online learning

The Benefits of Online Learning

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By Grace Richardson

Nowadays, quality education isn’t limited to the four walls of a classroom. Modern technology allows us to connect and interact in real-time through the internet, and this has made it possible for kids of all ages to learn from the comfort of our homes. In fact, millions of students — from elementary to graduate school — have been forced to enroll in online classes, due to the health crisis making face-to-face classes unsafe. However, there remains the misconception that the online learning experience can never match up to the good old classroom and whiteboard.

While it's true that there are certain experiences that cannot be exactly replicated virtually (such as the social perks of being around classmates), there are still unique benefits to online learning. And here are some of them:

 

Online Learning Provides More Convenience and Flexibility

 

Online learning is divided into two main types: synchronous and asynchronous. "Synchronous" refers to live learning classes that happen at a set time online. It is a convenient option as students don't have to spend time commuting to school, and they can collaborate with classmates and teachers in real time. On the other hand, "asynchronous" online classes provide more flexibility, allowing students to control their own schedules and learning pace. Instructors simply upload all materials, tests, lectures, and assignments for anyone to access anytime. Unlike traditional learning where your child might experience immense pressure trying to keep up with their classmates, online learning allows them to study without being too constrained by time. 

Both approaches are being used by students of all levels, but there is no hard evidence that either option is objectively more effective for students. It all boils down to preference and your child's own learning style. However, online learning hones children's executive function skills, which is what trains our brains to be responsible, creative, solve problems, and achieve goals.

Getting students used to online learning while they're young will definitely benefit them as they get older — especially with virtual colleges and universities growing increasingly popular. In fact, online bachelors degrees have become incredibly diverse, offering courses on Digital Media, Cybersecurity, Data Science, Organizational Leadership, and more. Plus, many schools even offer round-the-clock technical support and the option to enroll during any season with no application fees. On top of this, online students have the chance to connect with industry leaders and faculty experts from far and wide — and all according to students' schedules. With these benefits, we can expect the online learning trend to continue well beyond the pandemic.

 

Online Learning Hones Your Child’s Communication and Collaboration Skills

 

Being able to communicate effectively online is an essential skill in the digital age, especially as so many statements can easily get lost in translation. Online classes can give your child a head start in honing their virtual communication skills — training them to relay their thoughts in a clear, coherent, and succinct manner.

Additionally, online schools also require students to participate in discussions with their classmates and professors via various communication platforms. Here, they’ll learn how to get better at pitching their ideas and making strong arguments through discussions or video calls. Further exposure to this communication medium also pushes your child to collaborate and build a rapport with their peers.

 

Online Learning Broadens Your Child’s World View

 

The internet truly is the best source of information in the digital age. Besides making it possible for schools to facilitate online learning classes, the internet allows people from all walks of life to be heard via personal blogs, videos, podcasts, and other content that can be uploaded online. Indeed, online learning makes information easier to access for your child, and this can broaden their perspectives on important global issues, improve their cross-cultural understanding, and have the opportunity to connect with people from all over the globe — and it only takes a few clicks.

Online learning can be just as effective as face-to-face classes as long as your child has the drive and dedication to succeed. But of course, your support as a parent is always welcome. In order for them to reap the full benefits of online learning, you have to guide your child through positive reinforcement and motivate them to be consistent with their schedule and goals.

 

 

Best Apps and Sites for Elementary Students

QuickMath

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QuickMath is a great tool for students in Grades 1-6 to build fluency with their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division math facts. With three different levels for each operation, and the ability to track progress after each round of play, this app is an excellent alternative to standard flash cards. Plus, students love that they can write their answer directly on the screen! There are also more wonderful apps in the QuickMath family, including QuickMath Jr. for students in K - 2, and QuickMath Fractions for students in Grades 3-6.


Math Playground

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Math Playground is an incredible site with a wealth of math games, logic puzzles and a variety of 
problem solving activities. It is a great resource for arcade style math games, digital manipulatives for illustrating mathematical concepts and operations, and even coding practice. With over 500 different activities to choose from, it will be hard for any child to complain about being “bored” with the games.


Epic!

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Epic! is a digital library for children offering over 25,000 high-quality ebooks, audiobooks, learning videos, and quizzes for kids 12 and under. This app’s award-winning service includes a wide variety of high-quality books and learning videos from leading publishers like Scholastic, National Geographic, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Smithsonian and many more. The Epic! library contains everything from picture books to chapter books, early readers, audiobooks, graphic novels, non-fiction titles, educational books, videos and more, and it even offers books in Spanish and Chinese.


Homer

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Homer is an incredible literacy app for children age 2-8. With thousands of lessons and activities that target the development of phonics skills, sight word knowledge, the ABCs and more, this app is a great way to build confidence with the earliest of reading skills. In addition, the app also includes tons of digital books and interactive stories to promote independent reading from a young age. Homer Reading has been proven to increase early reading scores by 74% with just 15 minutes a day. And with stories and activities customized to each child’s interests, they’ll learn while having fun.


BrainPop Jr.

