Distance Education Argumentative Essay

Adam Savage once said “I think one of the defining moments of adulthood is the realization that nobody 's going to take care of you. That you have to do the heavy lifting while you 're here. And when you don 't, well, you suffer the consequences.” Now, what if we replaced “adulthood” with the term “higher education”, or more specifically, “distance education”? The words become almost synonymous when you define what it takes to succeed in either field. In the article, College Distance Education Courses: Evaluating Benefits and Costs from Institutional, Faculty and Students’ Perspectives written by Simon A. Lei and Rajeev K. Gupta, distance education is defined as “technology-based instruction in which students are at a location physically separated from their instructor during the entire course of study” (Lei and Gupta 616). In Lei and Gupta’s article, there are many drawbacks of distance education defined, but distance education remains an amazing opportunity because the benefits and the platform to develop useful life skills far outweigh said drawbacks.

In a traditional setting, a student can physically talk to their instructor about the subject they are going over in class. They also have physical classmates that they can turn to when discussing about certain topics or they can even get together on certain assignments. A traditional class setting is best for someone who works better in an environment that does not feel isolated and would prefer to have their instructor right in their view so they can ask about anything related to the class. However this setting wouldn't work too well for someone who has a full time job or a family because they are held to time constraints and they have to revolve their schedule around the time they have to be in class. While some people can pull it off, others don't have that luxury. Most people have jobs that won't allow them to be on a school schedule so they can attend classes. This is why more adults or non-traditional students attend online programs because they feel it suits their needs.

Many advocates of distance education are ardent about their venue and very critical of traditional education. These online education devotees view traditional classes as being unchangeable, inflexible, teacher-centered, and static (Angiello, 2010). However, proponents argue that many simply would not be able to get a degree without distance education—the full-time police officer, the mother of four, or the individual living in a rural area approximately 100-200 miles away from any educational institution. Many individuals desperately need distance education courses because they "have jobs, families, civic responsibilities. They are thirsting. But some want us to say, 'Sorry you don’t want to drink the water there, but we can’t bottle our fresh spring water, so you’ll have to come here or drink nothing" (Baker, 1986). Proponents contend that distance education is "as good as" traditional education. In other words, learning occurs as much in distance education as it does in traditional education. However, is this really so? Does distance education work better for some students

The Internet has also changed the way students learn. Online classes are more readily available compared to several years ago. By means of online classes more adult students pursuing higher education are able to make that dream become a reality. Students attending online classes offer different viewpoints with fellow students and are able to communicate without feeling that a correct answer needs to be given.

Attending college itself is a huge part in an individual's life, but some students don't attend college right after graduating high school because of the lack of financial support. Students themselves get a job to pay for the college fees, class fees and even textbooks required for the class instead of relying on the parents. This creates a ton amount of stress in a student's life which leads them to doing

Online classes and the traditional classroom setting both offer many of the same advantages. They both provide the student with the same course content so there is no loss of curriculum between the two. Both demand the same time investment for learning, studying, taking exams, completing papers, and so on. Although it seems easy to think that with doing all of your school work online there isn’t any personal interaction with professors and peers, however, that is a common misconception. Online classes, like traditional ones, require a degree of contact with your peers and professors. It may not be as personal interaction as raising your hand and being called on, but you can e-mail your professor at any time and there are discussion boards and forums available for fellow students to communicate and help each other out.

Tom Gilman, an academic librarian at Yale University, composes the article, “Combating Myths About Distance Education,” in the February 2010 edition of Chronicle of Higher Education. Gilman focuses all of his ideas onto what people currently misbelieve about online education, and then, contributes information that could provide evidence that online education is still a challenge and beneficial to students and faculty. He initially informs his audience on the type of difficulties that professors could have if they come from just physical classroom teaching styles such as, “changing the schedule of what is to be covered and altering assignment deadlines can cause chaos” (102). Gilman decides before this statement that teachers in physical classrooms

Berler brings up the topic of and out of state freshman who began her college career at a major research university. “The online environment didn’t suit the student”(Berler). According to the student pre-cal was to difficult for her she switched to and introductory class instead. She felt the online class wasn’t helping her understand the concept she needed more lecture step by step teaching. Online classes can teach you step by step but to stay focus is the problem the term tedious is a big one involved. Now by being in a class you may feel more active because there is stuff going on around you and you have the chance on meeting more people

Distance learning (education) has become an integral part of the education process over the past few decades and is growing in popularity as technology advances.(Willis 1992) describes distance education (as) "the organizational framework andprocess of providing instruction at a distance. Distance education takes place when ateacher and student(s) are physically separated, and technology…(is) used to bridge theinstruction gap." (Coutts 1996). Furthermore, "distance learning activities are designedto fit the specific context for learning, the nature of the subject matter; intended learningoutcomes, needs and goals of the learner, the learner's environment and the instructional echnologies and methods." (American

With face-to-face schooling, students get the full college experience from meeting new people, going to special events on campus, and being able to go and talk to a professor or tutor in person. Students who chose to learn by online schooling may feel alone and isolated. Traditional schools provide students with the ability to

However, advocates of classroom learning believe the online method isolates the students from one another as well as their professor minimizing the overall value of taking the course. They also claim that students learn better when working together with their instructor and their fellow classmates. Students learn better when they are given the opportunity to ask questions, join in class discussions, and they move the process of learning forward through their participation. Face-to-face advocates firmly believe that this kind of interaction is not possible over the Internet; and for many types of education, e-learning will never meet the potential of live human interaction in the classroom. An article in the New York Times titled, “Second Thoughts on Online Education,” backs up the points made above. A recent research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, comes to the conclusion; “A rush to online education

Non-traditional students are finding it easier and easier to maintain a job, a family, and pursuing a college career at the same time. This is possible because more and more non-traditional students are receiving an education using distance learning, as opposed to traditional, in-the-classroom teaching. Distance learning is basically taking college level, credit-bearing courses via the Internet. One of the most obvious advantages of distance learning is that it puts the classroom in your home, office, or wherever you can find a computer and log on to the Internet. However, there is much controversy regarding the quality of the courses being offered on the Internet versus the quality of

There is a lot of poor communication in online classes. There will be students who will never email the instructors for more details about an assignments, or, there will be older students who don’t know how to email the instructors for more details. If the student doesn’t understand an assignment, and never emails to ask for more details, can result in a poor grade for the lack of knowledge in knowing what they’re doing. There’s one final drawback to not having social interactions with instructors; Students can potentially miss out on building relationships that can result in helpful guidance and recommendation letters down the road when needed.

Compared to classroom learning, the interaction occurring at online courses is more international. Learners can develop online conversations on forums and interview other students around the world by using web-conferencing technology (Kruger-Ross and Waters, 2013:182). However, it is reported that students prefer face to face contact directly with the tutor who was seen as the focal point of learning, a channel through all interaction that connects ideas, builds understanding, provides feedback and gives summary immediately (Sweeney et al, 2007:316). Additionally, establishing social relations may need classroom environment (Paechter & Maier, 2010:295). Classroom teaching and learning is a complex, multilayered, and social experience, which develops friendship, connection and satisfaction among students. Social community is considered to be relatively poorly experienced in online learning due to learners’ disconnection and could probably cause isolation (Baturay & Bay, 2010:44).

Time for a face to face class is very difficult if a person works 40 hours a week but an online course can put an ease on the time restriction because the person does the work at their own pace and time. It is also easier to sign up for an online class than a class at a college. Message boards are in use if the students need to leave a question or a comment about the subject their on. They also save time by not traveling to the college and trying to find a parking space.