Today, when online education is becoming a vital part of the education family,
almost all major American colleges and universities offer distance education, or online,
courses. Online education, or as it is often called “e-education,” is able to reach a
broader student audience, address the needs of learners in better ways, and save
money, while using the principles of the contemporary learning pedagogy (Forman,
2001). Online courses allow students to take classes while living in different states or in
different countries. Some schools offer traditional courses, online distance courses, or
hybrid courses; the latter includes taking both traditional and online classes. Even
schools with the most traditional educational strategies, often called “brick and
mortar” schools, gradually start offering online courses in response to the skyrocketing
number of students partaking in the online experience. As online education becomes
increasingly popular among young people, pushing traditional educational models
aside, it is necessary to compare and contrast these two approaches and find out which
one offers more positive outcomes for students and their academic performance. The
aim of this essay is to find out whether online learning is better, worse, or equal to
traditional in-class learning while analyzing its advantages and drawbacks.