By: Tutoring Services
Submitted: 2010-05-10 05:17:57 | Word Count: 586
Online learning is becoming common in school education. It has some clear advantages for educators, and studies suggest that blended learning – a carefully judged mix of traditional classroom teaching and online tutoring – is more effective than either one alone. There is also some evidence to suggest that a significant proportion of college students prefer online tutoring services and one-to-one interactions with tutors online. But what do kids think about online study?
A 2008 NACOL symposium investigated the growing number of school students who opt to take all of their classes online. They cited a variety of reasons for this choice. They included:
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• Online learning means students can study at their own pace
• The option of creating their own schedules. One, heavily involved in sports, was getting up before dawn to get practice in as well as fitting in the school day. Another needed to earn as well as study and found online teaching more flexible and convenient.
• The possibility of taking courses that were not offered at their bricks-and-mortar school. For some students who have a clear idea of their career path, online learning permits them to specialize earlier, giving them a potential college and career advantage.
Of course, school-age learners are diverse and full-time online study isn’t for everyone. Learning online does not suit all students, for the following reasons:
• Online learning requires self-discipline, time management skills, motivation and a degree of maturity that not all learners yet possess. Those who have not developed the skills can easily become frustrated.
• The social environment of conventional schooling is absent for school-age learners who take all their classes online.
• Online teaching makes interaction with online tutors and teachers feels too distant and impersonal.
As noted, studies suggest that, on average, the most effective education is a combination of conventional classroom education and online teaching. Online learning alone will boost some learners’ educational achievement, but impair that of others. Blended learning typically offers the best of both worlds. Instead of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ education, the solution seems to be that giving students some choice, to match their aspirations and learning styles, is the way forward.
Courses that are well-designed for the online learning education environment can have certain advantages for learners. Problem-solving in the guise of educational computer games can breathe life into a dry subject. Of course, computer-aided learning can also be incorporated into conventional lessons, and most educators are aware of the power of computers in engaging learners. At the same time, there is sometimes no substitute for instructor-led, human contact in the classroom. Even though online tutors can make the most of interactive technologies and video links, face-to-face teaching allows educators to pick up nuances of student behavior that are easily missed in the online teaching and learning environment.
On the other hand, the hallmark of online learning is personalized attention from online tutoring by teachers. The benefits of learning at one’s own pace, and of schedules and curricula that suit individual learners’ needs make online learning the preferred choice of many. Some will prefer conventional education. The reality is that, online teaching and learning becoming an integral part of education, many school students will have the best of both worlds.
Author Resource:-
Tutoring Services LLC. offers opportunity of online tutoring jobs with free registration for tutors. Online Tutoring are beneficial for students and helps to find a tutor, homework help, home tutoring and online learning benefits for students of schools, colleges & universities.
