Elearning: A Balanced Assessment Elearning

Before the Internet, if we wanted to find out information on a topic, we would have to check out a book and weed through information we didn't necessarily need or want. In this modern age, information is a Google search away. If someone wants to know how the Civil War started, all they have to do is type it into the search box. This saves time and money. Another modern change is how we take classes. For years we have taken traditional classes that have worked for us, but now there is a new trend, online learning. Online courses are more cost effective, a better environment in which to learn, and more time flexible than traditional learning.

A student runs into a lot of different costs because of a traditional class. One of the largest is the gas bill to and from school every day. With an online class, there is no gas bill. The classroom is your home or other place you choose to do your classwork. While Internet connectivity may cost a montly fee at home, this is far less than gas for many students, and a computer is far cheaper than a car and insurance. Another financial burden is class fees. My nephew attends a local community college and he had to pay almost 500 dollars in class fees this semester alone. There are no fees for online classes. There is no grass fee, or student lounge fee, there is only tuition and books. Cost effectiveness is only one of the many reasons to go online.

Some people say that the main reason that the traditional classroom setting is better is because you are actually talking with a real person, and can ask them questions if you don't understand something. Research has shown online learning may be more appropriate...

734). While this may be true, you are still dealing with a real person online. You can ask a question via email and they will get back to you. Normore and Blaylock (2011) found that many students are limited by communication anxiety in both brick-and-mortar and online modes (208), but an online class may have a better learning environment because it eliminates class room politics if teachers pick favorites, group projects go wrong, and students distract each other during lectures. All these faults are bypassed with an online class. Also at home the online student can have the room temperature set at what is comfortable to them. Traditional students have been known to sit in a freezing classroom or a classroom that is too hot. A student can be 100% focused on their education, and the teacher can be 100% focused on teaching.
Another reason is flexibility of time. For a student who is going to traditional school, he has to go every day at 9:30 in the morning to listen to the lecture. This causes his schedule to be rigid and harder to work around. In an online class, the student decides when to work. Say the student has a full-time job. He can't do school work during normal day hours because of work. So he does his school in the evening instead. The flexibility of time in an online class is an undeniable advantage in the ever-changing world of education.

Of course any thorough analysis must consider arguments against, if any. The Futurist, for example, touts the "gamification" of classes into social role-playing and other types of online games, citing Thomas and Brown (self-published on CreateSpace, 2011, qtd.…