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Molly Howe

ENG 110

Olivia Stoltman

18 April 2019

Interaction

Technology has been swarming society for years and is now starting to enter

the world of education. We’ve been writing papers on Microsoft Word since 1983,

when Microsoft invented Windows that had Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook

capabilities (Bellis, 2018). Now we fast forward to 2019, and high schools and

universities are using technology in every aspect of the classroom. Most schools

even offer close to every class in an online form. Here at University of La Crosse we

offer a plethora of online classes for students to take, and even if you do choose to

take the traditional face-to-face class, it will sill be at least partially online in some

way. Students have the opportunity to either skip class and just look at the notes

online or just take the online class, because students today don’t understand the

benefits of face-to-face learning.

Human begins naturally need other humans around them. They desire

approval, relationships, and connections with other humans. According to Salah

Banna in TD Magazine, humans are social beings that crave interaction. She says,

“Physical interaction is the best way to learn, communicate, and attain memories.” If

we are beings that crave interaction, then why are we choosing to educate ourselves

in a way where we get zero interaction?

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Students choose online learning for multiple reasons. Three main reasons

are: flexibility or convenience, transportation problems, and/or time-efficiency.

According to Shanna Jaggars from the Community College Research Center, 30% of

students took online classes due to childcare responsibilities and 80% took online

classes due to employment. Some students with these responsibilities have no other

choice than to take online courses. Other students choose online learning because of

transportation or time-efficiency. If students physically can’t get to a campus or

simply want to take a class or classes as quick as possible they may choose online

learning because it can be more efficient and will reduce transportation issues the

student may have. Some other reasons a student may take online classes are

preferences like comfort of being at home, better choice for individual learning,

and/or avoidance of interactions that are not of interest (Jaggars, 2018). These

preferences are completely up to the student and what they want for their

education.

Though all these reasons can be valid in some specific situations, face-to-face

learning should always be chosen if given the choice. According to Salah Banna, even

though students may have probable cause to choose online learning, the positives

outweigh the negatives in numerous ways. When a student chooses face-to-face

education, they get the interaction that promotes learning. One of the key elements

of learning is the dynamic relationship between the student and fellow students,

and the student and the teacher. This relationship can make or break an education. I

know I have always done better in a class when I’ve had a relationship with the

teacher and people whom I have relationships with around me. This interaction a
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student receives from face-to-face learning adds to the personal element to a

classroom and promotes responses, connections, and reactions during conversation

and learning in a classroom (Banna, 2019).

In online learning it is very difficult to ask questions or get feedback on your

work as a student, therefore, making it more difficult to learn from your mistakes.

When a student chooses face-to-face learning, they have the opportunity to have a

conversation with the teacher about their work and get feedback on how to

improve, and ultimately learning from the experience.

An obvious problem that comes with taking online classes are the

opportunities to cheat. Salah Banna discusses is the “blanket of anonymity” that

enables learners to participate disingenuously (Banna, 2019). In online learning, the

problem of cheating becomes more prevalent because students have no supervision

while taking exams or quizzes so they have an even higher temptation to look things

up on the Internet, look in their notes, and/or take it with other students also

enrolled in the course. With this temptation, students don’t get the opportunity to

test what they actually know and won’t learn as well in the process.

Online education is not only affecting the student’s learning, but also the

instructor’s ability to teach the content. By having the virtual barrier in online

learning, both the student and teacher have limited interaction. With some content,

the objectives can be quite hard for students to grasp. So if teachers don’t have the

ability to fully teach their students the content and students have limited time to ask

questions, some objectives can be impossible to acquire.

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One last, small, obstacle with online learning is obtaining the program to

facilitate the learning. Schools need to do extra training so teachers know on how to

use the program and run it like a classroom. This can make it tough on teachers,

inhibiting their ability to teach the course.

Obviously, some students have no other choice than to choose online

learning for education due to responsibilities and preferences, but I think face-to-

face learning is the most beneficial way for a student to obtain an education. When

given the choice, you should choose the face-to-face education because you will

receive a better education and learn more in the process.

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Works Citied

Bellis, Mary. “The Unusual History of Microsoft Windows”. Thought Co., January

2018, New York. https://www.thoughtco.com/unusual-history-of-microsoft-

windows-1992140

Banna, Salah. “Face-to-Face Training is Still the Better Choice Over Digital Lessons”.

TD Magazine, September 2014, Virginia. https://www.td.org/magazines/td-

magazine/face-to-face-training-is-still-the-better-choice-over-digital-lessons

Jaggars, Shanna. “Beyond Flexibility: Why Students Choose Online and Face-to-Face

Courses in Community College”. Community College Research Center, April

2012, Vancouver.

https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/media/k2/attachments/online-outcomes-

beyond-flexibility.pdf