Cowart 1 Dean Cowart December 10, 2013 CST 300L Online Learning vs.

Face to Face classes Todays era is engulfed with technology and technology is almost mandatory when talking about education. Online courses are becoming more popular as more universities are beginning to offer more classes every year. There are several positives and negatives that online courses bring. This can be worked through a couple of different ways to offer the online schooling. With the growth of online courses, studies are being done to determine if online classes are as beneficial as a face to face class. The growing rate of technology today offers almost endless possibilities with what an online class can withhold. The rate of new technology that keeps emerging offers professors and students more opportunities and more options in exploring different ways of learning diverse materials. The online class enables the students to take a course from their household or wherever they desire, rather than meeting in a classroom every week. The students are assigned assignments with deadlines and quizzes just as if they are taking a regular course. Today, online universities are being offered around the world. There are plenty of opportunities for online classes. Different online classes are offered around the world from different universities, and can be accessed from anywhere that has an internet connection. According to the 2012 Survey of Online Learning, the number of students taking at least one online course has now surpassed 6.7 million.(Babson Survey Research

Cowart 2 Group, 2013) The number seems to be growing as time goes on. With this number growing, means more classes are going to be offered. Online schooling also has its downfalls as well. There are problems that the universities face when creating the online classes that are making professors not want to teach the class. There are several reasons why professors and students disagree with an online education. This paper will discuss if the online education is as beneficial as a face to face education. Online courses have some positive outlooks that help the students and the instructors. An online course allows the student to conveniently access the course from where ever and whenever he or she desires. The students are given assignments with due dates as if they are in a regular classroom, but the student can choose when to access and complete the assignment. This provides a flexible and easy schedule for those who struggle when finding time for school. With online courses, potential students will are able to access the learning material at any time. A parent that is balancing a full time job and taking care of children will not be able to fit a planned lecture into his or her schedule without having a mental breakdown. In an article done by Webster University, it gives a great example about a man by the name of Steven Moya who revived his masters degree while overseas in Iraq serving for the U.S. Army. He was able to obtain his degree from Websters University without any problems and he came out of the military with his BA.(Websters University, 2013) Webster University is an online university that allows students around the world earn their degrees with online courses. The online program now offers 19 graduate degrees, five undergraduate degrees and five certificate programs. (Websters University, 2013) This is a great opportunity for working parents, or

Cowart 3 soldiers that dont really have the time or chance or time to take a face to face class. Data received from the US Census in 2011 showed that only 30 percent of Americans 25 or older obtained a bachelors degree or higher. (US Census, 2012) Online courses can help increase this number by giving parents and soldiers the opportunity to find time to get the degree they werent able to obtain. With this number increased, Parents will be able to offer more for their family by being able to get a higher paying job that requires a degree. Online learning allows the student to be who they are and not worry about being judged in any way. Online learning provides an impartial, unbiased level of interaction without unwanted judgment because of appearance, gender ethnicity, varied socioeconomic levels, and other extraneous factors. (Betty, 2013) With students being able to access the classroom from the comfort of their home, it allows them to feel more comfortable when contributing to the assignments. Students wont have to worry about looking foolish when voicing their personal opinion. The lack of face-to-face sharing allows students to feel more comfortable with being frank in discussions, especially among students who characterize themselves as being shy or timid. (Betty, 2013) A student may feel much comfortable voicing his or her opinion when speaking from the comfort of their desk or home rather than in a class of 200 students. This online class can be more beneficial for students learning allowing them to interact more with the class rather than sit back and keep quiet. Online education offers more options when looking for a course. There are schools all over the country that have online courses that a student can take. According to a study done by Kelsey Sheehy, 62.4 percent of the colleges surveyed in 2012 offering fully online degree

Cowart 4 programs, compared with just 32.5 percent in 2002.(Sheehy, 2013) There are plenty of opportunities that schools are now offering. Online courses will allow more opportunity for students to get the class they needs and not have to worry about the possibility of the class being filled or dropped. This also offers more chances for someone who might not have much of a choice at their community college. It will allow students to get instructed by well-known professors. With college, finding ways to learn and study can be tricky when you have different professors that have different methods of teaching. In an online course the student will be able to study at his or her own pace and however they are comfortable studying. This will help the student develop the information better. When the student is able to develop the information at his or her own pace there is more chance that the student will be successful. Since students are able to control their own pace at which they proceed through their exercises, they are neither held back nor left behind by their peers. And the instant feedback that the students receive from this type of instruction motivates these students to continue. (Unknown, 2013) Students become comfortable when taking an online class and that allows them enjoy the class more. If the student enjoys the class the student will be willing to participate in the class more. Online courses have some negative effects as well. The rate technology is growing rapidly and with this, the price seems to grow as well. This is causing online classes to be expensive to set up. When setting up and online course, a program will probably be needed

