Title Online and Traditional

Education: Pros and Cons

Researcher Rubie Mae Pamisa

Introduction
The sudden outbreak of a deadly disease called Covid-19 caused by a Corona
Virus (SARS-CoV-2) shook the entire world. The World Health Organization
declared it as a pandemic. This tragedy has also shaken up the education sector, and
this fear is likely to resonate across the education sector globally. The Covid-19
pandemic outbreak forced many schools and colleges to remain closed temporarily.
Several areas are affected worldwide and there is a fear of losing this whole ongoing
semester or even more in the coming future. Various schools, colleges, and
universities have discontinued in-person teaching. As per the assessment of the
researcher, it is uncertain to get back to normal teaching anytime soon. As social
distancing is preeminent at this stage, this will have negative effects on learning
opportunities. This situation challenged the education system across the world and
forced educators to shift to an online mode of teaching overnight. Many academic
institutions that were earlier reluctant to change their traditional pedagogical
approach had no option but to shift entirely to online teaching–learning.
Online learning can be termed as a tool that can make the teaching–learning
process more student-centered, more innovative, and even more flexible. Online
learning is defined as “learning experiences in synchronous or asynchronous
environments using different devices (mobile phones, laptops, etc.) with internet
access. In these environments, students can be anywhere, independent to learn and
interact with instructors and other students” (Singh & Thurman, 2019). The
synchronous learning environment is structured in the sense that students attend
live lectures, there are real-time interactions between educators and learners, and
there is a possibility of instant feedback, whereas asynchronous learning
environments are not properly structured. Whereas in the traditional way of
learning, students are in touch with their instructors in the face to face basis.
Traditional learning from the Tophat glossary is defined as the” involvement in a
standard curriculum delivered by a teacher in-person. Standardized tests are
administered at regular intervals to test students’ comprehension. This model is
where students’ time, place and pace of learning remain constant.” In a traditional
classroom, students can directly share their views and clarify their own queries with
the teacher, thus getting their questions answered right away.
The aim of this synthesis paper is to show significant advantage and
disadvantages of the two learning mode; online and traditional way of learning. This
will examine the pros and cons of the said modes of learning from different
perspective. As the generation of education is undergoing rapid change of phase is
that it will become a tool for reevaluating measures, approaches, methods, and
salient factors to be able to delineate what is best based for the students as well as to
the school to become efficacious in the teaching – learning process.

