Effects That Online Education Has on Students

¶ … Online Education Has on Students

The potential of an entirely virtual or online educational platform has many advantages over traditional in-class teaching, as the former can be aligned more accurately to students' needs. The effects of online education on students continue to show potential in math and science disciplines that require continual reinforcement of complex concepts through practice and problem solving (Calafiore, Damianov, 2011). Using online applications and platforms, complex concepts can be simplified and broken down for ease of learning. The intent of this analysis is to evaluate the effect that online education has on students.

Analysis Of The Effects That Online Education Has On Students

The most significant effect that online education has on students ins the ability to tailor complex concepts into relatively simpler frameworks for ease of analysis, reputation and learning by students. The cause-and-effect of using these frameworks and repetitive approaches to simplifying complex learning has shown to increase scores in math and science subjects significantly. Interactivity during the learning process provides a greater sense of mastery and control over the learning environment, giving students greater confidence in their overall learning experience (Liza, 2007). Time spent with interactive applications also increases concept and contextual recognition and retention over time, further aiding long-term learning in the process (Calafiore, Damianov, 2011). Online learning can positively effect students and provide them with the necessary tools and applications to continually learn new concepts, equations and frameworks at their own pace, thereby increasing their mastery of specific subject areas.

The second impact that online learning has is that it often requires students to learn how to collaborative virtually together. This is becoming an increasingly important skill set for knowledge workers globally, who often must collaborate with each other often and over long distances for a project to be completed or goal achieved. The use of virtual learning platforms as a means to create a highly collaborative experience is critical for students to gain mastery of this skill set (Calafiore, Damianov, 2011).

The final advantage of using a virtual leaning platform and engaging in online learning is the very positive effect it has on a student when their own individual learning plan is delivered entirely online. Called scaffolding, the use of a learning platform to design custom-tailored learning programs has proven to be highly effective in giving students the best possible balance of areas they need to strengthen, and those they can accelerate towards mastery of as well (Najjar, 2008). Scaffolding is critical for the success of online learning programs.