By CALEB ALEXANDER
Sheridan High School Student
The Sheridan Student Column is brought to readers by Sheridan High School’s 10th grade English class, taught by Abby Williams.
Nearly 70 percent of students agree that online classes are better than traditional classes in a study done by the University of Potomac. Nowadays, students are starting to trend toward online classes, instead of going to school in person.
A statistic from the Higher Ed Partners website reveals that since 2020, around 98 percent of universities have moved to, or incorporated, online classes. Another statistic, from the Forbes website, states that about 77 percent of academic leaders believe that online classes are equivalent to, or more superior, to learning than traditional classes are. After reading these stats about how many students prefer online classes over traditional classes, it is clear that the age of getting up early for school from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. is coming to an end.
Firstly, some pros to this new age of online learning:
One pro to online learning is that people who learn online use 87 percent less energy and 85 percent less CO2 emissions, from the Open University in Britain. So, all in all, this is saying that online learning supposedly led to less energy usage and reduced carbon footprint; therefore, resulting in more energy and clearer air for us to breathe.
Another pro would be more time with families. The Brandon-Hall Group states that online classes take 40 to 60 percent less time than traditional classes. This reveals that online classes would allow students to work for far less than eight consecutive hours a day and have more time to spend with their families.
One additional pro is from the Education Data Initiative stating that online degrees cost nearly $10,000 less than traditional college campus degrees. This would help students worry less about paying back student loans and focusing mainly on getting a degree.
Next, some cons to online education:
If all schools and colleges did online learning instead of traditional in-person classes, this would lead to many adults without jobs and having to find new careers. This would also leave all the school buildings still standing which would need to be demolished or converted into something else.
Another con is that online learning requires discipline that students would need to show and put into effect to get the most out of online learning and not take advantage of it. Online learning could make students feel isolated and left out; this would also be a problem with online learning as it could raise the number of students who can’t do their work because they’re sad and depressed.
Overall, online learning is starting to take over the way we go to school. Instead of going to school in-person, students are now wanting to stay home and do school work online. Online learning does conserve energy, lowers CO2 emissions, takes less time to complete, and lastly costs far less to get a degree than traditional classes. In contrast, online learning does leave many teachers and workers in the school building without jobs as well as causing the students to feel isolated.
I personally feel that maybe the government should consider switching schools to online learning instead of traditional in-person classes.