Education is one of the fundamental pillars of a successful democracy and harmonious society. As such, it is of the utmost importance that America's education system be of the highest quality in order to foster the development of intelligent citizens. With the rapid advancement of new technology has come opportunities for new ways to learn; students can type rather than hand write, access internet databases for information, and work collaboratively online rather than in person, among other advantages. It is easy to believe that all the aspects of technology that have been introduced to schools have positively impacted student performances, but an outlier is online learning. In theory, being able to learn from the comfort of one's own home would benefit students greatly, but in practice, it gives way to lower academic achievement because many students benefit from the classroom environment, and not all students can be entrusted to work honestly from their homes.

It would be a lie to say that online learning does not have its benefits: it can cater to the needs of students who don't have the means or time to go to class full-time. These cases, however, are few and far between. The vast majority of students are perfectly capable of attending all of their classes, and allowing them to do otherwise only detracts from their learning experiences.

Research shows that there are three main types of learners: people who learn visually, audibly, and from experience and movement. At best, online learning caters to the former two, and at worst, it caters to none. Classroom environments are successful because they are flexible in that teachers can alter their teaching styles to best suit the needs of their students. Online classes or video conferences are far less effective because their curriculum is rigid. There is no teacher to allow social interaction and connection with students, but instead a computer with no mind, no heart, and no ability to judge student performance and change its techniques for teaching accordingly. Online learning takes away the opportunity for interaction and engagement in the learning process by making the curriculum seem repetitive and the assignments boring. Students of all three types of learning ability require stimulation from a teacher to remain engaged, but an online classroom setting is not the best way to engage students. They cannot, for example, stand and move in a certain way to demonstrate a concept, or have an in-person discussion. The ability to actively participate in education is vital, and online learning all but removes it.

The lack of a classroom setting or teacher can take away students' motivation to learn and can lead to habits that rely on cheating as a means of passing a class. The lack of a teacher's presence removes the student's feeling of accountability and students often do not put in the effort to learn the class material. Online courses enable students to take tests and quizzes from home, but many cheat or plagiarize material from the internet rather than doing their work honestly. In fact, the issue had become so rampant that when students take an in-person end-of-semester exam in Generic_School, if they score significantly lower than they did on their at-home tests, they are believed to have been cheating the entire year and are required to resume the class in school rather than online. This goes to show that this is not an isolated issue; it is widespread and supremely damaging to students' grades, work ethic, and potentially even their academic transcripts.

Enabling the use of online classes detracts from students' learning experiences and academic success. A class taken online is one not fully engaged in by students. It is educators' responsibility, however, rather than students, to ensure that dishonest conduct does not take place and that students are engaged in their learning. The best way to ensure these things is to demand that learning take place in a school rather than through the internet.