Cowart 5 which in turn can be expensive to purchase. An instructor is then going to have to be specially trained on how to use the program in order to operate the program at its full potential. The amount of money to start an online course can vary, but there are also other hidden expenses. There was a study done with an online math course at San Jose state that showed some hidden expenses that werent thought of. During the study they noticed that students were not logging in to access the course due to low-income students that could not afford a computer. Also, the student could not afford or access internet from the household. This led the school into loaning out computers and allowing access to the computer labs which ended being costly.(Murphy, 2013) This study showed that online courses can have hidden cost and that not everyone can afford the material needed to access the course. The thought of computer malfunctions can also be taken into thought when thinking about price. Computers can be very unpredictable and can break down at any moment and fixing this problem can be expensive and take some time to fix. These reasons create the problem that not everyone has the opportunity to access the course and it becomes unfair. Another major problem with online education is the lack of communication with students and professors. Penelope Wong states from her study that one of the major concerns about distance learning is its potentially negative impact on the teacher-learner relationship. (Wong, 2013) With a class environment the teacher is able to communicate directly with the student rather than an email that may not be direct or can come off confusing. A face to face removes the potential error that a confusing emails or review on an assignment might cause. Lack of communication can also hurt the students communication skills in the future. Neil Kokemuller

Cowart 6 talks about how online learning negatively impacts the students ability to interact with professors and ask questions. (Kokemuller, 2013) Students develop communication skills and learn how to work with others when in a face to face class. Online courses take away a lot of the face to face communication which is very important. With online learning the student does not interact with a group or have a chance to state his or her point like in a normal class discussion which can cause the student to feel isolated. Dr. Barr says in her paper that The reduced sense of community may increase dissatisfaction and discontentment and increase the dropout rates (Betty, 2013).With a face to face course the students will be able to interact and not feel isolated. The students will be able to thoroughly address their opinion and get a direct response from someone that could agree or disagree with them. A nursing school did a study on the isolation of e-learning and one of the results showed that 64 percent of the surveyed students answered that communicating with other classmates was more difficult with online classes. (Marie, 2004) It is important for students to communicate and share ideas in a classroom because It allows the learners to express themselves along with communicating and discussing important topics. Online courses take away personal discussions that can easily be held in a face-to-face classroom. Whether the course is online or face to face the amount of effort given by the student will determine the success of the student in that class. Online learning seems to offer some great qualities that tend to be looked past. Just like a face to face class the student can learn the material that is being taught, it just may be processed or taught different depending on the way

Cowart 7 the student grasps the information. Online classes can have great outcome and could help out many potential students that dont have a chance. Just like a normal class students are assignments given which the teachers comment on and interact with the students. This gives the student interaction with the instructor. Students can view this as a teacher-student interaction process. During a study by Penelope Wong and her online students, she found out that her students perceived the quantity and quality of feedback provided on assignments as a measure of the instructors caring or taking an interest in them.(Wong, 2013) Wong showed that with her comments left on assignments along with her personal emails that she sent out, allowed her to create a personal bond with her students without having a face to face class. During Wong study, she was able to prove that online classes do have the possibility to create personal relationships with her students. She received great feedback from her students discussing how well she interacted with them and they really were surprised how much feedback she would give back on assignments. Online education opens more opportunities when dealing with single parents or someone that is not financially able to afford a full college education right away. With people that have time restraints such as taking care of kids or working a full time job to support their family, online courses allow them to access the course whenever they desire and get the work done. With financial problems, the parent can take a couple courses without paying the full ridiculous amount of tuition. According to Boston-based news channel ABC 7, a recent study from the Crittenden Womens Union suggests that a single parent with two children needs

Cowart 8 to make an annual income of $62,000 in order to survive without public assistance in Massachusetts.(Unkown, 2013) Following this study, it said the in Massachusetts there are only 11 jobs out there that will be able to come close to that type of income and this was with at least two years of college. This will also allow more people to obtain a degree that they were not able to get in the past, due to money or time restraints.. With the lack of degrees that are obtained by people over twenty five, more degrees will be able to be achieved with online learning. It will allow more opportunity to those who cannot make it to a normal class environment. In college some people need different ways of studying material in order to understand it. Online education offers more opportunities by allowing the student to access the material 24/7. This will allow the student to study the material however he or she is comfortable which important when going over material. Some people feel less stressed and can succeed when taking a class and being by them self when going over a lecture that is online. The online learning allows the student to feel comfortable at home and not have to change his or her comfort zone. When the student reaches his or her comfort zone, it allows them to speak their mind more. The student will be able to express themselves more comfortably and actually want to participate in the class. Another way online courses will help out is with attendance. The way online courses take roll is by the amount of work or if you viewed the lecture or not. With an online class the teacher can easily monitor who is participating and who is not. This cannot really be done in a class of 200 students. With a large class it is simple to get distracted behind a computer or simply zone

