Advantages and challenges of online education – what can we bring for future?

Background from the survey

The questions asking about the positives and the negatives of the distance form of the education were frequently skipped by the teachers, but not by the students. Some of the respondents in both groups expressed in these questions that they do not see any positives or that they prefer contact teaching/learning. In fact, the in-person form of education is preferred by major part of both students and teachers. However, due to the pandemic there is often no other way than the online substitution and it should be done as best as possible. The responses of students showed that 52% of them rate the online education worse or much worse than in the full-time form of education. This number is quite high and there definitely is a potential to decrease it by better organisation of online education.

The list of advantages of the distance form of the education collected from the answers of the teachers and of the students included number of identical points. Putting the answers of both groups together we get the following:

• possibility to continue on teaching
• health risk reduction
• no need to travel, better time management, more time to study, autonomy and flexibility
• teaching/learning from anywhere
• higher student participation, more concentration
• comfortable, less stressful, more effective
• more self-study
• pre-recorded lectures, recordings of the lectures, online lectures, re-viewing options
• new experience, using technologies
• possibilities to present a greater amount of knowledge, speed of information dissemination
• forces the teacher to prepare more precisely
• improving teaching materials, creating new study materials
• greater responsibility of students for what they learn
• consultation on problematic topics, contact with the teachers
• involvement of external teachers

The answers about the negatives of the distance form of the education also more or less responded in both surveyed groups. Main challenges of online education mentioned in the survey were the following:

• loss of personal contact, social isolation, loneliness
• health problems, mental health issues
• less movement, time spent by the computer
• lower student involvement, lack of concentration, passivity of the students
• no practical training
• lack of direct feedback from the students and vice versa
• more cheating, unfair examination, non-objectivity of the assessment
• inability to evaluate the real work of students
• very tiring, time consuming, difficult time management
• higher demands on preparation, more projects
• worsening of communication and expression skills of students
• loss of privacy
• more boring lessons
• technical issues, connection problems, need of technical equipment
• unsuitable for all forms of education
• recording and sharing lectures without consent
• presence control
• worsened motivation
• problem to contact teachers with questions
• lack of information about the education
• need of training the teacher on how to use the software
• lack of study materials

Some of the topics are mentioned in both categories, the advantages and the disadvantages, mostly in the exact opposite (more concentration vs. lack of concentration; better time management and more time to study vs. very tiring, time consuming, difficult time management; comfortable, less stressful, more effective vs. unsuitable for all forms of education; consultation on problematic topics, contact with the teachers vs. problem to contact teachers with questions).

This documents that the experiences of the respondents from both groups may be various and heterogeneous and that perceiving of the online education is highly subjective and varies among the individuals. However, most of the items in the negatives’ list are solvable and have the potential to improve.

To sum up, most of the problems were related to the social isolation (which is not the direct consequence of the online education but the result of the pandemic era), technical issues including the need of more training in use of the software tools used in the remote teaching, teachers concerns about cheating and decreased amount of control over the students, exams and testing issues, communication problems, and the need for optimization and rationalization of the information and assignment load.

Advantages of online education

Major advantages of online classes are the following:

• E-learning activities allow to continue on the education process even if the in-person forms of teaching/learning are not available (e.g. if the in-person contacts are prohibited in pandemic era, in war zones etc.).
• In specific situations, e-learning may reduce some dangers related to the in-person contacts or transport (health issues in the pandemic era, safety issues in the armed conflicts or wars etc.).
• Students (and teachers) may attend the class from anywhere (if the technical requirements, e.g. internet connection, are fulfilled).
• The transition to online teaching and learning represents a new experience and an interesting field for the use of technologies, which most of the young people are very familiar with and thus find the online learning environment as a natural space for their interactions and other activities.
• The quality online education with appropriate demands on students offers them better time management, higher autonomy and flexibility, and more time to study, since there is no need to travel to the school and back and the students may plan their learning activities according their needs and requirements.
• For many students (e.g. more introverted or shy ones, some physically disabled or ill students, those with time constraints or busy schedules, those who prefer to learn at their own pace etc.), online learning may represent more comfortable, less stressful and more effective form of education which allows them higher participation and/or more concentration.
  • Teachers should, however, keep on their minds that this is highly inter-individually variable and there are students with the exact opposite perception of the e-learning activities.
• The online courses provide the option to communicate regularly with the educators and get the feedback.
• They also allow the interactions and connections with classmates and making the network.
• Online education allows more frequent and efficient engagement of external teachers, which has a potential to increase the quality and attractiveness of particular courses.
• Online learning mostly offers easily accessible learning materials.
  • Many settings of the online education (pre-recorded commented presentations or video lectures, recorded synchronous online lectures) provide students opportunity to watch the lecture or other type of content repeatedly. This approach helps students better retain the subject matter.
  • The online availability of the learning materials forces the teachers to improve their study materials or create the new once and prepare all the materials more precisely.
  • The speed of information dissemination and their availability markedly increases in most type of online courses when compared with most of the in-person ones, which provides students more space for self-studying and allows them to access and repeat the knowledge.
  • The responsibility of students for what they learn is markedly increased in the online form of education which provides students an option to improve their skills in finding the information sources, evaluating the quality of these sources and working with those they find most relevant.
  • For motivated students, the teachers have the possibilities to present or provide greater amount of materials.
• Online learning setup may also bring advantages for many specific groups of students, mainly:
  • Students with physical disabilities: online education provides them easier access to most educational activities.
  • Immunocompromised students who are not yet comfortable in large gatherings, and students who frequently miss classes due to medical attention.
  • Very shy and bashful students: online learning may help remove discouragement from the minds and participate actively in the virtual space with no crowds seen around, decreased pressure from classmates, less competition and safe environment at home.

