technology to support the internet access and it might be unaffordable to many undeveloped area. Many counties that involved in wars and in disadvantage, like some Middle-east countries and those some countries in Africa, their governments cannot offer their people a safe and stable surroundings, no mention to the equipments of online courses. Furthermore, what must be mentioned is that having classes regularly makes the students to be self-disciplined and social capable. In fact, going to school is much more than acquiring knowledge. As students can be supervised by teachers directly, they will arrive school on time, hand on assignment on time, cultivating the awareness of obeying rules. What is more, traditional schools provide opportunities for students to develop their social abilities. For instance, during breaks between classes, classmates will communicate with each others and it is these communications that benefit students, especially the children, to learn manners and behavioral standards. In my opinion, there is more than a single way to acquire knowledge and we can combine different methods together. "The learner still has a need to take advantage of various learning event of offerings but now providers can offer information and communication beyond traditional methods, that allows learners to access the information they need with a maximum of flexibility to meet their individual needs." says Jolliffe, Ritter and Stevens. (2001) In nowadays society, many education organizations have already arrange the blended learning system to their students. Many language learning centers, like EF and Wall Street, design a set of study system, which combine various study methods, including workshop, face to face meeting, interest club, online lab and outdoor activities to arouse the study enthusiasm of learners and enhance efficiency of learning language. Frankly speaking, chasing to choose a single study method blindly only results as defeat on study. This essay has compared the oppositive and negative sides of online study and traditional face to face study. As discussed above, online studying is convenient and of benefit to capture difficult points as well as economical while face to face study requires less technological equipment and has more time effectiveness, as well as shapes the personal characteristics of learners. In summary, study will be more effective and more efficient to choose blended study means depends on the own needs of learners.

HU Mengying

#40229

BEP PLUM

P. 1 of 2