Online Learning: The Future Style of Learning?

Ah yes, it is 6 a.m. in the morning. Your annoying alarm clock signals the end of your wonderful dream, creating a massive upward push to force yourself up and go to school. You regrettably stood up beside your bed, stretched your arms without any enthusiasm and went straight to your bathroom. This vicious cycle had been tormenting you for the past 10 years, but a thought suddenly flashes across your mind, “Oh wait, I just remembered that my school is only 2 meters away from me; my laptop! That means I can sleep for another hour!” Since this brilliant online learning concept came about, you started to enjoy your good night’s sleep. You do not have to worry about waking up at 6 a.m. because you can wake up at 7 a.m.; there is no need to travel to school because your school is right beside you! But the question is, is this the ideal style of learning? 

Let’s have a fair point of view. Imagine it. Last time, you were sitting on your chair in a lecture hall full of people, with your textbooks and stationery placed neatly on top of your desk, and you were actively listening to your teacher. Then Covid-19 happened and now you are lying on your bed with your laptop in front of you and you are listening to the same teacher on the screen. “Well I am more comfortable now; I am lying in my bed!” For people who just experienced online learning for some time, they enjoyed it. It gives them freedom and it saves their time. But the more they got exposed to it, the more they start to develop bad habits. What do I mean by bad habits? Let me tell you my experience using online learning, and how it can be bad or good for you.

Let’s talk about the good stuff first. Online learning saves your morning time. Usually when you just wake up, you really don’t feel like going anywhere beyond your room. With a laptop on your table and a good Wi-Fi connection, you already can greet good morning to your teacher. Online learning is also accessible and very comfortable to use. Physical presence is no longer important because you can be anywhere you are comfortable at. And lastly, it allows you to meet people no matter where they are, again because of the unimportance of physical presence.

Now, the good stuffs sound nice, but the bad stuffs are something to take note of; and this may only happen to people who are constantly exposed to this type of learning. As a university student, online learning has become a day to day activity since Covid-19 outbreak. Initially, I enjoyed online learning as I felt the convenience of it. But as time goes by, I started to feel lazier. Somehow, I do not feel enthusiastic when I am doing things and I feel tired easily. Remember the upward force from the alarm clock that used to push me up every morning? It is not effective anymore. I do not feel the urgency to wake up to attend class. If this kind of bad habit continues, I will not feel the urgency to wake up every day to do my daily activities. Moreover, the sense of being inside a class disappeared. The session seems to be just between me and the lecturer on the screen and there are less interactions than if it were a physical class. The worst part is, you cannot interact well with your best friends.

So, how does online learning stand? Does it have a place in the future? In my opinion, of course it still does. It will be impossible to not have online learning, especially after what we have just experienced from the pandemic. To give a fair stance, online learning is great if you do not develop the bad habits of it. Some people perform better with online learning while others like me do not, and this is not a surprise because everyone learns things differently. A mixture of both online and offline learning will be perfect as it allows you to learn at your own convenience as well as meeting up and interact with other people when you need to. That is why here in Odazzit, we provide lessons that are both online and offline depending on what subjects you want to take. We believe that learning must be fun and interactive whether it is online or not.

Just like the quote from Alfred Mercier “What we learn with pleasure we never forget”.

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Blog by Leonardo S.