What is the difference between a class room course or a similar course by studying and taking examination online? Are online degree, diploma or certification courses recognized? Well, both have got its merits as well as its warts.

Characteristics of classroom courses are:-

When attending classroom educational courses and programs, you will have the peace of mind that you are actually attending a traditional teaching course although it is just psychological.

a) You are able to interact and ask questions with your course instructors and teachers.

b)You will have classmates to discuss issues pertaining to your lessons.

c)The downsides of classroom educational courses are:-

d)Classroom courses are much more expensive than online courses because to conduct the courses, the institution you are attending have much higher over costs such as offering its facilities and staff maintaining them.

e)There is also traveling time to be taken into consideration which is unproductive time loss.

Characteristics of online educational courses are:-

a)You have the comfort of studying and taking exams from home. Certainly very beneficial for busy people like you.

b)You save money because online educational courses are much less expensive. This in turn can give you an opportunity to take up a course which you may not be able to afford if the course is offered only on attending classroom lessons.

c)You will be able to enroll for courses not available near where you live. That is online educational courses are also know as long distance learning.

d)You have the liberty to decide when to take online examinations since exams can be taken as and when you are ready. However, there is a risk that you may not take the exam because there is no pressure to do so.

e)You save traveling time from having to travel to classrooms for lessons.

The downsides of taking online courses are:-

a)The perception that online courses are inferior although many top educational institutions are offering top quality online courses.

b)Those online education examinations are of a lower quality. Again this may be another misconception because many quality institutions offering both online and classroom education programs set the same examination questions for both their classroom and online students. Even the markers of the examinations are the academics.

My opinion is that enrolling for online educational courses is much more sensible. Many people doubt the effectiveness of the online courses because of the mindset that traditional courses are better. This mindset was created when we were young and attending schools was the way we were brought up. Today, many educational lessons are now conducted online because of advance technologies which were then unavailable.

Critics cited that online courses had no teachers to guide the students. Now, let me ask the critics a question. Since all instructions are on the course materials, why should there be a need for someone to guide you and you pay good money for that? The course study materials are for you to study and most of the time you can email your educators should you have any questions. Therefore, the critic's argument is only for psychological peace of mind.

However, you must be prudent in choosing your online educators. This is because since many people have the perception that long distance online education is inferior, then choosing reputable educators and institutions will help to dispel such discrimination.