Recently some schools have started to offer students distance learning as an option for students to attend classes from home by way of online or video conferencing. If students benefit from taking these online classes at home is entirely debatable. Online classes also face many physical drawbacks. One being lack of a way to prevent cheating and the other being the removal of the majority of personal aspects of learning. Both being key parts of learning. Ultimately the lack of these factors in online classes negate all other benefits offered by them.

Starting with the first drawback with online classes is the problem of cheating on assignments. There is nothing physically stopping the student from cheating. No teacher nor test proctor. There is nothing stopping them but their own choice. The only way to prevent cheating would be to have the students watch the classes online and then periodically come into a physical location and have them monitored while the students take the test or assignments but doing that is not practical and betrays the entire point of online classes which is to not have to be in a classroom.

The other final issue with reaping benefit from online classes is that online classes remove most if not all personal aspects of learning. Learning and benefiting from a class is more than just sitting in front of a screen with information being thrown towards you. Without a physical class you never get to learn from real life experiences. Students will miss out on many upfront learning experiences that are often common in the class room such as real world problems. With this aspect removed from the classroom as it is with online classes the quality of the teaching simply isnt the same. One entire point of school is to prepare you for the real world. Online classes lack when compared to a physical classroom the ability to do this.

Finally even with all these problems faced by online classes there still is some undeniable benefits. Online classrooms remove many distractions that traditional classrooms have. Allowing a learning experience free from distractions. These benefits would be great for students that have a hard time cutting out the other external stimulation in physical classrooms yet they are still not worth it. Even for students that are distracted easily there can be special accommodations made for them that doesnt have to take them out of the classroom. The online classroom is no substitute for the real thing.

In conclusion the benefits offered by online classes are just not worth it. They fail to offer the student the benefits that a physical classroom does. From being presented with real world problems to actually being able to stop them from cheating. Online classes fail to compete with real classes that have real offers of experience and benefits that come from being set in a physical place. Online classes are convenient but not worth it for the long term success of the student.