The virtual classroom

In today’s world we have the luxury of learning in our pajamas on our couch. Classrooms have gone from a desk and a notebook to a website. Though convenient, does it really get the job done?

All students learn in different ways. Some learn quicker and easier through hearing it and writing it down. Others prefer to read and reflect on the material intended to educate. I know personally I am a better visual learner. On line classes do not always support the education system and there have been numerous tests conducted to show how students prefer to learn.

The University of Penn State has a lot of information on the matter. They boil learning types into four main ones represented by the acronym VARK. The types are Visual, such as seeing charts and graphs, Auditory, lectures, group discussions and teacher student verbal interaction, Read/write, reading and text-based, and Kinesthetic, relating material to experiences and examples. The site went on to give three examples of tests conducted to help find how people prefer to learn. In all three, the majority of subjects preferred visual and kinesthetic types as opposed to plain text. Not only did the subjects prefer the methods but the results showed that the methods were more effective in the learning process.

I am a visual/kinesthetic learner, plain reading and writing does not help me retain material. On line classrooms are a mainly text based discussion with little to no interaction with the instructor. The instructor is the most vital part of education, and with them mostly omitted from the process I couldn’t imagine how much would be retained by the student. This would prove that though convenient and easy, on line classrooms are not always the best method of learning.