Good Should College Students Take Online Classes? Research Paper Example

In China, despite the advancement in technology in the country, not many students prefer to take online classes. The adoption of online classes among many students in China has been due to lack of awareness of the benefits that online classes have over the traditional classes. Therefore, high adoption rates of online classes can be recorded once awareness is created about the benefits of taking online classes. Many students prefer taking traditional classes, whereby one is expected to sit in a class, listen to a lecture and take notes. On the other hand, online classes involve one taking online classes, where one interacts with a tutor in an online platform, where notes are sent online and assignments are completed online. It is the high time that Chinese college students start taking advantage of online classes. Many of the students need to understand that there are many benefits that are associated with online classes compared to one attending traditional classes. However, despite online classes having numerous benefits, they also have their own disadvantages. In spite of the limitations associated with online classes, it is important for Chinese college students to embrace the concept of online classes, given they are better than traditional classes.
Traditional classes have been there over the years, it involves one attending to lectures physically. Traditional classes require one to take notes from a lecturer and to undertake assignments that in most cases are handed in physically. In a traditional class, a student gets an opportunity to interact with the lecturer and other students in a class (Barrett 18). On the other hand, students end up paying high fees in order to cater for accommodation and other tuition expenses while in college. In traditional classes, students get an opportunity to form groups and gain important life skills such as social skills and teamwork skills that are critical when it comes to their future success in their respective places of work. They also get an opportunity to get to know each other and engage in non-academic activities that help in building strong bonds among them.
However, the online classes have been introduced recently with the advancement of computer technology, especially computer interfaces, whereby people can be able to interact using computers. As a result, many colleges around the globe have introduced the model of offering various courses online. In an online class a student is supposed to register for a program online and does not have to attend any class physically. He or she interacts with the tutor online, and undertake exams using various online platforms. Therefore, one does not have to incur huge costs in terms of accommodation as one can take an online class from home or place of work.
There are many benefits that are usually associated with the Chinese students that usually take the online courses. To start with, there is the issue of the various programs and course that are offered in online learning. The Chinese students can be able to access and learn all the courses of their choice in any of the university of choice that is offering the courses. This has replaced the traditional four-years schooling system. All the courses of their choice are readily available and every academic degree starting from the lowest, that is from the certificate to the doctorate degree the Chinese students have been able to learn and get the honors. Secondly, the Chinese students will greatly benefit from the online classes, because of the lower total cost that is incurred when undertaking online classes (Grandon, Khaled and Obyung 52). The traditional universities and colleges are more expensive than the online programs and this is a great benefit for the Chinese students. In the online learning, the Chinese students do not get to incur the transport cost of attending the lectures and also the course materials such as the textbooks are not usually very necessary for them because these books are usually readily accessible to them and also free online. Essentially, these free online programs have really helped the Chinese students to be able to attain their dreams at a much lower cost.
Another benefit that the Chinese students will enjoy from the online programs is a more comfortable and also serene environment to do their studies. The Chinese students will be able to enjoy the benefit of taking their programs even when they are in their pajamas. Since there are no physical classes or lecturers that are reproaching them because all the learning materials are usually sent electronically. They are able to carry out their daily routines as normal because and also get to be with their families.
Convenience as well as flexibility is another benefit that the Chinese students will get from taking on the online programs. The Chinese students always get the opportunity to do a planning for their own time. They can be able to do their studies at any time they want instead of having a time planned for when they should attend their lectures. The Chinese students will get the privilege of taking their studies when they are at the peak energies, whether at late night or very early in the morning; thus, making the online programs to be very convenient for them.
On the other hand, the students taking the online programs usually do not have to get time to go to the library because all the learning materials they require are accessible online. The Chinese students who have families will be able to balance their studies with the family commitments. Career advancement is another benefit that the Chinese students get from partaking on the online programs. This gives a very good chance to the students who are working and they still want to carry on with their studies without necessarily leaving their current jobs. This is a great benefit to these students because they are able to also boost their selves in the places of work and earn credit before their employers as ambitious workers that are very much ready to remain informed and also be very much alert of any problems or challenges that might come up even in their line of career. This has earned the Chinese students that are working while studying some promotions in their places of work.
