Which is better, classroom or online learning? ComputerUser weighs the pros and cons of each.
Posted by : Joe DeRouen
If you ever took a telecourse in college, you know that
learning outside of the classroom can be a challenge. There are too many
distractions, and you're always tempted to put off doing the work until
the last minute. And yet, thousands of people are doing it every day.
For some people, training via the Internet can be just as effective, if
not more so, than attending a real-life, brick-and-mortar
classroom.
Of course, there are pros and cons to both methods of
training. Let's explore the advantages and disadvantages of both styles,
focusing not only on tangibles like cost and scheduling but also
intangibles such as motivation, your preferred style of learning, and
how likely you are to retain the knowledge once the class is
over.
Classroom training is usually more costly, requiring a staff
of highly paid instructors, fully equipped labs, and a full-time
administration to coordinate instructors, lab facilities, and scheduling
of students. Printed course materials (manuals, textbooks, etc.) are
expensive and often account for as much as 25 percent of the course
cost. No-shows (students that fail to show up for class) are also very
common and create additional costs in terms of scheduling overhead,
costs that are passed on to you in the form of higher tuition.
By
contrast, online-based training has very little overhead in terms of
personnel and required textbooks. Course materials are often
downloadable, and interaction with teachers and other students is
carried out via e-mail or live chats.
"Self-paced courses have
been an engaging, cost-effective way to help keep our IT employees
Cisco-certified," said Ingrid Fernandes, a corporate IT training manager
for Motorola in Schaumburg, Ill.
Online courses are often priced
as little as 60-70 percent of their classroom equivalents. Highly
motivated students who don't require a lot of teacher-to-student
interaction can often find courses that are even less expensive, perhaps
as low as 5-10 percent of the cost of a traditional classroom-based
course. And for a business with a budget, online training at even 50
percent of the cost of the classroom means you can train twice as many
employees for the money.
Advantage: Online
Training
In most instances, it takes a highly-motivated person
to get the full advantage of an online course. And let's face it: How
many of us would describe our selves as highly motivated? If no one is
standing over your shoulder making you do the work, well, there's
probably a good chance you'll keep putting it off until the last minute.
(I still regret that ill-fated American history course-on-tape I took in
college many years ago...) By contrast, the dichotomy of a classroom
dictates that you participate and learn lest you be left behind.
Most of us need that little extra kick in the pants--a promised
reward, bonus, promotion, or even simply public recognition--in order to
excel at what we do. Keeping up with your fellow students and impressing
your instructor are strong motivators, and it's far more difficult to
put off answering questions in a classroom than it is to avoid chats and
e-mails.
Advantage: Classroom Training
As the old
adage goes, time is money. And the more time you spend in a classroom,
the less time you'll have for working or spending time with your family.
It's much easier to fit online courses--which usually let you schedule
your own lessons--into your agenda. If your time is already limited, it
might be easier to tackle the lessons piecemeal rather than devote a set
block of time to a physical classroom.
Another plus to online
training is that you can work at your own pace. In a classroom, the pace
is dictated by the trainer and, to a lesser extent, the other students
taking the course. If you're already familiar with part of the training,
you can spend the time you'd normally spend in a classroom going over
material you already know on something more challenging.
Joseph
Reynolds, 37, a business analyst in Dallas, Texas, had been planning to
update his analytical skills for six months but, with a new baby and a
full-time work load, could never find the time.
"Someone finally
suggested an online course," Reynolds said, "and not only could I fit it
into my schedule, it was less than a third of the cost of the classroom
equivalent. I didn't miss a class--something that probably would have
happened in a normal classroom--and at the end of the training I felt I
had really improved my skills."
Advantage: Online
Training
Studies have long shown that students who interact
with their teachers and other students tend to retain more of the
knowledge than those who don't. By necessity, online learning is much
more solitary than is traditional classroom-based training and thus
lacks some of the necessary interaction required to remember what you
learn.
Courses that encourage trading e-mail and live chatting
between the student and instructor and other fellow students tend to do
better than those that don't, but there's really no substitute for
real-life, flesh-and-blood communication
Advantage: Classroom
Training
As you can see, both styles of learning have their
advantages and disadvantages. What works for one software engineer, for
example, might not work for another. Some people respond better to a
real-life classroom, while others are energized by the autonomy of
setting their own pace. If you're highly-motivated and function well
without supervision, online training might work best for you;
conversely, if you work better under supervision with a clearly defined
set of goals, the traditional classroom is probably your best bet.
In the final analysis, in the fight between online and classroom
learning, it's a draw.
Winner: You, for having choices.
Contributing Editor Joe DeRouen also writes Windows Advisor
monthly for ComputerUser.
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