Education online is the method of educating people through the means of the Internet. A large number of physical universities, colleges, and schools offer education online. There are also virtual online colleges. Online education enables a person to earn a degree sitting at home. The concept of education online has brought a revolutionary change in the life of many people.

Online education is a boon to those people who have a desire to educate themselves but are not able to go to a traditional college because they cannot afford to attend or afford to spare the time to go. Also, traditional courses are more time-consuming and expensive. One can earn an associate, bachelors, master’s, or even doctoral degrees in various disciplines through online education.

Education online is free from time and space constraints, as anyone from anywhere in the world at any time can utilize the various programs available online. A wide range of educational tools and resources are available on the internet. These resources can serve as a library and research center for students taking online education. Professors and teachers can be reached through e-mail, which is the main means of correspondence on the internet. Students can take part in online forums with other students studying the same course or subject. A student taking online education can learn at his own pace.

In spite of all these advantages, online education has a few disadvantages. The main disadvantage is that the student has to work on his own, and no one will be there to verify the progress. Another major disadvantage is the lack of interaction, such as the question and answer session in a traditional classroom.

There are thousands of online programs listed in Internet directories from which one can choose the best and the most appropriate organizations for his requirements. Some universities also offer student support services such as online counseling and registration, and purchasing of textbooks online.

What Is Analytical English?

When the author refers to analytical English, she means that teachers can do more than teach rudimentary grammar and speaking. Reading with literary analysis can be employed at any stage/level to improve speaking skills. Analytical-English teachers explore literary elements including plot, setting, conflict, crisis, characterization, rising action, symbolism, foreshadowing, theme, tone, subplots, resolution, and more. These concepts are intertwined with grammatical analysis. Their students embark on a journey that entails investigating the mystery that makes a story great. Conducting such an analysis stimulates the mind to help pupils learn to think analytically in a way that might be applied to other domains, including science, social studies, and more. Students formulate their questions and participate in the construction of the curriculum, along with their teachers. It is of most importance that students ask questions along with their teachers and that analysis apply to real life as well as dreams.

Incorporating Literature and Great Books

Although grammar has always been taught in British and American schools, other European schools (i.e. Italian) focus more on the grammatical structure of English rather than on literary analysis. Native English speakers often point out that content and meaning are more important than grammatical structure. Great writers and speakers learn to write and speak well by reading and examining many great books and articles. Even authentic materials such as newspapers, popular books, and magazines stimulate practical analysis in the classroom, be it online or in a brick-and-mortar school. Utilizing literary analysis enables pupils to become familiar with collocations, idioms, and the natural rhythm of the language, precisely why the author believes teachers should utilize the online format to stress the importance of literary and communicative analysis. One might start with an ‘essential question’ that sparks classroom enquiry as follows: How does the portrayal of women in Shakespeare’s plays reflect on the role of women throughout the ages?

Although the Shakespearean example is appropriate for upper-intermediate and high-level learners, this topic can be simplified for lower-level classes. If one teaches English-language-learners, the materials should be more accessible and at a lower level. The teacher might utilize pages from a fashion magazine or simple articles about fashion and then follow the reading with a question about the importance of fashion in our lives today. For example, one might ask: How important is it to be fashionable at a first meeting? What is ‘your’ favourite fashion? Which colours are trending today? Keep in mind that when teaching very young learners, literature about the family, friends, and pets is not only age-appropriate but also fun and developmental, so it is okay to be very basic.

General Structure with Visuals and Props

Teachers might wish to start with PowerPoint presentations or slides to lead the group’s conversation. Although it takes time to create visual presentations, it is well worth it because visuals can activate visual learners’ knowledge. Such PowerPoints enable the discussion to follow a specific outlined path and ease discussion. Using visual presentations provides a window into the natural outdoors or other multicultural environments. Likewise, teachers may ask students to produce and share their visuals for the class since this is much more creative than asking students merely to receive information. The process of creating digital presentations for classmates stimulates everyone to become active communicators in a world in which digital communication is indispensable. Furthermore, the time those students spend researching for such presentations stimulates their minds.