Finally, the Chinese students will greatly benefit from the online programs because they have a great platform for more interaction and also a greater ability to concentrate (Nagel, Seugnet and Johannes 40). The online classes will offer the Chinese students a platform in which they can be able to carry out all their discussions and also chat with a lot of ease as compared to the face to face discussions where one person usually end ups to dominate over the other students. Additionally, in these online classes, the students have been proven to have more concentration as compared to the physical classroom learning where the students are usually often distracted by their fellow students.
However, despite the many benefits that the Chinese students will enjoy from the online classes, there are some challenges that relate to online classes. To start with, the Chinese students will lack the interaction that is usually present among peers when they are classmates in a traditional class (Anderson 20). They will lack the healthy competition and motivation that is usually present in normal physical classroom learning environment. Some things that usually boost the interactions such as the discussion groups, the exchange of notes is not present in the online classes and this will be a great challenge for the Chinese students because they really miss out on what other students in the normal learning usually enjoy most while they are studying. In the online courses, the Chinese students are likely to face the challenge of feeling isolated from the others, and they can also feel depressed because there is nobody to share with their feelings. Interacting with others during the learning process is important as it helps the student to gain social skills and other important skills that are critical in surviving in todays world. Primarily, interacting with other students gives a student an opportunity to share about various issues that are disturbing him or her with classmates, something that is not present in an online class.
Another challenge is that the Chinese students may lack the sense of discipline that is experienced by the normal learning students. The regular test and also assignments that are usually subjected to the regular students usually form a very important part in the educational lives of the students studying online. However, the Chinese students taking the online programs usually do not have someone to monitor these tests and also the assignments whether they are completing them and doing them in the proper way (El Mansour and Davison 242). The issue of the students cheating during the online tests by peeping in the online books and resources is very high, and unless there is very strict discipline, then this issue can be very much overpowering. In most cases, students undertaking online classes end up cheating in their exams, as they have the ability to use various applications to find for answers to the test questions, which is not the case in a traditional class. Hence, they end up getting certificate for program for which they cheated in exams due to lack of proper mechanism in place to monitor the way the student is undertaking his or her exams.
Finally, there is the challenge of procrastination among the Chinese students taking the online programs (Thompson and Heng 32). The students are out to feel that they have more time to carry out their studies and they end up taking the time for studies to do their own business. This greatly affects the quality of the education that the online students and mostly Chinese students might end up getting.The quality of higher education is critical when it comes to enabling the students to handle various tasks that they will be given in their places of work in the future. Therefore, undertaking an online class at times will not offer a student with an opportunity needed in order to gain teamwork skills, that is crucial in today’s job market.
In conclusion, it is evident that there are a number of benefits that are associated with undertaking online classes compared to traditional classes. Online classes play a critical role in reducing the high cost of college education, thereby enabling students from poor backgrounds to have access to college education. It also enables a student to access education from any place without one having to physically go to a class. Even though, online classes have numerous benefits, they also have some limitations, such as lack of interaction with other students and tutors physically. Nevertheless, online classes carry more benefits nowadays, and it would be encouragable for the Chinese college students to start taking online classes instead of traditional classes.

Works Cited

Anderson, Terry. "Towards a theory of online learning." Theory and practice of online learning 2 (2008): 15-44.
Barrett, Bob. "Virtual teaching and strategies: Transitioning from teaching traditional classes to online classes." Contemporary Issues in Education Research (CIER) 3.12 (2011): 17-20.
El Mansour, Bassou, and Davison M. Mupinga. "Students' positive and negative experiences in hybrid and online classes." College student journal 41.1 (2007): 242.
Grandon, Elizabeth E., Khaled Alshare, and Obyung Kwun. "Factors influencing student intention to adopt online classes: A cross-cultural study." Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges 20.4 (2005): 46-56.
Nagel, Lynette, A. Seugnet Blignaut, and Johannes C. Cronjé. "Read-only participants: A case for student communication in online classes." Interactive Learning Environments 17.1 (2009): 37-51.
Thompson, Ling, and Heng‐Yu Ku. "Chinese graduate students' experiences and attitudes toward online learning." Educational media international 42.1 (2005): 33-47.