Disadvantages of Online Learning

Vinh Nguyen

Although there are some benefits of online education, there are several disadvantages such as discipline and time management, lack of interactions with the professor, isolation from students, and difficulties in transferring credit according to this article. These disadvantages can be the downfall of many students who seek out an online degree.
Since studying on a computer or laptop can be very distracting, especially with social networks such as MySpace or Facebook, one really needs to be self-disciplined to complete online education. Otherwise, all it would take is a message saying," Hello" from a friend and one can lose his or her focus on the tasks or lectures. Moreover since one can choose whenever he or she wants to study, he or she one must be able to manage his or her time well because if one procrastinates, the chance of catching up is minimal, resulting in withdrawals or dropping out.
The second disadvantage of online learning is its inconvenience, especially when one has questions that need to be answered right away. Because one can only talk or communicate via forums, it can take quite a long time to get a response from a professor or online friends. On the other hand, for instance, if one has a question, he or she can just go to recitation sessions to get the answers.
Last but not least, not all credits will be transferred. Thus, one must contact his or her own institution to assure if his or her classes' credits will count when it comes to transferring online courses into future study programs.
In conclusion, online learning can be beneficial but nothing comes without disadvantages. Therefore, one must consider whether online learning is for him or her. Otherwise, one will just lose money instead of saving money and waste his or her time seeking an online degree.