Props are another three-dimensional form of visual presentations. Such props include items in the room. Many teachers enjoy using whiteboards on which they draw. Likewise, they implement the use of a digital whiteboard. Everything in the room is a potential prop. Standard props include stuffed-animal toys, bottles of water, dolls, small statues, flags, phones, puppets, plastic-toy-food, purses, phones, and drawings on paper. The author enjoys utilizing artificial-intelligence devices as props. She poses questions to Alexa, Cortana, and Hey-Google during the lesson. Students thoroughly enjoy hearing some responses that come from these bots. In order to be very creative, students are asked to share objects that relate to the literature that they are exploring. For example, young learners could share a precious necklace that relates to O’Henry’s short story ‘The Necklace’.

Letting Students Make Presentations

Presenting a recorded show or live theater for an online class gives students of all ages a sense of accomplishment. Moreover, the research that goes into the project builds scholars’ self-confidence. Teachers can find recordings of old radio shows from the 1900s to share in class or as homework in order to get a better understanding of the history of recorded radio shows. Homework that requires students to hear recorded discussions will help them develop linguistic proficiency. Advanced learners benefit from hearing the history of various types of English including Received Pronunciation, Posh Language, the Mid-Atlantic Accent, as well as any other language registers that one might find. Special consideration of the teen-language register, the business-language register, and other ways of speaking will be valuable.

Naturally, some students will be more receptive than others to oral presentations in groups. In order to deal with those who are not enthusiastic about an assignment, teachers could provide a challenging, alternative assignment. Alternatives might include creating puzzles for the class, designing diagrams, singing songs, or merely writing poems. Adults should give input as to how a specific project will meet their needs with regards to their careers. Children will learn about their preferences and might be encouraged to share their feelings about them.

Message Boards and Texting

Most online platforms have an area where people can write their thoughts and questions. As the class progresses, one adds new words and concepts to create a general outline. The message board is a functional area where students who enjoy writing can add their queries and feedback while others who like to ask questions aloud can ask them openly. The message board for texting appeals to students who love writing and to those who are too timid to speak out. Texting permits pupils to contribute without interrupting someone else in the class. Some digital platforms even have a function that permits students to raise digital hands and show agreement with a happy face. When the class is over, contributors can continue to communicate with one another after class or leave questions for the teacher. Texting the class can be done throughout the week at any time of day, although it is also essential that the instructor monitor the messages to confirm that they are respectful, thoughtful, and appropriate.

Videos and Documents

Sharing videos and books online is easy enough. Teachers share videos with students by sharing their screens during class time. Skype has a link that one can click so that everyone sees the videos concurrently. Alternatively, instructors might assign the videos to be seen before class or afterwards as homework. The internet provides countless audiovisual options that one can use if he or she does not create homemade videos. Teachers must make good choices when choosing audiovisuals that are fitting for the audience, especially when dealing with children. Teachers need to be judicious when selecting tutorials that provide extra practice outside of class. Likewise, they can choose from countless free PDF books (primarily classic books) that are available in online libraries. One can easily share them on a message board where students can download them. Otherwise, teachers might provide links to online libraries where students do valuable research that will benefit them in the future.

Drawing and Design

It is worthwhile to let students express themselves through drawing and design, sharing concepts by creating drawings on digital drawing pads or tablets. These designs are considered more useful in some fields than in others. They can be particularly useful in an analytical English class that inspires students to illustrate portions of stories or characters. Perhaps students can guess what their classmates try to illustrate. Art critiques encourage non-native speakers to improve their interpretive skills. Additionally, such homemade digital drawings might be the topics of guessing games, students drawing a person, place, thing, or idea, so their classmates can ask questions to guess what they have tried to represent.

Games

Depending on the classroom audience, games help everyone get to know each other and bond as a group. Even if the instructor is not teaching in a brick-and-mortar classroom, he or she can still utilize fun online games. In larger groups, it is advisable to assign students to teams. Teamwork can be done during class time or outside of the digital class. Classmates might research a writer, a book, or a historical period to be described so other teams can guess what they describe. The guess-the-job game is quite popular. The fill-in-the-blank game requires students to write a word while the other group has to guess the missing letters. Students give clues to their classmates to help them deduce the answers. Players might create crossword puzzles related to literature for the class, or the teacher generates acrostics. Not only should games be about guessing words, but they might be competitions requiring the class to solve a problem. Likewise, students might fashion new games.

