Which one is better: Online Study or Offline Study? – Pros & Cons

As technology has advanced, so too has the way we learn new skills. Thanks to the internet, those interested in expanding their knowledge and skills now have a wide range of options liable to them.

Learners can now want to take advantage of online, as well as offline, training. When it proceeds to Continuing Professional Development (CPD), there various are pros and cons to both online and offline learning. To assist you to choose which is better for your learners, below you’ll discover the key differences between them. Everyone’s different, we all have different backgrounds and study paces. Some study methods will be effective to some and to others not at all, we all live in various environments and don’t all have the same way to education.

Online Learning vs Offline Learning

The chief difference between online and offline learning is location. By offline learning, learners are needed to travel to the training location, a lecture hall, college, or classroom, etc. By online learning, on the other hand, the training can be handled from almost anywhere in the world. Participants need to log in to the internet from their home, work, or even their local coffee shop.

Another difference is the flexibility offered. Online learning usually has a more flexible timescale. As a teacher, you can offer your support via email or by an online chat system. Offline learning is typically provided between office hours and doesn’t give as much flexibility to the learner or the trainer.

Besides these two differences, the benefits of learning online or offline are almost the same. Online eligibility is just as universally recognized as offline ones and the models of learning are also identical.

Online Learning

Online learning is education that takes place over the internet. It’s typically observed as “e-learning” among different terms. However, online learning is simply one type of “distance learning” the umbrella term for any learning that takes place across distance and not in an exceedingly traditional classroom.

Pros of Online Study

Below are the pros of the online study are:

1. Career advancement and hobbies

Studying online gives you more flexibility. You can work and provide your work schedule around your coursework more easily. Even more than if you are getting an asynchronous class. An online class where you don’t have to log in at a specific time for a live session but you can study and communicate with your teacher and your classmates at your own pace.

In a survey conducted by The Learning House, 44 percent of online students reported changes in their employment status, for example by getting a full-time job within 12 months of graduation, and 45 percent listed a salary increase.

By the time you finish your online course, you will have got more work experience and learned new skills that will aid you to advance in your career!

2. Flexible schedule and environment

By studying online, you want your own learning environment that serves best for your needs: be it your bedroom, your study, the café across the street, or your local gym, listening to your teacher’s lecture podcast as you run on the treadmill is great.

Taking an online course also implies that you don’t have to travel to class, which means less time spent on the bus and more study time sitting on your couch. You no longer have to bother driving in the snowstorm and missing an important class.

3. Lower costs and debts

Studying online means that you pay the tuition fee, apparently book supplies, an online application fee, and a few other items. You don’t, but, acquire the costs of housing not much and transportation, which translates to lower debts and more savings.

4. Self-discipline and responsibility

Having to be more self-disciplined is a disadvantage. Studying online requires more self-motivation and time-management skills because you will pay a lot of time on your own without someone physically close to keep you focused on deadlines. This way your online course will not only guide you in geology etc, but it will also help you become more self-motivated, a feature that will give you stand out in the workplace and away. It will look great on your résumé.

5. More choice of course topics

Let’s overlook it when thinking about what to study, besides for interest and career opportunities, where to study is also a deciding factor. This may restrict the choice of subjects to take. Studying online at your own leisure enables you to no longer worry about class location when deciding what to learn next. By taking an online course, you can really concentrate on the subject you are interested in and select from the variety of online courses and programs. 

Certainly, students who have children or elderly parents to take care of will get it difficult to drop everything and serve courses in person. Online courses give a wonderful alternative to those with responsibilities.

Cons of Online Study

Some of the disadvantages of online study are as follows:

1. Requires Personal Discipline

Staying motivated and keeping up with assignments may show more difficult for online pupils than for those attending traditional classes. It is important for students attending online classes to be on top of their time management skills.

2. Diminished social interaction

When you visualize a traditional classroom, lively group discussion, and students raising their hands to ask the instructor questions convincing comes to mind. Admittedly, these moments do not occur as naturally in online learning. For some individuals, these live interactions are a must to bring the material to life. But, it is feasible to bring more social interaction to online learning through competition, scheduled Questions & Answer sessions with an instructor, and discussion channels.

3. Not fit for every topic

As the heading suggests online study is not suitable for every topic as some complex topics, operative techniques, and practices for certain require a physical environment. As these are best conducted in person, for example, would you rather learn how to fly an aeroplane online or offline the answer to that is the majority of people would prefer to learn it on an offline basis and learn how to fly it? Yet the more repeated topics in a high turnover environment lend themselves naturally to online study.

