Lan Yang, Ruotao Qiu Kristen Foster CO150.400 16 Dec.

2013 Dear students who are considering taking online classes: With the advent of online education, a very original and modern educational model, reception of it has been widely popular among qualification seekers. As we all know, our school also offers this kind of study, and many of you may have considered taking it. I have considered this too, in fact. Hence I did some research to study the issue of online education of college education in U.S throughout the previous weeks. Nonetheless, I found that most of us might be too optimistic about this educational system, and there are more detriments than benefits of it. I think you should think rationally to make the decision whether to take online courses or not. And Id like to explain more details about the shortcomings of this issue. In recent years, receiving online education instead of going to on-campus lecture has become a common phenomenon. According to a study conducted by The Sloan Consortium, there were more than 6.7 million college students taking online courses in 2012 in America, and the rate continues to increase. Though theres a significant number of students choose online learning, it doesnt mean its benefits have overcome the drawbacks. According to my research, distance learning could harm participators learning outcomes by its non-supervised studying environment, and the lack of interaction with faculty numbers. Additionally, online learning fails to provide its participators with competitive diplomas.

First of all, online learning requires a high degree of commitment and selfdiscipline from students, since it proceed in the absence of teachers or tutors. According to a study conducted in 2010, Kumar claims that online learning is more suitable for selfmotivated students instead of those who have difficulty in self-discipline and independent learning. For those who generally lack motivation and self-control, they may become distracted instead of paying attention on the lecture since theres no one supervise them. Their learning efforts tend to be disorganized, ineffective and fragmentary, which could also harm their learning outcomes. Moreover, the lack of in-person contact with faculty members could also be an obstacle to succeeding in online learning. I found a resourceful webpage of the University of Illinois, which delineates some pros and cons of online learning. They mentioned that students might get lost during major projects and exams since students cant meet the lecturers in person to get help. Besides students could find it difficult to put focus on completing their work since they have to wait for a long time before receiving feedbacks from teachers. These could prevent them from obtaining pertinent knowledge and skills to be competitive in hiring situations. Furthermore, online degrees may not as valuable as normal degrees earned in traditional school. Youngberg, a college professor suggested that might be because some online courses helped people get online degrees easily, causing these degrees to depreciate. I also found a national survey titled Understanding the Factors Limiting the Acceptability of Online Courses and Degrees conducted in 2008, which states that online degrees are less recognized than normal degrees in hiring situations, and some industries do not acknowledge online degrees. This suggests degrees earned online are

less competitive than normal degrees, and would set obstacles in its candidates future career paths. As indicated above, online learning brings more drawbacks than benefits because of its non-supervised studying environment and inadequate interaction with teachers. These would harm students learning outcomes. In addition, the less competitive degrees earned online would be an obstacle for them to apply for jobs in the future. Thus, I would advice those who are considering online classes or courses to reconsider and think if such a form of education is really suitable for you.

Lan Yang

Works Cited Adams, J. Understanding the Factors Limiting the Acceptability of Online Courses and Degrees. Flrida State University. 15 May 2008. Web. 10 Oct. 2013. Kumar, D. Pros and Cons of Online Education. North Carolina State University. 16 October 2010. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. The Sloan Consortium. Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States. The Sloan Consortium. 2012. Web.6 Oct. 2013. "Weaknesses of Online Learning" (2010). Illinois Online Network and the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Web. 20 Oct 2013. Youngberg, David. "Why Online Education Won't Replace College--Yet." Chronicle of Higher Education 58.44 (2012): 24. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Oct. 2013.