Advantages & Disadvantages to Online Eduction

I plan on examining and comparing online education vs. traditional, brick and mortar education. This first blog will look at the benefits and challenges of attending an online school, with a close look at the article "Distance Education in High Schools" by Davison M. Mupinga.

First of all, what is an online school. There are many different formats of distance education, including correspondence courses and online courses. The latter format allows students to complete their students complete online through the Internet. Students access all of the "...course information and assignments, submit and receive assignments online, participate in online discussions, and link to other online resources" (Mupinga, 2005, p.106). Basically, everything is completed via the Internet: learning, applications, and explorations.

For many students, online education is their only option when personal obligations prevent them from attending a traditional school from 8am -- 3pm. In today's world, many students must work to support their families, have their own children, or are geographically to far away from a school location to attend on a regular basis. the great flexibility of time is also a huge draw for many students and they are not required to log in to their virtual classroom at a specific time of day. One student may choose to work in his or her virtual classroom from 9am to 11am, while another may choose to work from 10pm to midnight. Student athletes, gifted students, and hospitalized students are also common groups of children who choose the online format due to personal situations in their own lives.

There are, however, also many challenges to an online school. Since there is no face-to-face time with an instructor, there are no consistent reminders of when assignments are do. Students must be self-motivated and self-directed to ensure that they are learning the material, keeping up with the course, and submitting assignments on time and with thoroughness. One of the biggest fears connected with online education is that greater numbers of students with special needs are enrolling and may miss out on important socializing opportunities, which is vital for every student. Many critics also worry that traditional schools will use online schools as a way to "...rid themselves of troublesome students" (Mupinga, 2005, p. 106),  from the classrooms.

What I personally found most interesting from this particular article is that online Advanced Placement (AP) courses are becoming wildly popular due to online students scoring higher on the AP tests than students in traditional classrooms. I will be teaching an AP World History starting in August (my first time teaching an AP course!) and I would have imagined the opposite in terms of success in AP. There is so much information to learn and for students to grasp in one school year that I would have imagined it to be more difficult to learn at the AP level online than it would in the classroom. On the other hand, however, AP students are traditionally hard-working, self-motivating, and self-reflective, which are all excellent traits for an online environment and typically spell out success. This is definitely something I will be continuing to watch while I teach my own kids in the classroom!

So what did you think? Are there more challenges than benefits to online education? Have you had any previous experience with online education, either as a student or a teacher?

Mupinga, Davison M  (2005). Distance Education in High Schools: Benefits, Challenges, and Suggestions. The Clearing House, vol. 78 (No. 78), pp. 105-108. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy2.library.arizona.edu/stable/30190031