Online school (or virtual school, depending on what you’d like to call it) can seem pretty scary at first. While there are certainly some drawbacks, there are also a ton of benefits. We’ve outlined the benefits (and the drawbacks) of online school here. After seeing all of the benefits, online school might not seem so bad after all! Who knows, you might not even want to go back.
Less Class Time
This usually depends all on the school and how it does its virtual classes, but normally, there are way less classes in virtual school than there are in brick-and-mortar schools. A subject that may have had a one hour class every school day in brick-and-mortar school usually only has one-to-two hour-long virtual class sessions.
The information is usually condensed to where it doesn’t take very long to discuss it. There’s not a lot of wasted time in virtual school like there is in regular, brick-and-mortar school.
There also aren’t nearly as many distractions. There aren’t things like fire drills (depending on where you do your school at, fire drills might still be a thing, but it isn’t the school that’s doing them), class disruptions, or other issues the school might have. In a virtual classroom, it’s pretty hard for someone to cause enough trouble that class time gets wasted or school gets cancelled.
Another added bonus is that the virtual classes can usually be recorded. So, if someone misses a class for whatever reason, they can usually watch the recording and get caught up.
Quicker Work
The reduced class time means that there’s more time to do homework. In virtual school, the time that would have been spent sitting in a class can be used to do homework. Instead of finishing classes for the day, then having to go home only to do more homework, both the homework and the classes can be done by, or even before, the student would normally get out of school.
Sometimes, with all the freedom of virtual school and the distractions that come with it, it can be hard to finish work quickly. Luckily, we’ve got some free tips to help increase productivity, plus a few bonuses.
Increased Safety
Because each student often works from a place very distant from everyone else in the school, there’s much less danger. The students aren’t packed into a school with a ton of other kids to make it a target for unfortunate attacks against schools. Because the students often work from home, there’s much less danger than what would come from being in a crowded area like a school.
Increased Flexibility
Students also generally get much more flexibility in virtual school. Generally, the homework is assigned for an entire week, and isn’t due until the end of the week. This allows way more flexibility compared to brick-and-mortar schools’ daily homework that’s usually due the next day.
This, combined with the fact that the virtual classes can be recorded for students to watch later can help those that have to miss a class for some reason, makes for a ton of flexibility.
It depends on the school, the course, and the situation, but some virtual schools even allow near-complete freedom in the course to finish the work as they choose.
This can also be true of the exact opposite, though: Sometimes, they have a much more rigid schedule. Normally, though, it falls in the middle of this: Enough rigidity to where the student can’t fall too behind, but enough to allow the student to work at more of their own pace, which brings us to the next benefit.
Freedom of Location
Because of the freedom of location in online school, it can be way easier to travel. You get to do all your work online, so you can do it wherever you want. You can be doing school at your house, or at a vacation house on the beach. So long as you have the resources you need, a computer, and Internet connection, chances are good you’re fine to travel wherever you want and still keep up academically while you do it.
Setting Your Own Pace
Because there’s (generally) much more flexibility and less class time in virtual school, everyone gets to set their own pace. Some can blaze right through the school work, while others can take their time if they so choose. Everyone gets to set their own pace to better accommodate their schedule and the events that they have to deal with. The students can set their own schedule and work around it themselves. If you’d like tips on setting up a schedule, we have a post for that, too.
Drawbacks of Online School
Now, I’d be lying if I said that there were absolutely zero drawbacks to online school. There are certainly some issues, so let’s go into those.
Lack of Social Interaction
There is a distinct lack of social interaction in online school. Students are in virtual classes–if they’re in classes at all–and those classes are usually hyper-focused on the kids learning. There’s no lunch break or hall time for students to interact with each other. This is great for learning, but not so much for social interaction.
Lack of Rigidity
Yeah, I know I already said that the increased flexibility/freedom of online school is a benefit, but sometimes it can be easy to take that too far. Generally, online school doesn’t allow for complete freedom and has some rigidity to it, but it can still be easy to slack off and not get things done. There’s more mandation that needs to be done by the parents and the students in order to get some work done.
No Lunches/Snacks
If you or your student relied on lunch and snacks at the school, then this one might be a bit of an issue. Online school–generally, anyway–doesn’t include lunch or snacks. That’s on the parents or the students, depending on how you do it in your household. While this does mean that you have more control over what you’re eating, it also means that you have to prepare it or go get it.
Luckily, there’s this thing called eMeals. It’s saved my family quite a bit of time in having to find the recipes, get the ingredients, and then cook the meals. You can get it here.
Basically, you choose the recipe pack you want, they give you new meals each week with the ingredients, you add the ingredients to your pickup & delivery service (like Walmart), then cook the meals. They usually only take about 30 minutes total to make and taste great. If you’re interested, you can check it out here.
Teachers Aren’t Physically Present
I know this one is obvious, but what it means is that teachers aren’t there to see whether or not students are struggling. If someone is struggling, the teacher can see they are struggling and explain it to them. For students that are independent learners and don’t need teachers, online school will be great for them. They’ll be able to zip through it. For those that aren’t, it might be a little bit tougher for them.
As with everything, there are both benefits and drawbacks to online school. If you’re thinking about moving to online school, it’s important to keep these things in mind. Even if you don’t get much of an option between the different types of school with COVID being an issue, it’s still good to know what you’re getting into.
