Which should be Preferred? Online vs. Offline Coaching,

The sudden widespread of Covid-19 disease forced everyone to discontinue their traditional working methods and adopt new methods irrespective of their nature of work to avoid physical contact and as a result, a majority of people switched to online mode and started “Working from home”. Even for the students, fear of the Coronavirus ended the traditional way of going to the schools and coachings to the attend classes and introduced a new alternative of ONLINE Classes which enabled the students to study from the comforts of their home, but the main question is, when the conditions become favorable again, what should be preferred amongst the two – OFFLINE or ONLINE?

If we will look closely into the topic then we will find out that disadvantages of one mode turn out to be the advantages of another, though both the modes serve the same purpose of imparting education still there are some unavoidable facts concerning both that if we pay attention to then definitely we can figure out the mode that suits the best for us. So, Today after going through this article you will know exactly which is the best for you. Let’s get started.

Advantages of Online Classes

Following are some of the significant advantages of online classes:

• Distance Learning – Online classes have made distance learning possible, Students can easily learn and teachers can teach easily by being at the comforts of their home
• Flexible time scale – The timings can be changed according to the student’s and teacher’s comfort and so can the duration of the class.
• Independent of weather and transport – It doesn’t matter if its a hot sunny afternoon or raining outside, you don’t need your bike or any other vehicle, just need a phone or computer and a comfortable chair to sit and attend the classes
• Reusability of Materials – Once the classes are recorded, they can be rewatched an unlimited number of times. In addition to that, you don’t even need to buy expensive books and other relevant things when you can have all those materials in a pdf form that can be accessed anytime from your phone or PC.
• Multiple sources at the same place – If the student is not able to understand a topic from one teacher then he/she can refer to different teachers available on different platforms for proper clarification. In addition to that, the students can also study the subjects or topics of their interest outside of their syllabus and can develop new skills.
• Affordable and Budget-friendly – Platforms like YouTube have a plethora of content for absolutely free, all you need is an internet connection and you can learn almost anything. There is no need to pay for the vehicle fuel, extra coaching, going to another city, and taking a room for rent, you can have all those premium courses for either free or at a very affordable cost and study at your home.

Advantages of Offline Classes – Disadvantages of Online Classes

Now coming to the advantages of offline classes or naturally the disadvantages of online classes –

• Adverse Health effects – There are negative impacts on the health of students due to online classes like a strain on eyes, blurry vision, messed-up eyesight, obesity, lethargy, and all because students tend to sit for a longer time in front of the screens which of course do not exist in case of interactive offline classes.
• Unavailability of the internet to all – A high-speed internet connection is still not available in deeper parts of the country and several village areas, so the concept of online classes is useless for them.
• Lack of proper knowledge about technology – Be it a student or a teacher, if the understanding of the technological aspect of the electronic devices, software, phones are not there then also online classes are ineffective in that case.
• Lack of proper communication – Although the apps for attending the classes have tons of different features, still they fail to bridge the significant gap between the students and the teachers. There is almost little to no interaction between teacher and students and in many cases the teacher to student ratio is extremely huge – 1 teacher is teaching 10000 students at one time, so that makes the interaction almost negligible whereas in Offline classes a teacher is assigned to a limited number of students and classes are interactive.
• Loads of Distraction – The average focus span of a human being has been reduced to a mere 6 seconds, thanks to Social media. At home, in your closed room, there is absolutely no one watching you whether you are being attentive in your class or not. Many students keep the class running in the background while they watch movies or funny videos on social media. These sorts of acts are not at all possible in offline classes as the teacher is exactly in front of you and keeps an eye on who is doing what.
• Overall development is blown to shreds – Though you can easily study from the online classes the things that lead to the overall development of a student that happens in offline classes can never be replaced. Interaction with our peers, getting appraised for giving a right answer in front of all, getting scolded, talking to friends sitting at opposite corners in sign languages, playing together in intervals or free periods, participating in extracurricular activities, sports, and other competitions together, these experiences are a real gem of student life and can never be substituted by any emojis, memes, chats or reels whatsoever.

CONCLUSION

Now, both the modes have their own pros and cons as listed above in detail. The final decision rests in your hands which is more suitable for you. If you have the luxury of choosing one from both the modes of Online or Offline class, sit alone for a few minutes, go through the above points, and then be completely honest with yourself asking which one will be better for me now, whatever the answer comes in your mind by proper rationalization and elimination, Go with that, that’s the best for you.

Also read: Student Engagement Strategies: Encouraging Behavioral, Emotional, and Cognitive Engagement in Your Course.

FAQs :

Q.1) How much internet data will be needed for attending online classes?

Ans. That solely depends on the duration of your classes. On average 2GB data per day is sufficient but if you have classes of around or more than 6 hours then consider going higher.

Q.2) Do I need a costly phone or laptop for attending online classes?

Ans. Not at all, nowadays almost all phones and laptops have basic features and apps that are totally sufficient if you only want it for study purposes but if you have any other intentions like gaming or photography, etc. then definitely you will need a better device.