What are the advantages and drawbacks of face-to-face classes? Is it good for effective learning? Find the answers and much more in this post.
Pros and Cons of Face-to-face Classes
Face-to-face learning is a traditional way of receiving education, where the lecturer shares material with a group of students in person. This form of receiving an education is also called offline. Being the one and only learning method for decades, it is currently pushed by plenty of opportunities for online education. So, what are the main benefits and drawbacks of face-to-face classes?
Top Pros Of Face-to-face Classes
There are many advantages of offline education you should know about. How can you benefit from learning face-to-face?
Get A Better Understanding Of The Topic/Subject
Offline education is more interactive than online. You can communicate with other learners, take part in discussions and debates, as well as ask many questions to your professor or mentor. As a result, you can clarify some aspects you failed to understand right at once, improve your knowledge in a particular field, and get higher grades in the future.
Better Connection and Problem-solving
When you visit offline lectures, you also notice the teacher’s voice patterns and body language. This type of education stimulates your visual memory. As a result, you can have a better connection with the teacher and other students, as well as remember all the needed facts and arguments faster and easier.
Face-to-face learning also brings communication between classmates and professors to a higher level. You need to find the answers to the questions fast, cooperate with other learners, and improve your problem-solving skills.
Get More Practice
Some sciences are better taught with the help of practical assignments. Chemistry, Physics, and Biology are among the sciences that require completing numerous practical tasks for better understanding. It is better to see some chemical or physical processes with your own eyes than hear a long lecture on the same topic. Practice often brings you a better understanding and deeper knowledge than learning in theory only.
Feel More Comfortable
Offline communication is very important to most people. Students are not an exception to this rule. Therefore, many learners need to talk to their classmates, socialize, and communicate with their professors in a real-life environment. This makes many people feel more comfortable compared with online learning.
Top Cons Of Face-to-face Classes
Offline education is not for everyone. What are the most common disadvantages of this form of learning? It’s time to find the answers.
Stricter Rules For Passing Tests and Academic Assignments
When you are learning online only, you can order an essay anytime and get professional assistance in a matter of moments. This common solution helps many students maintain good academic performance and makes them forget about study stress and anxiety.
However, when you are required to pass your academic assignments offline, you usually need to represent your achievements, describe some facts and examples, and share presentations in the classroom. You often need to speak in front of an audience which is surely more difficult than passing your assignment to the professor via email or online portal.
Limited Number Of Participants
Face-to-face classes usually have a limited number of participants. The reason is that the classroom can have a particular number of seats only. Therefore, the teacher might need to have several absolutely the same lectures for different groups of students. However, the lecturer usually has a limited amount of time and might fail to provide the necessary information to all the students.
Online education is more flexible when it comes to the limits of the participants. Video meetings might gather hundreds of students online and provide more opportunities for learning.
Price
Offline lectures require the personal presence of a particular lecturer. Moreover, the space for the lecture is also needed. This might include the room, seats for participants, blackboard, and other additional equipment. Not to mention, it is also important to pay for electricity, water, and other facilities required for comfortable learning.
All these factors significantly impact the final price of the course. In other words, offline courses are usually more expensive than online.
Comfort
Face-to-face classes require visiting a college or university in person. You might need to wake up early in the morning, get ready for schooling, find the transport to come to classes, buy tickets, and bring textbooks.
When it comes to offline courses, the only thing you need is to switch on your laptop and click the link to join the lecture. This option is much more convenient for many students since it is fast, easy, and budget-friendly (you don’t need to buy tickets for public transport or gas for your car, parking, etc.)
All in all, face-to-face learning has a large number of both benefits and drawbacks. Feel free to choose the form for receiving education according to your personal preferences and expectations.
If you don’t know which one is better for you, it might be a good idea to try both online and offline short-term courses. This decision will help you find out the most suitable learning form in a fast and easy way.
