The Paradox of Distance Education and Face-to-Face Courses

Zeyu Shan

301137100

ENSC 101

TA: Steve Whitmore

Oct. 11. 2012

The Paradox of Distance Education and Face-to-Face Courses

Introduction

In the modern educational environment, the phenomenon of online education is becoming increasingly popular. Due to the advances in the technology and easy availability of the required resources, students are no longer bound by the physical institutions to attain their education. Now students can simply turn on their computers and become a part of the virtual university (Godar & Ferris, 2004). Moreover, the online course has offered more flexibility to both instructors and students' schedule. There are numerous obvious advantages of online education, which has made the process of learning easy and accessible for almost everyone, there still remain certain reservations. The teachers and institutions have showed their concern regarding the quality of education provided through this medium, also the effectiveness of online courses as compared to the face to face environment of institutions. Students who attend school classes seem to have a higher retention rate than those who take online courses (Brown 2012). There is a credible case for both of the mediums of education, where certain advances are still required in the online courses to have the same effectiveness as the face to face class room environment (Yang et Al, 2011).

Regardless of the countless benefits that online education has brought to the students and the institutions, there are certain glaring flaws in the educational medium. The lack of communication between students can cause their enthusiasm regarding the courses to decline easily, hence causing the students to fall behind on their academic progress. Education dishonesty is also a serious problem, as online courses have next to none substantial measures to ensure that students do not cheat in the examinations. The traditional medium of education adequately alleviates such issues and allows the teachers to develop an ethical code of conduct in the class (Strike & Egan, 1978). The teachers due to the increased interactivity can halt the cheating instances among the students.

Quality of Education

The phenomenon of online course taking by students worldwide has increased exponentially in the modern era. The primary reason for this activity is the ease of access and the flexibility offered by virtual class rooms, where students are not bound to be physically present. The online courses allows student to control their own pace, which means they could spend more time on the subjects that they find difficult. The ease of access and practicality are not the only factors that determine the superiority of the educational medium. From 2007 to 2010, a research of comparing the grades of online classes and face-to-face class showed that, the grades of both types of classes are almost similar (Brown 2012). The researchers had a complex task of attaining the actual reasons for this situation, as both of the mediums provide a completely different type of education to the students. The relevant factors of the ease of cheating instances and the quality of grading and teachers for the online courses ...