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Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Learning
25.06.2020 588 0
When choosing an online course, a future student most often pays attention to the following details: training program, school, teachers, duration and price. This information can be easily found on the course website. However, the decisive factor in choosing a particular program is positive reviews with a description of the learning results and live emotions.
How to learn to read reviews of online courses?
In today's article, we will discuss how not to get lost in the variety of reviews on online education, how to distinguish real reviews from fake ones and draw the right conclusions about the quality of the program, based on the experience of graduates of online schools.
The first step you should take before choosing an online course is to define your goals. What do you plan to get from the course? Do you want to get a new profession and start earning money? Or do you want to master soft skills that you lack to grow in your current job? Perhaps you want to “level up” in your favorite hobby or develop some personal qualities?
The second point is to “estimate” how much time you are willing to spend on studying every day, this will help you decide on a convenient format (live lectures twice a week or a recorded course that you can watch at any time).
There are so many courses on the Russian Edtech market that it is difficult for consumers to make an independent choice. Many online products are superbly packaged, their web pages are eye-catching, advertisements are catching up both in search engines and social networks, and speakers conduct interesting webinars. But doubts still exist. You want quality guarantees, especially considering that the cost of some online programs reaches 300,000 rubles or more.
It is therefore not surprising that potential course buyers seek support and advice. The first people we are used to consulting with are our immediate circle: relatives, friends and colleagues. It is logical that people with whom you have common interests and values can advise something that may suit you. People from your circle will sincerely tell you about the pros and cons and share their personal experience. Thus, your first step in collecting feedback on an online course is to survey your circle.
In the absence of reviews from loved ones, we pay attention to information in open sources: on forums, review sites, in thematic groups on social networks and YouTube channels. The difference is that such reviews need to be filtered and high-quality reviews distinguished from custom-made ones. It cannot be said that there is a boom of fake reviews in the online learning sphere, but they exist. And they are quite easy to distinguish.
How to distinguish real reviews of an online course from fake ones?
The first resource where you will find student reviews will be the official page of the online course. Most likely, there will be only positive reviews with a cool result or with an emphasis on the emotional component.
But don't scroll through the reviews that the school has posted on its website. Use a simple life hack: pay attention to whether the review contains figures and facts (specific, measurable results)?
A review of a deep, practical program will most often be written in the form of a case study from a student:
Why did he choose this particular school?
What problem did you come with?
What project were you working on?
What did you do as part of your studies?
what were the difficulties?
what achievements?
evidence (screenshots, photos, videos)
link to real social networks of the graduate
Such detailed reviews are harder to fake, especially on a mass scale. Therefore, the lebanon phone number library key feature of a quality online course is the presence of graduate cases with figures, facts and links to real projects.
Positive reviews of online learning - a reason to think?
If after visiting the official course page the picture seems too perfect to you, then it is worth spending time on reconnaissance on the Internet. Look for information in search engines and on YouTube, entering the name of the course or school with the word “reviews”. But do not forget that such reviews should also be passed through the prism of common sense. In open sources you can stumble upon both the righteous anger of a dissatisfied student and the machinations of competitors. How to understand where the truth is? Pay attention to the bare facts, and not to emotions and an abundance of derogatory epithets addressed to the school.
The abundance of empty but enthusiastic reviews should also alert you. If the reviews sing the praises of an online course, but say nothing about the learning outcomes, then this is a reason to think. Talk about a charge of motivation, inspiration and positive energy from the speaker instead of facts most likely means that the course will only offer you simple truths and fluff. Is this what you are going to study for?
Therefore, we pay attention not to the bright emotions and feelings that people share in reviews, but to the value that they saw in the online product. A good honest review, in addition to emotions (they will be there, because the course graduate has done a great job and wants to share the joy with you), contains clear information about:
the pros and cons of an online course;
was he able to apply his knowledge in practice;
how his career and income level changed;
what are his plans for the future;
Another recommendation for those who plan to spend time reading reviews of distance learning on the Internet. No need to look for some original facts about the online school and scandalous details in the stories of graduates, your task is to read 5-10 reviews and find frequently repeated moments in them (both pros and cons). In practice, you will encounter exactly them. In addition, if you listened to our advice and first defined your goals for the educational process, then everything is even easier. If you saw that similar goals flashed in the reviews, which were realized within the course, then you can safely enroll in this course.