Cowart 9 out and not pay attention to the lecture. During an online class the student will feel like they have to review the material in order to show the instructor that they are participating in the class. The student will also be able to pause or come back to the lecture if he or she is getting bored or zoning out. E-learning will help increase the amount of participation is done in classes and help reduce the amount of time that is wasted by being distracted in a classroom environment. With online education there are some different options that can be looked at when deciding if it is really beneficial. The first one that can be done is offering more hybrid classes. With hybrid classes, students will be in a face to face lecture maybe once a week and then have an online course or lab that will hold assignments and readings or videos the professor assigns. Both those students who learn well independently and those who learn well in the classroom are able to excel in this type of class, as hybrid courses borrow from both of those learning environments.(Betty, 2013) The lecture may be once a week which will contain any information the professor wants to go over and allow students to ask direct questions and get a direct response. The student will be responsible for doing the homework and readings or videos that the professor may assign giving the students the feeling of an online course and freedom when doing the activities, but will still be able to develop the in class relationships that are important for learning. This will help students who cant make the full week of class but might be able to show up to the lecture once a week. Hybrid classes can be a great way to teach classes because it can be beneficial to the two types of students. Another option would be to create more online universities. With this option, single parents and military will be able to get a degree without entering the college environment.

Cowart 10 Students are able to get their degree as if they attended a regular college. On Universities.com, it offers 111 online schools to choose from along with 4,716 online degrees that can be achieved. Online universities are a great way for students to who dont have time to go to a lecture class to obtain a degree. It will also give individuals who live in other countries a chance to access a degree that may not be offered where that person lives. Online universities will be able to offer many different opportunities to the different groups of students out there that cant really access a college classroom. With more online universities that are created, this will create more opportunity and more specialized degrees that students will be able to obtain. The only question with this is how employers look at a degree that was received from an online university. A study done by Zogby Analytics showed that CEOs and human resource directors valued online degrees from established universities over degrees from lesser-known schools.(Carter, 2013) Students that received an online degree were looked at as more superior than that of a student who went to a smaller unknown school. Zogby also discovered that employers value online degrees that come from schools with traditional campus-based program rather than online-only colleges. (Carter, 2013) If every University offered at least one or maybe two different degrees that can be obtained online, this would create plenty of opportunities for students to get an online degree. Online degrees are received just the same as a regular degree and are not easier or harder to obtain. Online universities only show signs of success and can offer a great amount of opportunities for students who cant attend face to face courses. Online courses can offer a great amount of success. There is technology out there that will only improve the way material is taught and the lectures and assignments will become more

Cowart 11 advanced and more helpful for the students. It can also be looked at as learning how to use some functions as a computer along with getting an education. Online education will allow more people to receive a degree and help eliminate the excuses such as, I dont have time or the school is too far away. Online education opens a lot of doors for success and can be very rewarding. Online courses show to be just as beneficial as face to face education and there should be no reason to look down on an online education.

Cowart 12 References Betty, A. Miller, S. (2013). Higher education: the online teaching and learning experience. Retrieved from: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED543912.pdf Babson Survey Research Group. (2013). Changing course: ten years of tracking online education in the united states. Retrieved from:
http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/changing_course_2012

Carter, D. (2013) Do employers look down on online degrees? Retrieved from:

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/employers-online-degrees-9887/

Kokemuller,

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http://education.seattlepi.com/negative-effects-online-courses-1094.html Murphy, K. (2013). San Jose States online college course experiment reveals hidden costs. Retrieved from: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_23366281/online-college-courseexperiment-reveals-hidden-costs Marie, J. (2004). Student isolation issues in the e-learning environment. Retrieved from: http://www.nursing.arizona.edu/Library/Heath_JM.pdf Sheehy, K. (2013) Online course enrollment climbs for 10th straight year. Retrieved from: http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2013/01/08/online-courseenrollment-climbs-for-10th-straight-year Unkown. (2013). Online degrees help single parents earn higher wages. Retrieved from:
http://www.educationconnection.com/2010/04/online-degrees-parents/

Unknown.(2013)
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http://www.shelbyed.k12.al.us/schools/rms/faculty/wrodgers/technology%20int/students.htm

US Census.(2012). Bachelors degree attainment tops 30 percent for first time. Retrieved from: http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/education/cb12-33.html Websters University. (2013). Online education offers a flexible experience. Retrieved from: http://www.webster.edu/news/2013/news/05082013-online-education.html Wong, P. (2013) Online and face-to face students perceptions of teacher-learner interactions. Retrieved from:

Cowart 13 http://professoryates.com/seu/Podcasts/Dissertation%20Research/SteveArticles11.12C/ Wong05OnlineAndF2FInteractions.pdf