As many students across the world engage in online learning and shift away from being educated in the classroom, many parents remain skeptical as to whether learning online is more or less productive. As the world moves toward increasing use of technology, we all find ourselves more attached to our smartphones and thus peering into a screen to a greater extent than in the pre-smartphone era.

The shift that we are experiencing toward increased online learning has been a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but nonetheless has been slowly occurring pre-pandemic as advances in the technology space continues to abound. The rise of world-wide online learning over the last 10 months is a testament to the fact that the technology has been ready and waiting. However, veering away from the traditional in-class learning model presents challenges for working parents.

As the entire world adapts to the ‘new normal’ and parents and their children/students are spending more time at home, the reality is that online learning will continue to advance and be more fine-tuned to the lessons of 10 months’ worth of data collected on online learning at such a massive scale. The retention of material that students learn online is shown to be 25-60% more than in the classroom at only 8-10%, which suggests that online learning is a better method of learning. As material is presented to a student through online interactive whiteboard, they now have access to that material. They no longer have to take notes as in a traditional classroom, which often leads to a disconnect in understanding of the material through multitasking between listening and writing. Another benefit of online learning is that classes can easily be recorded through many video cloud platforms, which gives the opportunity to students to replay classes if a concept is forgotten or needs refreshing.

This large-scale experiment of online learning is an eye-opener for many parents and students who are doubtful of online learning’s benefits toward enhancing the academic experience. As technology continues to advance and more platforms geared toward streamlining the online learning experience emerge, more will embrace the online learning world and contribute toward a shift of improving the educational experience.

Source: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-global-covid19-online-digital-learning

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Christopher Atkinson is the CEO of Tutor Scholar and an alumnus of The University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry, physics and mathematics. He is the founder of the company, Tutor Scholar, which offers one-on-one tutoring to ensure students receive the best quality of learning.

www.tutorscholar.ca