I started teaching an introductory QuickBooks class last night at a local college.  It runs twice a week for a month from 6:15PM to 9:15PM.  It made me realize why online education is definitely the future and so much better than traditional classroom teaching.

First of all, online learning is just so much more convenient that it’s not even funny.  You can log on anytime and learn at your own pace.  If you want something repeated, just rewind the video or scroll up through the text again and re-read.  In the real world you have to get dressed, fight your way through traffic, find a parking spot, walk to the classroom and hope that the computers are working.  To learn online, you don’t even have to be wearing pants!

In the classroom, I am using a projector to show my screen to the class.  They have to turn around in their seats in order to see what I’m doing and they can’t face their monitors and watch me at the same time (poor room design).  The online learning environment is usually pretty flexible and you can control what you see and where.  If you have multiple monitors you can have the lesson on one screen while you have QuickBooks open on the other.  Also, the internet is the perfect vehicle for multimedia presentations which can incorporate sound, video, graphics, screencasts, etc.  To work all of that into a physical classroom situation would be quite difficult.

The last major difference that I thought about last night is the cost for taking the class.  This particular class was between $400 and $500 and ran for 24 classroom hours.  Many online learning websites are totally free or charge a small monthly fee in the $30 – $75 range.  That is a much better value!

So this experience has reinforced what I already knew anyway.  That the future of education is not in stuffy old classrooms with outdated audio/visual equipment, but on the internet where you can interact with the lessons in the comfort of your own home while wearing only your boxer shorts.

This post was written by Michael Debyah.