Who learns less with online teaching

Advantages and disadvantages of online education

The health emergency resulting from the spread of the coronavirus has forced Italian schools and universities, as well as those of many other countries, to radically change, in 2020, the way they did teaching and from face-to-face lessons to online ones. . We cannot exclude that the epidemiological conditions still require recourse to this teaching method. In addition, there are many discussions about the opportunities that could arise from the new teaching system. But what do we know about the effects that distance learning has on students’ skills? Scientific evidence shows negative effects especially for low-skill students jc h2 physics tuition.

From a theoretical point of view, distance learning has both advantages and disadvantages compared to face-to-face teaching. Among the advantages, that deriving from the lower costs it entails, since the same lesson can be followed by a large number of students. Furthermore, there is the possibility, for students, to follow the lessons when they prefer, to avoid too crowded classrooms, to have the opportunity to review the lessons to understand aspects that are not immediately clear. There is also a saving in terms of mobility costs for both teachers and students, with positive implications both private (in terms of greater availability of time, less expenditure for transport) and social (for example less pollution).

There are certainly a number of important disadvantages as well, including the harms that can result from a lack of direct peer interaction, as well as difficulties for less determined and more procrastinating students to keep up with the program.