Challenges in online education

The online education has, however, also several challenges, mainly:

• Any type of online education provides only limited social interactions comparing to in-person classes. Mainly in case of full and sudden switch to the online learning environment, many students experience the social isolation and loneliness which may even result to their mental health problems.
• During the e-learning, students/ teachers spend much more time online, sitting at home. Full online education thus may result in reduced amount of daily physical activity and exercise and decrease of overall physical condition and worsening of the health status of both teachers and students. Both the groups are thus recommended to increase their physical activity in the rest of the days during the online education era.
• Access to online learning may represent a technological challenge: students need dependable internet, reliable computer or other device with the e-learning platform in any type of online classes. Both teachers and students may experience connection problems or other technical issues during the online classes, which need to be solved directly. This underlines the importance of appropriate technical equipment and the need of technical support for all participants (please see appropriate sections above).
• Many students may feel disconnected or disengaged during the online education which may lead to lower student engagement, worsened motivation and passive approach in some of them. They frequently experience the problems to keep attention during the online lectures and stay focused when studying at home, since they may find both the home and online environment to have too many distractions and disruptions that affect their attention levels. Some students may also complain about more boring lessons. In general, teachers need to make more efforts to gain their students’ attention in remote teaching. Tips for making the online lectures attractive and engaging are mentioned in the practical manual.
• Some students may find the online classes very tiring or time consuming. Others complaint about the increase amount of assignments and projects. E-learning in general puts higher demands on the self-discipline, motivation, and time-management of students. To prepare the high-quality online education keeping the students attention and not overloading them with the increase amount of work and assignments also thus puts higher demands on teachers both from time and content point of view (please see appropriate sections in the practice guideline above).
• Mainly in case of unplanned sudden transition to online education, many educators find themselves in unfamiliar territory as they try to navigate new ways to meet their students’ needs. The training of the teachers (and students) on how to set the course, use the software and prepare the lectures might be very helpful (please see the practical guideline above). In the same situation, lack of information about education and assessment might be reported by some students. Appropriate communication setting is thus highly important (please see the practice guideline above).
• One of the major issues is the lack of practice or clinical training in case of full online transition of all learning activities. From this point of view, hybrid (blended) courses are highly recommended for clinical subject or those requiring laboratory practice. If no personal contacts are allowed for certain time, immediate return to laboratory or clinical practice after the restrictions removal is extremely important and highly recommended.
• Another major issue is availability of the study materials: creating and distributing the material early in the online course is particularly important (please see above).
• For some participants (both teachers and students), the lack of direct feedback and problems to contact teachers with questions may represent an important disadvantage. Synchronous courses and appropriate communication setting help solve the problem (please look at the appropriate sections in the practice guideline).
• Attendance control in the e-learning environment may also represent a problem for some teachers. Many of the e-learning platforms are equipped with attendance tracking functionality which helps to solve this problem. The attendance doesn´t automatically mean that students keep their attention on the educational activities. However, the same applies to the in-person forms of education.
• Recording and sharing lectures without consent of the participants (mainly teachers) may represent an important issue (recommended approach is mentioned in the practice guideline).
• Transition to online education activities may also complicate the examinations, testing and assessment of students. Both teachers and students raised many concerns about this topic (more cheating, unfair examination, non-objectivity of the assessment, inability to evaluate the real work of students). Suggested solutions of particular problems are provided above in the Practice guidelines for evaluation, examination and continuous assessment of student knowledge during online education.
• Mainly the asynchronous forms of online education may lead to the worsening of communication and expression skills of students. Synchronous or blended courses represent better solution from this point of view.
• Some participants (both educators and students) may feel the loss of privacy during the online lectures.

What can we bring for future?

E-learning has the potential to provide fully comparable or even better experience than classroom learning at least for certain segment of students. From the long-term point of view, teachers should consider to apply these positive aspects of online education in the in-person one and try to avoid or solve the negative aspects. Key recommendations should be the following:

• It´s recommended to keep the better availability of study materials including sharing the pre-recorded presentations or video records of the lectures even during the in-person education, since is allows students to re-view the materials and better retain the subjects matter. It also makes the study materials available also for those who were not able to attend particular class (for health issues or any other reason).
• More frequent use of multimedia materials (both integrated from pre-existing sources and newly created) may be transferred from the era of fully online education to the future learning setting, which is expected to combine both online and in present types of teaching.
• Most of the students, as well as the teachers prefer in-person form of education. Full or major switch to online form of the courses is thus improbable in medical education. However, considering many advantages that the online leaning brings as well as its´ preference by a certain segment of students, the teachers may consider opening both in-person and remote form of their course and let students allow to choose the most appropriate form according to their needs. This option was provided by many universities even in the pre-pandemic era and major progress and experience in e-learning methods during pandemics made this parallel education even more realistic, available and advantageous.
  • Among others, the online form of (at least some) lectures allows more frequent and efficient engagement of external teachers.
  • This basically applies mainly to the subjects which don´t include any exercises or laboratory/ clinical practice. If the practical or laboratory part of education is essential, it´s possible to move the theoretical part of the education (mainly lectures) to the online learning environment to reduce the need of travel and related time burden of both teachers/ students or to use the option to combine the in-person lecture with its live broadcasting or sharing the record online.
• Many challenges and concerns related to the e-learning (the choice of appropriate type of course and platform; technical issues including the need of technical support; problems with communication with other participants; availability of study materials; keeping attention; making the online classes less tedium and exhaustive; online assessment, exams, and testing; recording the online classes etc.) are solvable and have the potential to improve. Among others, this manual provides a wide range of tips and recommendations on how to solve many issues and improve the quality of online education.