“Some things cannot be taught; they must be experienced. You never learn the most valuable lessons in life until you go through your own journey.” — Roy T. Bennett.

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No other year has been as influential as 2020 in forcing our hand into using consumer tech products. One of the industries that have seen a monumental change because of technology is the Education Industry. Almost every school and university today has adopted the Online Learning Platform as the natural alternative to the traditional classroom approach.

While this has made learning accessible to students and helped in the continuity of their education, there is a trade-off which may have a detrimental impact on the students in the long run.

Since most of us are still getting accustomed to this new reality and trying to accept it, we haven’t had the time to really analyse the downside of Online Learning for students.

Over more extended periods, Online Learning can be counter-productive to a student’s overall development for the following reasons:

Fractures the Growth of Soft Skills

We are so focused on ensuring the academic development of students is not restricted or hindered, that we quite often forget about the development of their personalities. One of the lesser discussed but crucial aspects of the traditional learning approach are the development of a student’s soft skills.

Whether it’s the ability to communicate, developing your social intelligence or emotional intelligence, all these attributes are harnessed in an engaging and real learning environment.

Talking to each other via a Laptop or smartphone fractures the ability of a student to pick up on contextual cues, pauses, change in body language and voice tonality. Identifying these characteristics in a person is part of the non-academic learning you gain when you are in the presence of other people.

Lacks Synergy and Building of Relationships

When you participate in a group project, apart from achieving your goal, few other things happen passively which we don’t pay too much attention to.

Working with people face to face increases our productivity levels as we can participate in brainstorming activities and increase synergy. This process helps us understand how to work in a team and take responsibility for our work which is something the online platform limits us from doing.

Working on a project online pushes you into a silo which gives more importance to the individual aspect