The Negative Influence of Online Education at University

Internet has changed our life and social society completely. My concern with the internet is we now rely on online information too much, even our education system. The use of online education in our universities is becoming more and more common. I would like give my point view on online education and our education’s future. In my opinion if I say that online study will kill university life and education’s future, will you agree?

It is understandable Web-based education benefits more opportunities to the students who could regularly skip class for many reasons. However, there are many concerns that online education will have a negative influence on the quality of education at university level.

There seems to be many reasons that online education is common at universities. Supporters of online education make the point that it is necessary for students, who cannot attend regular to class, to be able to have the same opportunities to be educated in universities. Ok, but the quality of online education is not really effective and I am going to point out two issues about online education at university level: the quality of online education and the increasing working pressures on teachers.

The online education can impact negatively on students’ learning in general. Even though online students spend less time on study and take less responsibilities for being a student than full-time students, full-time students working hard through the year, might fail examinations. As well, online learning is only an adjunct to lectures, which has no repetition and stopping during the lectures. In addition, online students might have problems with understanding well. Moreover, there is no connection between teachers and students in online learning and it will be difficult for students to focus or stay online all the time. Therefore, students’ attendance cannot be controlled.  As a result online students will lose interest easily and stop or reduce attendance with online classes without any clear reason. Consequently, the quality of work deteriorates and this can impact negatively on the students’ attitude to learning in general.

The time, which teachers have to deliver online classes are limited. Teachers are expected to spend so much time on preparing online materials. For example, modifying online lectures and adapting a PowerPoint presentation for only two hours online class, which might cause teachers to prepare for a day or even more. Teachers have less time to spend with students in class and marking after class. The increasing work hours include marking online students’ homework and, more vexing for some academics, is the steady stream of emails from students who expect replies at all hours of the day and night. Teachers can sometimes receive hundreds of emails and many mobile phone calls a week. These will result in huge pressures on teachers so the time for teachers to deliver online classes are limited.

Overall, it is clear that online study has been creating problems from the point of view of the quality of online education at university level and increasing working hours for teachers. It is clear that a high quality of education is very important for universities and online education can have a negative influence on the quality of university education and kills university life in the long run!