Big Idea Versus Structure: Communicative English Teaching

The Communicative English Teaching Method (CLT) proves compelling because it engages students in the type of conversation that is related to ordinary situations that they encounter in their daily lives. Every scene in a book is fresh material for discussion related to existence. The teacher’s job is to ask important questions that stimulate such conversations. The success of this activity depends on the teacher’s ability to formulate queries while guiding the class down a unique path. Although communicative English teaching is geared toward ESL students, it is directly related to analytical-literature-teaching that explores the terminology of literature. Communicative teaching serves as the introduction, while advanced analysis of literature is the outcome applied to all endeavors. Ultimately, the big idea trumps simple structure.

CLT has distant roots in Sophocles’ dialectic method, which entails having a dialogue between two or more individuals who ask and answer enquiries to extract new ideas. Exploratory questions elicit an enhanced understanding of any theme. For example, teachers probe for inferences, consequences, viewpoints, and motives. In the early 1960s, Noam Chomsky pointed out in ‘Syntactic Structures’ that the structure of language itself was not enough to explain the creativity and function of language. Subsequently, British teachers wanted to do more than teach grammatical form; they needed to teach practical function through guided communication.

The central idea of communicative teaching is to get students to communicate much information to express themselves fully, even if they make some errors. Students need to communicate about authentic subjects that are significant to their lives. In the online format, it is possible to do this while engaging in amusing dialogues associated with books and practical life. After having considered these interconnections between literary analysis and CLT, the author of this article maintains it is possible to interconnect pleasant literature with natural communication related to real lives in an online context. These exercises include and are not limited to roleplay, task-completion, jigsaw, and opinion-sharing, all easily accomplished online.

Teaching Online to Improve the Future

Teaching analytical literature challenges people to think about various settings, cultures, and situations. Science fiction opens students’ minds so that they can conceive what the future will be. Romance fiction enables students to observe human relationships. When students share their own narrative choices or write their own stories, this provides them with a foundation for a wide variety of English communication, comprising specific jargon related to medicine, law, business, and a wide selection of fields. An excellent online lesson plan can be manipulated to meet the necessities of learners from a variety of backgrounds with an assortment of learning styles. Learning to interconnect with classmates and work together online empowers everyone to support each other as a cohesive community in a globalized world. Teachers, like other employees, utilize smartworking while serving as examples for their students who will also benefit as future smartworkers in the field of analytical English as well as other professions.

With the available of education online, you have more than one option to complete a degree. You may choose to complete your college via traditional way where you have to attend the degree program in a brick-and-mortal college; or you can opt to pursue the degree online. Both options have the advantages and disadvantages. But, the advantages of education via online option may not benefit you if it is not the best option for you. So, you have to decide the education option that best fits for you regardless of the current trend of getting a degree online. Below are the 3 tips that you can use to decide the best way to pursue a degree:

1. List down the advantages and the benefits for each option

You will need two papers, or two spreadsheets for doing the assessment of the advantages and benefits for both education formats. Divide each paper/spreadsheet into two columns and label one column with “Advantages” and another column as “Benefits”. You can easily find the advantages of getting an education online from many online resources. List them down on a paper or spreadsheet. With the same process, find out the advantages of traditional education option and do the same by listing them down on another spreadsheet. Then, write the benefit of each advantage for education online and offline. The best education option should be the one with the most advantages that benefit you.

2. What is your prefer learning style?

There are many factors that make a success online student. In fact, online learning style and offline learning format have big differences. Students need to be able to adapt to online learning style if they want to successful in education online. You have to make sure you are one of the successful online students, else traditional education will be a better option for you. First, search from the internet on how to be successful online students. List down the factors to success in earning a degree online. You will find factors such as self-motivation, the ability of learning by reading instead of hearing to the lectures are among the factors of a successful online student. Are you able to adapt to these types of learning styles and be self-motivated to progress through the online degree program? Assess these factors sincerely and answer these questions honestly. If you have passed the self-assessment and ready to be an online student, then you are ready to pursue an education online.