Review of Literature
The debate between online learning versus traditional learning grows each
year. The Corona crisis made it even more relevant, as employees in many countries
were forced to work from home. So, suddenly all the learning activities had to take
place online. But is it a good substitute for traditional learning? What is the best
mode for the teaching and learning process to become successful. In this study we
will be reckoning some positive and negative points of each modes.
Online and traditional education share many qualities. Students are still
required to attend class, learn the material, submit assignments, and complete group
projects. While teachers, still have to design curriculums, maximize instructional
quality, answer class questions, motivate students to learn, and grade assignments.
Despite these basic similarities, there are many differences between the two
modalities. Traditionally, classroom instruction is known to be teacher-centered and
requires passive learning by the student, while online instruction is often student-
centered and requires active learning.
With technological advancement, learners now want quality programs they
can access from anywhere and at any time. Because of these demands, online
education has become a viable, alluring option to business professionals, stay-at
home-parents, and other similar populations. As well as the need for safety protocols
from the government which concerns the prevention for the global pandemic
scenario. In addition to flexibility and access, multiple other face value benefits,
including program choice and time efficiency, have increased the attractiveness of
distance learning (Wladis et al., 2015). Instead of having to be at a specific location at
a specific time, online educational students have the freedom to communicate with
instructors, address classmates, study materials, and complete assignments from any
Internet-accessible point (Richardson and Swan, 2003). This type of flexibility grants
students much-needed mobility and, in turn, helps make the educational process
more enticing. Moreover, more study time can lead to better class performance—
more chapters read, better quality papers, and more group project time. With online
teaching, students who usually don't participate in class may now voice their
opinions and concerns. As they are not in a classroom setting, quieter students may
feel more comfortable partaking in class dialogue without being recognized or
judged. This, in turn, may increase average class scores (Driscoll et al., 2012).
The major challenge while teaching online was the unstable network
connection. If the videos and audios of the students were kept off, the connection
remains more stable, but that mode of teaching seems to teach to a blank wall.
Moreover, it was perceived that some of the students had not essential resources to
join online; there it appeared like pushing the digital divide further. So, the
difficulties with online teaching were both technical and ideological. Most of the
challenges were related to the students and their responses to the needs of online
teaching, which include uninterrupted electricity connection, intermittent signal
issues. Among others, level of understanding, lack of scope for meaningful
interaction, the range for innovative teaching, and mechanical conduct of classes
were the significant challenges reported by teachers.
According to Kemp and Grieve, 2014. “Lengthy use of online interaction has
revealed the many problems encountered by teachers and students. The online
classes are problematic is that, in certain subjects where the content is abstract, many
concepts exist that need real face to face interaction for complete understanding.
Relying on online interaction is detrimental to the health of the eyes and general
body health too.”
 The other modality, classroom teaching, is a well-established instructional
medium in which teaching style and structure have been refined over several
centuries. Face-to-face instruction has numerous benefits not found in its online
counterpart (Xu and Jaggars, 2016). First and, perhaps most importantly, classroom
instruction is extremely dynamic. Traditional classroom teaching provides real-time
face-to-face instruction and sparks innovative questions. It also allows for immediate
teacher response and more flexible content delivery. Online instruction dampens the
learning process because students must limit their questions to blurbs, then grant the
teacher and fellow classmates time to respond (Salcedo, 2010).  However, for now,
face-to-face instruction provides dynamic learning attributes not found in Web-
based teaching (Kemp and Grieve, 2014).
Traditional classroom learning is a well-established modality. Some students
are opposed to change and view online instruction negatively. These students may
be technophobes, more comfortable with sitting in a classroom taking notes than
sitting at a computer absorbing data. Other students may value face-to-face
interaction, pre and post-class discussions, communal learning, and organic student-
teacher bonding (Roval and Jordan, 2004). They may see the Internet as an
impediment to learning. If not comfortable with the instructional medium, some
students may shun classroom activities; their grades might slip and their educational
interest might vanish. Students, however, may eventually adapt to online education.
With more universities employing computer-based training, students may be forced
to take only Web-based courses. Even though true, this doesn't eliminate the fact
some students prefer classroom intimacy.
As Wladis et al., 2015 stated, “Since an instructor needs to convey a fixed
number of ideas inside a restricted time, most classroom exercises are gotten the job
done to the introduction arrange as it were. The practice is left for the understudy to
do as homework.” This procedure does not take into consideration understudies to
explore different avenues regarding new ideas. Their learning is put to a stop at a
specific stage; they end up packing ideas and are unfit to deliver anything
productive, aside from conventional responses to test questions. Furthermore,
numerous understudies may stall out while doing issue sets at home. This also
obstructs their exhibition. In the event that they are unfit to ace one idea, and have
been unfit to rehearse it successfully, we can’t in any way, shape or form anticipate
that them should get a handle on a more up to date idea dependent on the past one.

Conclusion
The evaluation of educational value levels in online and traditional education
shows that traditional education is highly valuable compared to online education. It
appears blatantly true that online education does not produce highly competent
students, despite its popularity and sophistication. However, the adoption of
technology in online education has embroidered online courses with an element of
reliability and flexibility; thus, most people believe that online education
encompasses an exceptional value compared to the classroom education.
As per the World Economic Forum, the Covid-19 pandemic also has changed
the way how several people receive and impart education. To find new solutions for
our problems, we might bring in some much-needed innovations and change.
Teachers have become habitual to traditional methods of teaching in the form of
face-to-face lectures, and therefore, they hesitate in accepting any change. But amidst
this crisis, we have no other alternative left other than adapting to the dynamic
situation and accepting the change. It will be beneficial for the education sector and
could bring a lot of surprising innovations.
We cannot ignore and forget the students who do not have access to all online
technology. These students are less affluent and belong to less tech-savvy families
with financial resources restrictions; therefore, they may lose out when classes occur
online. They may lose out because of the heavy costs associated with digital devices
and internet data plans. This digital divide may widen the gaps of inequality. Online
learning faces many challenges ranging from learners’ issues, educators’ issues, and
content issues. It is a challenge for institutions to engage students and make them
participate in the teaching–learning process.
The advantages and disadvantages of both instructional modalities need to be
fully fleshed out and examined to truly determine which medium generates better
student performance. Both modalities have been proven to be relatively effective,
but, as mentioned earlier, the question to be asked is if one is truly better than the
other.
References
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of Cyber Learning
www.eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1060090

Pullen, John Mark. 2012 Pros and Cons for Teaching Courses in the Classroom and
Online Simultaneously
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Zhang, DongSong et. al. 2004 Can E-learning Replace Classroom Learning?
www.dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/986213.986216

Cuellar, Norma. 2002 The Transition From Classroom to Online Teaching

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