Education was always linked up to schooling especially in the olden days. Most of us were brought up in this system of heading to school to get an education. I am not against education in any way but I have come to know that there is a much more better way to get educated without necessarily having to leave your home, get on a bus perhaps or travel down to a schooling facility and spend months or years being schooled along with other students…
Education was always linked up to schooling especially in the olden days. Most of us were brought up in this system of heading to school to get an education. I am not against education in any way but I have come to know that there is a much more better way to get educated without necessarily having to leave your home, get on a bus perhaps or travel down to a schooling facility and spend months or years being schooled along with other students.
Physical Classes
Before I get into the discussion in full, I would like to take some time to define the key words in the topic starting with physical classes. As it is commonly presumed, a physical class is a room that is specifically built or designed for teaching students and undergoing other educational activities. It is made up of bricks and pillars, containing tables, chairs, board, markers or chalks among other teaching or learning aids. The physical class is a place that is mostly part of a building in a school, church, mosque, business enterprise or corporate organisation. The class requires students enrolled in one program, course or studies should converge in that area to get educated. It is more like a social gathering of people for the primary purpose of seeking practical education. Schooling is so much linked to the physical classes since it is enhanced by the latter. Schools can run their physical classes in many ways than one. At least, I know that the classes can be of a day schedule or even a boarding type. Hence, students can either converge in the school on a daily basis after leaving its premises the previous day or can be required to spend all the days for their program or course in the facility of the school such as hostel, dormitory and so on. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, this medium of education was rather much popular. In fact, everyone could not really see any other means of education apart from it. Perhaps, this could be explained as being a result of our need for socialism, physical interaction and even value system which I am not totally against when I affirm that from the late 20th century till date, much more fulfilling ways have been introduced to cater for such needs and more education.
Other Ways of Education
Clearly, people have many opinions to the matter of education. In fact, when it comes to the alternative forms of education, there is even a much more varied serie of controversies and philosophies. On one popular website for instance, K12 Academics, defines alternative education as “a number of approaches to teaching and learning other than traditional publicly- or privately-run schools.” I, however, define alternative education as other methods of sharing and getting knowledge that differs from the physically classroom-driven schools.I know lots of alternative education types but to just class and mention a few, I would say, we have Worldschooling, Unschooling, Outdoor education, Montessori and Waldorf method. All these methods have something to do with traveling, staying at home or outside around the environment or at conferences and so on.Online Course
An online course is the delivery of a series of lessons on a web browser or mobile device, which can be accessed anytime and anyplace. An online class is a course conducted over the Internet. It is designed as an online environment for convenient learning for students. Online course is another way to educate students about a language. In fact, online course is the fastest way to learn any technical and non-technical skills by using the internet on mobile, computer, or tablet. Online courses are revolutionizing formal education, and have opened a new genre of outreach on cultural and scientific topics. With courses available in almost every subject, and flexible timetables to suit almost every lifestyle, students are increasingly turning to online courses now even language learners are increasingly making use of the digital platform to learn languages and connect with native speakers worldwide.
Benefits
Learning a language can be a daunting task whether in school or in front of the laptop. However, online courses can be considered to have much more rewarding than the physical classes using the following parameters:
Internet Coverage – Online courses are not only conducted on the internet, they are offline and online resources that you can always get access to in order to learn a language anywhere you are in the world. They are mobile and very much everywhere you are.
Stored Easily Assessible Videos, Audio and Other Materials – In line with them being assertive, you can always have access to many forms of language learning aids including lecture notes, audio recordings, video games and so on.
Language Learning Apps, Games and Online Tools – Many online courses have integrated applications, games and other tools to their programs. These help students have fun and even become time cautious when using them to learn a language and prepare for an exam.
Flexible schedule and environment – If you’re a university student or a working class professional, you may not have the luxury to learn a language or prepare for an exam while working or studying another program, so online courses provide you the opportunity to combine many things together with their schedule flexibility and lack of physical environment unlike the class.
Language Expert and Partners – Many a times, online course providers know the importance of having coaches and partners work with you to learn a language and prepare for an exam, so they build a learning community that can be of help to language learners which one can have access to anytime without limitation of time and space like physical class.
Lower costs and debts – Unlike physical schooling in whole that requires huge amounts of student loans, transport fares, boarding facilities among others, all you just need to pay for is a tuition fee mostly in online courses and you get to learn any language and prepare for exams.
Self-discipline and responsibility – One of the major ways to become self-disciplined and responsible is to get into learning through an online course. If you follow through with it, you would have indeed improved yourself rather than relying on th forced nature of physical class to inculcate these success habits in you.
More choice of course topics – Online courses are taken in such a way that you get to not specialize too much in a particular field but can dive into lots of other interesting aspects of what you’re learning, so that in itself is another advantage over physical class that is more this with a predefined curriculum and syllabus.
Customized Learning – More to it, of you are someone who learns fast or even slow or through a different method, online course can always help fashion a much more easier way to help you learn easily without difficulty or wastage of time.
Career advancement – You can always pursue your career while learning through online courses without having to be confined to a classroom for months or years to become educated.
Hobbies and Interests – The beauty of online courses is that you can learn around your hobbies and interests without necessarily having to do it every other laid down way or method.
The pros of online courses far outways that of the physical class especially in the technological driven world we are now. So I besiege everyone to have a rethink of the ways they learn. As Coronavirus Pandemic affected the whole world, it would be noted that we need this kind of learning platform more than ever. Hopefully, many people will see and quickly use this medium to learn and teach soon. However, online courses have come to stay whether we like it or not. For internationally recognized language tests like IELTS, TOEFL, TEF Canada, TCF or DELF-DALF, I would besiege you to opt in for online courses, you can even get into an offline program and add up online courses to it, you would learn more than using just one method and won’t be disappointed having done so. A.O.S Academy, for instance, have many online courses on its website @ aosacademy.com and on its French online school @ frenchTEFcanada.com, you can always enrol for any language exams and even language learning programs through the websites. Thanks and do not forget to rate, comment on and share this blog post. Thanks again for reading! Talk to you soon.