While online learning was never a new concept, it became heavily popularized after the pandemic. Some educational institutions that were already offering an online learning option did not take long to adjust but those that didn’t have that option before the pandemic had some difficulty adjusting. While everyone thought and hoped that it wouldn’t be for long, unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. So, while there are some schools and colleges that are conducting physical classes today, there are others that still opt for virtual learning for the safety of students and faculty.
If you think about it, it seems absurd that schools are open amidst the Omicron wave. There are possibilities that about 50,000 to 300,000 more Americans might die of Covid-19 before mid-March. If that isn’t alarming then what is? However, there are still parents who wish for physical classes rather than online. Their reason is their children can’t study effectively at home. There are many students as well, who wish for physical classes because they get tired of being stuck at home and not seeing their friends. Some of their concerns are understandable, especially the ones about not getting proper attention or not having the proper environment for learning. What the parents and students don’t realize is that online learning can be just as effective, if not more, as physical learning.
Let’s take a look at how online learning is more, or just as beneficial as physical learning.
Career and hobbies
Time management is the biggest key here. If you have online classes, it gets easier to manage your schoolwork and your personal time. Assigning yourself some time to get done with classes and the homework, you can utilize the rest of your time by doing some freelancing or extra learning. Both of these can help you with your future career in the form of experience or knowledge expertise.
However, if you don’t want to do that yet, you can always opt for a hobby. Whether it’s arts and crafts, cooking, singing, or even something like learning a new language. If you don’t have any such interests yet, you can always go to the internet and search for something interesting to do in your spare time. As long as you have a good internet connection, you can even participate in some online activities like virtual trivia, scrabble, etc. with your friends.
Gaming is also a popular option for students. But, you will need to make sure to have a strong internet connection so you won’t be interrupted or disturbed by network distortion. Wave Internet offers three amazing internet packages that are perfect for streaming, gaming, work/learning from home, and more!
Flexible schedule with more time
Having online classes means you can multitask, especially if you don’t have to be present during the live class. If you merely have recordings of the lecture, you can have a flexible schedule. For example, you can go outside to a café near you, grab some breakfast and listen to the recording while having breakfast. If you are a person that goes to the gym regularly, you can also listen to the recordings while exercising and make notes later on. This way you can multitask and save time by doing two things at once.
Moreover, you are already saving time by not having to commute to and from school every day. This saves your precious time, which you can utilize to do something else or study a little more for that perfect grade.
Self-discipline
Online learning requires a lot of self-discipline and motivation. Nobody wants to study on their own, do they? It is already hard enough to study in school and now that you’ve gotten the perfect opportunity to slack off, why would you leave it? While this is all true, at the end of the day, you still need that grade to get you a job. Realizing this, it gets harder for you to slack off and you have to take responsibility for your studies. This helps you to be more self-disciplined and take responsibility at the right times.
Self-motivation and taking responsibility are all qualities that will help you out in your future career as well. It grooms you to be your best self. Not only that, but you will be learning about managing your time effectively as well. So, while these things are not actively taught by someone, they can be inadvertently learned through situations and experiences.
More choices of course topics
For college students and even sometimes for high school students, choosing an extra course is difficult. It is either the timings that clash or the class location, in case it’s off-campus. As most students have a part-time job as well, it gets even more difficult to select a course. The point of additional courses is to help students with their future careers, but there are so many factors that can’t be overcome by the students, just like mentioned above.
Having online classes means having more flexibility in your schedule. This means you have more options for courses. Granted there are still some limitations like timings clash with other classes or part-time jobs, but you won’t need to worry about the location of the classes. As the classes will be conducted online, you can take the course and fit it into your schedule.
Reduced cost
It is an obvious fact that you save money with online classes. How that is so? There are no transportation costs to commute to and from school and no cost of schoolbooks as most of the material will be provided to you online. As many students have to find their accommodation, they have to pay the rent for it too. With online learning, they can move back home and save money on the rent till the schools open up again.
Job opportunities
While most students are already working part-time jobs along with their studies to keep up with student loans, with online schooling, they get the opportunity to work a full-time job. Not only do they have the time to do it, but they can earn more money and gain experience at the same time as learning. As for being present during classes, they can do it while working from the office or home. Otherwise, if they have the option of recorded classes, they can just listen to the lecture while on break or after work.
This gives students confidence in themselves and further grooms their personality as they learn to operate in a professional environment and get to apply all that they learn in school to their job. Granted this could make the students’ schedules a little hectic, but it equips them with many more skills and experience which could lead them to have a successful career.
Conclusion
Virtual learning is, in some ways, better than physical learning. However, it can be tricky and can be very damaging to a person, if not done the right way. It is like an opportunity for students who want to strive to be better and have a great career. So, unless and until they take the right steps to take full advantage of this situation, they cannot succeed and the ones who don’t easily fall behind.
If we talk about the issues of virtual learning, there are some but the most prominent one is the issue with the internet connection. Most students plan out their day effectively to be more productive but due to internet issues, they are not able to do it. So, you must look for a great and reliable internet provider that has a fast response rate. BuyTVInternetPhone can help you do just that! Once you go to the website, all you need to do is enter your zip code and click search. You will be redirected to a page with a list of providers available in your area. You can then click and go through the different plans of each provider and choose the best one for you!