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BrainPop Jr. will help kids as young as 5 learn something about any topic they can dream of in a developmentally appropriate way. Ideal for kids in Kindergarten through grade 3, BrainPOP Jr. spans topics across Science, Social Studies, Reading, Writing, Math, Health, Arts, and Technology. The gentle, humorous, and relatable characters Annie and Moby serve as guides through each topic, empowering kids to form their own ideas. BrainPOP Jr. is designed to cultivate critical thinking skills and encourage children to ask questions and make connections.

Digital Tools for Middle School (and beyond)

Flashcards of the Future

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Quizlet is an online and app-based interactive flashcard system that is invaluable for digitally minded students who can progress with relatively little friction through flashcards sets they create in advance of tests or quizzes. Creating a basic account is free, and offers access to the platform’s quiz games and “learn” feature, which tracks performance and selects the cards that continue to give students trouble, effectively tailoring the test to what the student knows and doesn’t know. A recent update makes Quizlet especially easy to use with vocabulary lists — when you enter a word into the list, Quizlet will automatically generate definitions for you to choose between from its built-in dictionary. Another under-explored feature of Quizlet is the library of crowd-sourced lists — while usually students will want to make their own lists based on their specific material, study lists already exists for many common courses (such as AP US History, or Spanish II). These can be used as a way to check student work and preview or review a difficult textbook reading. 


Student News

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Newsela is a news aggregator focused on providing articles for students - this means that its staff gathers articles from news sources across the web, and then adjusts them to its audiences in schools. The articles are organized by topic area, and often published ‘adaptively,’ so that students can select their reading level and the article’s text will subtly change (in its vocabulary and syntax) according to their individual skill. 


The Digital Classroom

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Khan Academy is a fantastic resource for short video lessons, generally focused on math, science, and computer science at all grade levels. This is a great place to go for additional practice in a particular subject area — along with videos, there are short tests and practice questions that students can use to test their understanding. There are also diagnostic quizzes that will help place students along the spectrum of skill levels, and a point system that allows students to earn badges for mastering content. The core feature, though, is video content that can be paused, replayed, slowed down, so that students can review a challenging concept from class at their own pace while working through a difficult homework task. And heads up for the high school years — Khan Academy recently partnered with Collegeboard to offer a completely free SAT prep curriculum, including practice tests and problem breakdowns. 


Brainpop

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Brainpop is another resource for educational videos and games—but with an animated, cartoon look that is approachable and engaging, better for some students than the blackboard aesthetic of Khan Academy (and with a wider range of topics). 

High School Helpers

Online Reading Guides

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 Lit Charts is a competitor of SparkNotes, and offers a well-designed theme-tracking interface that makes it easy to ‘chart’ the development of a major theme from chapter to chapter, which can be very helpful when seeking out evidence for an analytical essay — there’s even a section on important quotes organized by theme. It’s also a source for very thorough summary and analysis breakdowns, chapter by chapter and page by page, so that students can preview difficult texts or review before an exam. Two more helpful features: the literary devices and terms reference guide, and a modern, line by line adaption of every play by William Shakespeare. 


Academic Writing Centers

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Academic writing centers can provide guidance as students begin to embark on more challenging essay assignments. The Harvard Writing Center site offers tips for each step of the writing process, from breaking down an assignment to developing a thesis, and from rough draft to final copy. The Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) is another great resource for academic writing — when we use Purdue OWL with students, though, it’s most often specifically to explore the comprehensive guide to citation practices. Whether your student’s teacher prefers MLA, APA, or Chicago Style citations, Purdue OWL is one of the web’s best references for the nuanced formatting requirements of a well-made bibliography. 


Citation Tools

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BibMe, or any of its comparable competitors (such as Easybib, Citationmachine, Citefast), is a quick and easy upgrade to the traditional approach to creating a bibliography. Students can enter the title of a book, journal article, or website, specify a style of citation, and then sit back while the site seeks out the relevant publication information and generates a complete citation. As with any time-saving digital shortcut, though, be sure to double check the site’s work, so that the occasional glitch does not slip by undetected.


The Google Toolbox

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Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Sheets — Students today will no doubt already have encountered the most common of these Google Apps before high school, but now is the time to master them. It’s worth taking the time to create an organizational system for docs and slides in Google Drive, broken down by school year and subject. Students should also play around with the different collaboration tools, learning how to make suggested edits and respond to comments. With the right adjustment in settings, Google Docs can also be edited and composed offline, which can be incredibly valuable when students are fighting to remain focused in the always-connected cybersphere. One under appreciated app in the Google toolbox is Google Keep, an intuitive checklist maker and digital bulletin board that can be a useful place to track assignments and gather notes - an easily installable extension in Google Chrome will allow students to pin any article from across the web on their Keep platform, and notes can then be tagged to a specific category and color coded for organization. Encourage students to explore how they can customize their experience with these apps to work more efficiently and increase their productivity.


Spellchecker 2.0

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Grammarly is an online grammar checking app that can effectively proofread both academic papers and everyday emails; if students submit an essay to the Grammarly platform, they can receive a detailed breakdown of grammatical errors with short explanations or suggested fixes, cleanly and clearly displayed. The app will also automatically detect plagiarism, using a web-scraping capability similar to that now used by many teachers to check over digitally submitted assignments. With this function, students can be alerted to any quotes or ideas in their work that haven’t been properly cited before they turn it in as a finished product.