Can school students learn better from the online courses as those advertisements claim? Are these the future of education where face-to-face classes will become obsolete and children can again complete their schooling without ever leaving their homes? Online tutorials are definitely convenient. Being autonomous, they can cover a wide range of topics as well which can lead to a certain level of personalization. But at no point should the thought process be that they can become perfect substitutes to schools. Children, despite having an abundance of information at their fingertips, cannot merely attend classes in fear of maintaining the minimum percentage of attendance.
So, are online tutorials helpful? Certainly. But can students skip classes and study the concepts from these resources? No. Today, online study materials must act as aiding entities to conventional schooling. They cannot replace schools. No matter how hard the internet tries to convince you otherwise, schools must still remain as primary centers of education. Face-to-face classes bring in that fringe but necessary elements into education that online courses can rarely achieve.
Online resources, no matter how informative, are monologues
And research around the world supporting schooling has shown that students need to engage in dialogue in order to learn better. It is for this reason that the best school in Sonepat apply inquiry-based education where students ask questions and teachers answer, peer-to-peer learning where the children learn from each other, and collaborative teaching where the students learn their subjects in a group, either by undertaking a project together or working with the same equipment in the laboratory. The social factor elevates knowledge consumption and retention. When discussions ensue, engagement with academics is better. Online tutorials are almost always one-direction. Students may learn up to a certain level from a computer screen but it can never match the depths face-to-face classes reach.
Plus, online tutorials lack discipline
When the children are still growing and figuring out what is good for them and what is not, they cannot thrive with full autonomy. The mere benefit of online tutorials where you can learn a subject any time you want can become a huge drawback for school-going students. The CBSE school in Sonepat maintains a stringent schedule for a reason. Here, classes have fixed timings, along with extra-curricular activities and recess. If these sessions become random with no set boundaries, growing children will find it difficult to prioritize their education. Thus, missing a class with the belief that the online tutorial will serve as backup seldom works. The mindset leads to unnecessary procrastination and often, complete neglect. Obviously, knowledge does not reach its intended levels and students suffer at the end of the day.
The chance of information overload always remains
Sometimes, sticking to the given syllabus can be advantageous. Going astray from the subject’s core theme can lead to information overload which ultimately leads to burnout. For instance, online tutorials take the opportunity of their autonomy to teach extra concepts to students. At first thought, this may seem beneficial to the children but soon enough, the overload of information that the students could have done without may very well leave them confused. Schools’ structures have been modified over the years to include only those subjects and topics that children of certain ages can consume. The extra complicacy is left for the advanced classes. Online tutorials try to overtake the schools by presenting a few things more, thereby ending up feeding students more than what they need to consume.
Online tutorials can rarely focus on skill development
Reading a chapter aloud in class enhances reading skills and comprehension. Asking a question to the teacher then and there leads to critical thinking and problem-solving. Verbally expressing an idea in front of other students boosts confidence and communication skills. And seeing a peer perform first-hand leads to higher ambitions and the zeal to work harder. When the mode of education becomes online, all these skill development opportunities immediately vanish. The students are left on their own to figure out which skills they exactly need to go forward and the competition is always with oneself that limits the overall growth. The top boarding schools in Sonepat focus on skill development inside their classes. Online tutorials can rarely replicate that model.
Understandably, good schools like Swarnprastha Public School discourage the idea of online tutorials totally replacing traditional schooling. However, SPS also understands the benefits that such technologies can have in education. Hence, in this school, a perfect blend of both forms exists. Instead of leaving the decision on the students, SPS brings the power of online tutorials and documentaries to its classes through smart boards, projectors, an internet-enabled library, and so on. Education has naturally evolved. And schools must adapt accordingly. The modern must coexist with the traditional and that is how the best of anything can come out.
