Raksh*ta Kota · Follow
9 min read · Jun 26, 2020
In the face of globalization, technological change is happening all around us. With new forms of technology rapidly arising, our everyday life has become, so to speak, easier. However, is that necessarily equivalent to better? With this, arises the question: “Are online schools or traditional schools more effective?”. With new technology, children as young as two years old watch television for hours a day. This is more convenient, but is it better than playing outside in the park? With fancy smartphones, it’s easy to connect with family and friends, but is it better than meeting in person for coffee to talk? In the same way, online schools are rapidly gaining popularity in the modern world due to their convenience; however, the long standing traditional schools are more effective in that they offer face-to-face interaction, enforce life-long skills, and preserve the jobs of teachers and school administrators.
One reason why traditional schools serve as a better platform for academia than online schools is because they offer face-to-face interaction with peers and instructors. Face-to-face interaction that online schools fail to provide has a multitude of benefits such as stronger relationships, engagement and innovation. It’s more likely that a student in a traditional classroom setting will feel more comfortable with their peers and their instructor than a student in an online classroom. This will allow the student to be more inclined to ask questions in a traditional classroom than an online classroom, which leads to a better learning experience. These ideas were well represented by a series of studies done on the effectiveness of traditional schools in contrast of online schools. For example in a study conducted by Western University published both in the Harvard Business Review and Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, researchers Mahdi Roghanizad and Vanessa K. Bohns found that when a question was asked in person, a response was 34 more times likely than if the questions was asked via an email. In a follow-up study, the researchers found out that the difference was in the nonverbal clue, that were oblivious to the participants who asked the questions. Similarly, in second study done by an Australian University, a set of 67 students were given a written test, a class discussion, and a set of written exercises on two different academic topics. One topic was to be done online, and the other topic’s activities were done face-to-face. The result? The student participants very strongly preferred the face-to-face activities (ncbi.gov). Although no statistically significant differences were found between the test scores, eventually, the strong preference of face-to-face interaction of students will facilitate motivation to learn, whereas in online schooling, the student can wear out. This was again represented in another study (study #3) done by Georgia Southern University. Students from traditional schools and online schools that both learnt the same information were given two tests (Examination 1 and Final Exam) and their exam scores were compared. In Examination 1, online students had a mean accuracy of 67.5, while traditional students had a mean accuracy of 72.1. The results, unlike in the second study, show a statically significant (caused by something other than chance) difference of 4.1 points. In the Final Exam, online students had a mean accuracy of 56.6 while traditionally educated students had a mean accuracy of 59.9 points. Again, the difference of 3.3 is statistically significant, showing how the face-to-face interaction proves to be more effective in academic performance than online schooling. Consider a fourth study conducted in the Chicago high schools. Students who had failed their algebra class in Junior High were assigned randomly to either an online or a traditional (face-to-face) course for recovery. The results from the study were very clear: Students in the online algebra courses retained much less than those who interacted with an instructor in a classroom (nytimes.com). These students in the traditional classrooms also went on to be about two times as likely as students in online courses to take advanced math courses in high school. The results from these 4 separate studies all result in the same conclusion: traditional courses prove to be more effective as a mode of academic content delivery than online courses.
