The Pros and Cons of Mixing Online Courses with School Works

In Nigeria, people do not rely on a single career anymore due to the current economic situation. People tend to kill two birds with a stone by running two programs simultaneously; they prefer mixing online courses with the normal in-campus courses.

Online courses are a set of programs conducted over the internet. Students can communicate effectively with their course instructors and view their course syllabus and academic progress in their comfort zone.

There are thousands of affordable and accredited online courses offering diplomas and certificates in Nigeria; some are even free, with certain requirements. Even though there are still a few inevitable contentions, online courses have several benefits.

Before you think of mixing online courses with school work, get to know the effects of online courses. Try to know and understand the pros and cons of mixing online courses with school work, i.e., get to know the benefits of online courses and the side effects.

Below are the pros and cons of mixing online courses with schoolwork; you must know these before deciding.

Table of Contents

5 Pros of Mixing Online Courses with School Works

A Tool to Improve Your Technical Skills

One of the benefits of online courses is that it exposes you to certain skills over someone who doesn’t study online. It would make it possible for you to know how to easily transact and gain access to various online opportunities for your personal development.

A lot of content is present online due to its huge variety; through learning online, you can easily gain access to first health information, you can also gain access to online job opportunities, you can as well follow sports and movies, or even get to know how to shop online among others; online courses allows for immediate access to additional online resources to improve your standard of living.

Therefore, with the prior experiences, you will gain from studying online courses, you will find it easier to utilize it effectively to improve your school work academically.

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Improve self-motivation

Among the benefits of online courses is that it teaches one to be independently disciplined. You would become disciplined no matter what because you take responsibility for your course of study as no one would be there to monitor you. The earlier you realize this, the better it would be for you to succeed in your online courses.

You will learn more in an online environment, but you will have to make a greater effort to accomplish that learning, and making this effort would make you a more disciplined individual. Taking online courses enables you to train yourself during the online course and during your free time.

It is convenient and easy

When studying online courses, everything you need would be made available. You can easily get access to books, and discuss questions and answers; you can study anytime you want or even chat with fellow students when studying online courses. You can get access to video or audio instructions provided during class sessions by rewinding later if you found it difficult to understand the topic at first instance.

As a student studying online courses, you can always go back to studying more complicated questions, watch videos of lectures several times, and even skip already known topics; some online educational institutions even allow their students to postpone and return to their studies at their own convenient time, they make individual study schedules themselves. Therefore, convenience is one of the great benefits of online courses.

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Opportunity to mingle with interesting people from different parts of the world

Online courses allow you to know the right people who can help with your potential and help you secure better opportunities career-wise, which is another key benefit of online courses. You get to meet new people via the chat room. You meet your fellow students, especially if you’re a shy type or too busy to interact with your classmates in the physical school environment.

Studying online courses makes you choose new friends from other parts of the world, thereby making it possible for you to know other people’s cultures and beliefs. You will be able to interact with everyone through the discussion boards and chats.

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Easily Accessible in your comfort zone

Learning becomes easier when it is aligned with one’s learning needs and preferences. Accessing your course of study at your convenience is one of the top benefits of online courses; it allows you to attend classes from any location of your choice. You can learn and get your certificate while sitting at your convenience. It covers a big distance, i.e., you can access it from anywhere in the world; distance is no longer a barrier to study.

Learning becomes easier when aligned with one’s learning needs and preferences. It allows you to study in your own space regardless of your status, whether you’re an on-campus student or a busy adult. It is also of great advantage to the disabled due to the absence of the need to physically attend the institution as well as the employees who needed a next higher degree as you do not need to take a break at your place of work, it allows you to work and study at the same time without one interrupting the other and also without affecting the length of service.

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5 Cons of Studying Online Courses

Requires a lot of time

Time is a valuable resource when trying to mix online courses with schoolwork; poor time management can be disastrous as you may fail to meet the course requirements. A lot of time is required to succeed in online courses. You should know that communication between you and your course instructor or even fellow students will mostly require typing and posting messages which are very slow compared to the on-campus courses, which are text-based; this explains why the online courses require a lot of time than the on-campus courses.

Therefore before you can think of studying online courses, you have to possess time management skills, and there should be less interference in other activities. So you should try and make a balanced schedule of school work and online courses.

Creation of a sense of isolation

The online courses environment is much more different from the on-campus course; an online courses environment requires you to study alone with your computer to avoid any form of distraction. As a result, there might be a decrease in your socializing skills due to little or no physical interaction or socialization with fellow students.

Online courses don’t offer human interaction; you have to dissociate yourself from certain social activities as it is one of the keys to the benefits of online courses. Your social events may have to take a back seat as you may not be able to fit your social life among your priorities.

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It is Expensive

Though studying online courses is much more affordable than on-campus learning because of certain expenses like the Cost of transport and other minimal fees, it can also be expensive in the sense that it involves certain necessities. Before you can gain the benefits of online courses, a standard device with a constant internet connection is required as you can’t gain access to online courses without these.

Online courses can be expensive if you don’t have your device beforehand, as the purchase would require a lot of money. Therefore, to obtain the benefits of online courses, a personal device with a consistent connection and a decent speed must be present to avoid a lack of connection between you and your course instructor. You may be lagging in some important aspects when there is an absence of these.

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Strong self-motivation is required

Building strong self-motivation before starting an online course is important. That is the most important thing that can guarantee success when studying online courses because few external forces would push you to perform well. You would be left to study and learn activities independently. It would be difficult for you to focus if you do not have self-motivation skills. Do not attempt to study online courses if you are not self-disciplined, as strong willpower, full responsibility, and good self-control are required because not everyone can maintain the right pace of learning without control.

You will need to endure the typical stresses of mixing school work and online courses as you will still be expected to meet deadlines, complete assignments, and even pass exams. Almost all the training materials would be mastered by yourself as some people prefer studying progress to be closely monitored to perform well. It will help if you learn this habit to acquire the benefits of online courses

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Excess exposure to the screen of your system can be harmful

If you cannot focus on a screen for a long period, online courses will be difficult for you to take. Apart from the fact that you can develop bad posture, you can also develop bad eyesight and other physical problems by staying in front of the computer screen for a long time. If you have any recurrent health issues that don’t support sitting down for a long period or if you have an initial eye disorder or poor eyesight, try to reconsider studying online courses as this might be derogatory to your health.

Conclusion

I hope you can deduce from the above points that there are many benefits of online courses and school work at a time and how tough these can be to figure out. Therefore to gain the benefits of online courses and succeed in in-campus work, you should figure out the pros and cons to know whether you can combine the two. Make sure you balance the stresses of studying online courses and schoolwork, as these are the top things that can guarantee your full success.

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About Author

Sulaiman Halima

Sulaiman Halima is a microbiology graduate and a tech enthusiast. She is a UIUX designer and a writer who is passionate about creating engaging content.

Writing is not just a hobby for her, she learns more through writing and has found it to be a great way to express her thoughts and share her feelings with others.