7 Advantages of online courses

What are the Advantages of online courses? Online courses are generally cheaper than traditional classes, but their true value goes far beyond that. With the right online course, you can learn everything from programming to chess in the convenience of your own home or wherever your laptop can take you. Following are some of the many benefits of online courses and why this education method will continue to grow as more people discover how convenient and affordable it is.

Advantages of online courses

1. Quality

Many schools want to adopt online education to cut expenses and give them access to students they wouldn’t otherwise reach. But although online learning can be cheaper, it isn’t inherently better than traditional methods. It all depends on what kind of courses you offer, how you teach them, and who your audience is.

Traditional instructors have greater control over their materials but must deal with classrooms full of hundreds or thousands of people at once. With an online course, a professor has more flexibility in teaching content, and students can get more one-on-one attention.

2. Accessibility

College is expensive. But if you’re planning on picking up a course or two (or even just one!) for your self-development, there’s a lot to be said about taking them online. What do you get with an online course? Accessibility, flexibility, and independence are everything we as educators want to give our students.

You can decide when and where to study with online courses—as long as it’s during open enrollment periods! You won’t have to face traffic snarls and parking fees getting to class. And for those in a professional school or those who need to work full time, flexible scheduling is crucial: it takes the pressure off doctors looking to complete their residency programs, teachers who are already working hard in their classrooms, small business owners managing multiple projects at once, and parents raising kids around busy schedules.

3. Affordability

The only expense for online courses is internet service, which costs much less than tuition at a brick-and-mortar college. In some cases, students can earn credits and complete degree programs by taking free or low-cost online classes. If you are currently attending college, consider taking one or two classes from an accredited online university to reduce your expenses. Most colleges allow their current students to audit online courses for no credit; check with your advisor about options like these.

There’s Flexibility: While traditional schools often offer lots of flexibility in course scheduling, it’s not always convenient to get back into class every time there’s a problem with work or family schedules.

4. Flexibility

 Now, if your class doesn’t work with your schedule, you can miss it without a problem. If your boss needs you for an emergency, you don’t have to worry about it—just reschedule for later in the day or week. In many ways, learning online is much more flexible than attending traditional classes.

And by reducing your commute, you might even save some money! For these reasons and more, online education will likely become commonplace within our lifetimes. Technology is improving exponentially every year; soon enough, there will be no reason not to take advantage of all its benefits!

6. Forgiveness

Some online courses make taking a class outside your usual schedule easier. For instance, many online classes are on different schedules—like a once-weekly class instead of a normal two- or three-times-per-week class. This allows students to take classes with more flexibility in their busy schedules and can allow them to learn from some top-notch professors who might not teach on your campus otherwise. Sometimes getting into an A course is nearly impossible; there just aren’t enough seats available (you may have heard horror stories about Harvard’s infamous Statistics 101). When spots open up, you can jump at an A-level course that wasn’t available when your timetable was set.

Learning Styles and Personality Types

Other Advantages of online courses are to understanding your learning style and personality type can help you learn better and maximize your time and investment. Whether you’re an auditory, visual, kinesthetic, or tactile learner, you can leverage that knowledge to get more out of online classes. For example, if you tend to learn best when working on assignments individually at a time (as opposed to in groups), then online courses might be right for you.

By paying attention to how we work best—and then selecting activities that align with those strengths—we can create our systems for success. If we spend all of our energy fighting our inherent tendencies rather than trying to use them toward a positive outcome, we’ll never really move forward in life.

7. The Age of Mass Customization

The old model for educating students was to set a standard curriculum and force every student down that path. The problem is that each student has unique needs, strengths, and learning styles, meaning these one-size-fits-all classes just aren’t very effective. Online courses like Udemy or Udacity can tailor lessons to each student based on their specific skill level and learning style, making them a much more efficient use of time.

These platforms will also continue to improve as artificial intelligence advances—meaning they will be even better at customizing lessons and suggesting relevant materials in future years. Mass customization may seem intimidating when we look at huge online education companies like Lynda, but having an entire generation educated through these methods is well within reach.

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