Another reason why traditional schools prove to be more effective than online schools is because in the long run, traditional schools are the ones that foster growth and life-long skills. For example, traditional schools enforce interpersonal development skills by requiring students to face and interact with peers on a day-to-day basis. This not only creates a skill for students, but leaves them being more ready for the outside world outside of college. In a typical workplace, teamwork, cooperation, and communication are key among many other skills needed. Traditional schools teach students to utilize these skills on a day-to-day basis without the students being aware. These life-long skills are crucial for the success of students in the working world. For example, recently, a seminar including 85 commercial businesses was held in Ireland. From these companies, leaders were questioned on which values they looked for when hiring. The two answers with the highest percentages (by a long shot) were communication and teamwork (owlcation). When students are required to interact with peers and instructors, they acquire the skills of teamwork and communication, the two most crucial competencies that companies look for in employers. Another example of a life-long skill enforced by traditional classrooms is that in a traditional classroom, students frequently are required to give presentations or speeches as well as work together with people with many different perspectives and viewpoints. On the other hand, online courses required almost none of that (owlcation.com). Proponents of online education argue that online education also fosters the development of lifelong skills such as collaborating and communication due to students participating in online discussions and engaging in digital conversations. While this is true, it is not as effective as traditionals schools because traditional schools encourage face-to-face communication and interaction. In the real world after college, while online communication in a needed skill to some extent, face-to-face communication is more of a necessity in the workplace. For example, a student needs to know how to be able to give a presentation at a meeting in person more than he/she does online. Furthermore, the issue of self-motivation also arises with online schools. With online schools, self-motivation is essential. With less competitiveness and no face-to-face interaction with an instructor to constantly remind students of upcoming due dates and tests, more responsibility falls on the student to be on top of things. While this can be a positive, in many cases, it ends up being a drawback because it causes the student to wear out quickly. However, in a traditional classroom, the student is more engaged in the course and therefore naturally has self motivation to learn the material and perform better academically.
A third reason why traditional schools are more better than online schools is because they preserve the jobs of current school teachers. With many new online platforms gaining popularity such as Edmodo, Khan Academy, TeachersPayTeachers, online Universities, etc, the fear of traditional school teachers losing their valuable jobs is a real and imminent threat. In Derek Thomas’ famous piece, “A World Without Work”, he continually emphasizes how the possibility of technology taking over jobs is a near future that will have negative consequences. Thomas states “Young people just coming onto the job market are also struggling — and by many measures have been for years. Six years into the recovery, the share of recent college grads who are “underemployed” (in jobs that historically haven’t required a degree) is still higher than it was in 2007 — or, for that matter, 2000.” The National Center for Education Statistics predicted 3.1 teachers in just the US that were in the public school system in the 2007–2008 school year. The total number of individuals employed as teachers, will be much much higher than that number. If teachers lose their jobs to online school, not only will they be at a loss, but also their students as well as their country due a sub-par education system. The results of many studies conducted indicates that traditional schools are associated will better academic performance than online schools. If online schools begin to replace traditional schools, the standard of education will decrease in the country, and ultimately result in generations of individuals with a deplorable education. Additionally, with the increasing use of online classrooms, many many more unemployed individuals, which can lower economic productivity in the United States. Many proponents of the online school system make the argument that school teachers are also needed to create content and maintain online schools. However, only a few teachers are needed for online schools to be able to reach out to millions of people. On the other hand, traditional school teachers have a limited class size that they can be able to impact. Therefore, taking away the jobs of teachers in traditional school due to online schools gaining popularity will cause an increase in unemployment and will likely decrease economic productivity and prosperity. However, measures can be taken to ensure teachers keeping their jobs even among the midst of rapidly growing online schools. For example, each teacher can be allotted a set of 20–30 students that he/she is responsible for throughout the school year. This way, the number of teachers does not decrease significantly and economic productivity in the country in minimally affected.
Online schooling is increasing rapidly in the modern digital world; however, traditional school still remain more effective because they offer face-to-face interaction, enforce life-long skills , and preserve the jobs of teachers and school administrators. Although certain counterarguments may rise such as lower costs and flexibility of schedules, the positives of traditional classroom learning clearly outweigh the positives of online classes. However, solutions can be created such as combining the two methods of learning. As stated by Richard Nixon in his Address to the Nation on Labor Day, “And we must make sure that technology does not dehumanize work, but makes it more creative and rewarding for the people who will operate the plants of the future.” It can be reasonably interpreted that online classrooms must not take over the jobs of traditional school teachers, but rather, make teaching more convenient and creative. This is already being done in many schools. For instance, many teachers are using digital material in their lessons such as youTube or online activities. However, more increasing effort should be put by America and other countries as a whole to preserve traditional schools or to incorporate digital aspects online education into traditional face-to-face schools. For instance, we should put in effort and we integrate the powerful forces of both traditional and online classrooms to fit the needs of the student. When traditional and online schools are combined, we can enhance engagement in material and ultimately increase academic performance in students.
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