4. Lack of practice-based learning

Online learning is oftentimes based on theory and lacks the practice-based study. Therefore, the online study lacks practical knowledge based on hands-on attempts and different tasks. For example, online learning would be a great tool to learn the theory-based side of any sport, like its history, rules of the game, etc. However, it cannot be used to transfer practical knowledge because for that we have to visit the field and understand the environment of the sport like the stadium cricket, fields for hockey, football, etc. Hence it is important to note that e-learning cannot replace the knowledge that comes with working experience in the actual field.

5. Dependence on technology

Technology has driven the popularity of online study by being adopted by the younger generation. But with time we are highly dependent on online study or you can say technology. According to a report, 26% of adults don’t know how to use computers so it makes it difficult for those who study online who don't know how to use computers.

Offline Learning

In the machine learning world, offline learning refers to things wherever the program isn’t in operation and taking in new info in real-time. Instead, it’s a static set of the input files. the other is online learning, wherever the machine learning program is functioning in real-time on information that comes in.

Pros of Offline Study

Some of the advantages of offline study are as follows:

• Through the offline study, the teacher will be able to understand if each student is getting the point correctly by asking them to do activities related to the work.
• The other advantage of the offline study is that it helps the students to clear their doubts and clarify their mistakes when a particular subject is taught at the same time. Whereas, for online study mostly lectures are pre-recorded so it makes it difficult for students to query their doubts.
• During an offline study in schools and colleges, the entire class time is dedicated to teaching and learning.
• Offline classes are also available to those who do not have proper internet connections or to those who do not have any smartphones as most of the students don’t have either of them.
• There is much scope for social interaction among students due to face-to-face recognition.
• Offline classes provide a large range of scope with classroom discussions, debates, etc.
• As it will help to broaden students’ understanding of what is being taught in class and can have references on a different perspective on the topics discussed in class or schools.
• The face-to-face teaching can help the teachers to understand the body language of students as if the students are interested in topics or are the teachers keeping students interested in the class and it can be possible through offline study only.
• The most important use of offline study is in dance and physical exercises as the teacher need to check the student whether they are correctly doing the exercises or not. Doing the exercises in the wrong way can lead to physical injury and will not bring about the desired result.

Cons of Offline study

Some of the disadvantages of offline study are as follows:

• It is not entirely an independent way of learning.
• The other disadvantage of offline study is that the students are overly dependent on teachers for every detail.
• The offline study is a little bit expensive as compared to online study due to the travel and accommodation expenses and many more, if the student is coming from a place where there is no school or institution or if they are far away.
• The learning can only occur between the school timing as it is restricted to fixed timing.
• Chances of searching more and finding new things out for themselves from the students is limited.
• It is also not suitable for those who are introverts as they prefer being themselves and avoid being social or interacting with others.

Conclusion

As stated above both online and offline study has their benefits and shortcomings. And that is why an education system, including both forms of study, can indeed create a compelling education in society. As nowadays new technologies are easily accessible to the young generation which can be used for the more visual and interactive studies. But still, some prefer offline study over online studies as it only depends on the understanding power of students and which method they prefer the most.

Also Read: Should Students get Limited Access to the Internet?

Online vs Offline Study – FAQs

Q1. What is the advantage of offline study?
Ans. The main advantage of the offline study is that it has developed more understanding methods as compared to online study. The combination of teachers and students present in class provides comfortable ability to understand the topic in a better way.

Q2. Is Online just as efficient as Offline Learning?
Ans. There is no exact answer to the efficiency of offline or online as to which is more efficient.

As the efficiency of offline and online learning highly depends on the understanding of the students or the motivation and drive to succeed.

Q3. Which study is better online or offline?
Ans. As every person’s situation is different, so it is tough to answer whether online study is better or offline study is better. But still one prefers a type of learning based on their need and availability. For example, if you have a training center nearby and you prefer traveling and like the thought of studying in the classroom then offline study is the best option for you. But if you prefer to stay at home or you don’t have time to visit the college or institutes than online study is the one good option for you.

Q4. What is the benefit of online study?
Ans. The main benefit of online study is the flexibility of time as online classes have huge flexibility of time that impacts both the students and teachers. Due to this, they can choose a suitable time according to their criteria.