3. Will you be a successful online student?

Many students have a misleading mindset about online education. They think everyone can success in online learning. In fact, the yearly online education reports have shown many students who have tried to earn a degree online failed to complete the courses. There are a few key factors to ensure a successful online students. You need to have the characteristics of a successful online students. Self-motivation, effectively time management and the ability to read and understand the learning materials in text format are among the factors that make a successful online student. Are you having these characteristics? If yes, your decision for education online is right, else you may be more successful as the traditional classroom-based student.

Summary

Education online and offline are the two options for you to pursue a degree. Use the above 3 tips to help you find the best education format for you.

It’s easy to feel isolated, as if you exist in a vacuum, when you spend hours and hours in the same classroom every day. If your school is small, you may feel like you’re living on an island. What if you want or need to connect with other teachers – teachers outside your school?With the advent of an online educational exchange, educators and other school professionals can collaborate on ideas and projects. You don’t have to live in your own little bubble anymore.While other teachers in your building may be supportive and helpful, they may not have the specific expertise that you need. Whether public or private, perhaps your school needs to hire a freelancer for some specific project. Or perhaps you have skills that you can offer to other educators and schools in distant parts of the country. No matter what you need, you can connect with other educators through an educational exchange website.An educational exchange is a portal that allows schools to sell their unwanted goods, and it’s free to post items. The portal allows teachers to offer their services and talents on a freelance basis, and almost anything goes. Whether you specialize in consulting or writing grants, there is a client waiting to pay you for your time and talent. All you have to do is link up with them.The Internet is truly a superhighway, so you no longer have to feel cut off from schools on the other side of the country. You can sell them your services, or they can sell you theirs. It’s a win-win situation. There is a much wider audience online than there is in your little vicinity. If you don’t think that anyone local wants to buy your used equipment, there may be someone five states away that is just waiting to snap up your unwanted materials.The sky’s the limit. Whether you need help, or you want to sell your services, all you have to do is reach out. You’re not restricted to your building or your community any longer. Unlike ordinary auction websites, an educational exchange allows you to deal strictly with other professionals in the education industry. Whether you want to post a project for help, or get rid of supplies and equipment that you can no longer use, there is a huge audience just waiting to connect with you.

In the old days, working individuals who had entered the workplaces seldom have chances to go back to school. They may need to scarify their jobs if they want to obtain a career related degree to keep themselves at the advantage edge in the highly competitive job market. Since the introduction of online education, working individuals have a better option to pursue a degree or any career related certification without the need to quit their job. What makes distance learning a better education alternative than the traditional classroom-based option?1. It fits any scheduleTraditional classroom-based learning format requires students to attend classes at preset schedules. The key problem of many working individuals is, they don’t have time that fits to all these preset schedule of courses in classroom-based learning style. This is one of the key reasons that make many working individuals who are interested in pursuing a degree for career enhancement not taking further action to sign up with the courses. Most distance learning programs are conducted asynchronous enable students to log on to the online classes at any time they like. As long as you are able to plan your own time and allocate the time on study, nothing will stop you from pursue a degree online via a distance learning program.2. You can enter the online classes from any placeDistance learning is conducted via internet connection. As long as you are at places that have internet access, you can log on the school’s online learning software to access the learning materials. For example, you are at the airport waiting for a flight after check-in, you can use the time to download the learning materials using a laptop, smart phone or iPad via WIFI connection, commonly available in most airports. Or, you have some spare time at office like after the lunch break, while waiting for a client or a meeting to start that can be optimized for studying because you can enter the learning system from any place.3. Able to choose the most related coursesA school is offering an education program that meets the most of your education goals, but it is located far away from where you live or work. Or, the education program you are interested in pursuing is offered by a university abroad. Is it a better option to quit your job, relocate to that place just to take the course or take the course via a distance learning program without giving up your job? Unless you want to enjoy a full-time college life, you will know that distance learning should be a better option with the features as explained above that benefit most of working individuals. Moreover, the similar courses offered by different schools may be different in term of education contents. With the available of online courses, you will be able to choose the best online courses that fit the best for you to meet your education goals without the worries of where the school that offers the program is located.SummaryDistance learning is a better education option for working adults who need flexible learning format to fit their busy schedule. You should consider the distance learning as the education option if you plan to obtain a degree as it should be a better option for working individuals who need a more flexible learning style.