Distance learning has become quite popular now.

It’s because students want to work and study at the same time. When they enrol for a distance learning course, students can access online lectures anytime. They can study after taking time out from their busy schedules. Even the exams are held online and students can schedule the tests at any time of the day. Although the schools and universities are shut down to the Covid19 pandemic, there will be offline teaching once they open again soon. So, is it worthwhile for students to attend regular classes while they can enjoy the privileges of distance education?

Need for distance education

Distance education is getting popular because people are always trying to adapt to the changing needs of jobs. They sometimes have to work in two jobs. The socio-economic changes like inflation and a want for a better standing in society economically require people to increase their skills. Companies also want people who are multi-skilled to save costs. So, that’s why pursuing a Master’s degree or part-time courses like graphic designing through distance education has become popular. Someone who is just having a normal bachelor’s degree can’t survive without having some practical skills. Companies want someone skilled, skills that can’t be imbibed through traditional academic courses and hence pursuing distance learning with a job is needed. People are also willing to take time out to study after the job.

Benefits of distance education

Distance education can’t replace regular education because many things can’t be taught online.

Some of the advantages of distance learning are:

Large availability of courses

Anyone pursuing distance education knows that they have access to a huge plethora of courses. Distance learning based on MOOC’s has evolved and there are so many courses on the anvil for prospective students. The best part is that these courses are suited to the emerging needs of students. On the other hand, the curriculum of such courses gets revised quite often, as compared to regular learning where it stays the same year after year. So, since the universities don’t introduce new courses quite often, students can rely on regular education to fulfil their hunger for knowledge.

Also, the availability of lecturers is much more in distance learning which explains such wide availability of courses. It’s because the lecturers just have to record the lectures. They don’t have to handle a large number of students. This makes it easy for them. They don’t have to come and give a lecture at a specified time.

Also, the lectures can be much more comprehensive due to the use of online learning material and technologies.

Lesser time and money

Since the students don’t need to commute to the university to study, they can save a lot of time and commuting expenses.

But a disadvantage with such courses is that there are no regular assessments. The teachers don’t know how much a student is studying daily because they don’t interact with him in classes unlike in regular learning.

So, it’s upto a student to choose distance learning or regular learning.