Schools across the world are increasingly either considering or moving to the online mode of operation. That’s mostly because they see the benefits of online education for both the schools and its staff, as well as the students themselves. For instance, 86% of online students believe that their degree is entirely cost-worthy. As for schools, they appreciate the flexibility that online studying has. They can offer courses to students of all ages and make them appealing to a larger number of people.

However, there’s more to it than that. Let’s take a look at all the major pros and cons of online education:

The Pros of Online Education

• Studying online is flexible for everyone involved – the schools can prepare the programs in advance, and students can take each course when it suits them.

• Online education is available to everyone, despite their physical location – this means that students across the globe can apply. More importantly, the school offering online education can have a much larger target market and potential higher enrollment numbers.

• Cost-effectiveness – online education is cheaper for schools as they have fewer logistical problems and don’t provide physical classrooms and campuses. It’s also less expensive for students as they don’t have to spend money on fuel, certain books, and much more.

• Online studies are easy to access – many students appreciate the fact that studying remotely means that they can access the courses and all related study material with great ease.

The Cons of Online Education

• The quality of the studies is uncertain – even though it’s becoming more and more popular, studying remotely is not always the best solution as not all programs are of the same quality. There are plenty of schools with questionable quality, which can ruin the reputation of those who do care about the quality of their studies.  

• Not enough feedback and attention to students – one of the main problems of online education is that there isn’t enough feedback from teachers and personalized attention to students.

• A lower variety of available courses – online education is still in its infancy, which unfortunately means that there aren’t enough programs available. This might also be a pro for schools who are ready to start courses that are not already available in an online form.

Key Takeaways

In essence, online education has many pros and cons. The quality and convenience of online studies depend on the school and the student, as well as what is most important to each of them.

For some students, studying remotely is great, but for others, it is less appealing as they are more interested in the interactivity and social connection traditional colleges offer. Whatever the case may be, it’s still better for schools to offer online education in addition to their traditional courses. All of that being said, it is undeniably an emerging market that’s here to stay and improve.

Whatever you choose to do with your institution, it’s vital to have organized and updated student contact data. RunnerEDQ offers the right software for this so you can focus more on providing your students with knowledge and value.