Online vs Offline Learning Survey in Education Sector – 2024

According to the Online vs Offline Learning Survey in Education Sector and other studies across the world, Video usage in the education sector is expected to grow significantly in 2022. Following the onset of the pandemic in 2020, video content evolved into an essential tool for work, education, communication, and entertainment worldwide. According to Statista, in the 4th quarter of 2021, educational videos recorded an audience reach of 34 per cent among internet users worldwide. The main drivers of this growth will be the increasing use of video in online learning and the growing demand for video-based learning content.

In 2022, video usage analysis will be used extensively in the education sector to improve the quality of learning. By tracking and analyzing the usage of videos, educators will identify which videos are most effective in engaging students and teaching them new concepts. This information will then be used to create more effective videos that can be used in classrooms across the world.

The increasing use of videos for learning and teaching purposes is expected to drive market growth. The market is expected to be driven by the growing demand for video-based learning tools and the increasing demand for online education. The ever-increasing adoption of video-based learning tools by educational institutes is expected to boost the market growth. As per the BusinessWire report, The US and China are leading countries in the eLearning sector due to the rapid increase in the available online courses and course hosting platforms, rise in disposable income per capita, and internet penetration. The North American region is expected to dominate the eLearning market in 2022.

Many research studies related to eLearning have provided that students benefit from e-learning. These benefits can be summarized as providing time and location flexibility, helping the educational institution to save time and money, providing self-directed and self-paced learning activities, building an environment to study collaboratively in the distance; make available learning materials anytime.

Under the view of these previous research findings, this Online vs Offline Learning Survey in Education Sector aims to examine the impact of video consumption on online learning in 2022. The Video Usage Analysis Survey in the education sector in 2022 will aim to understand the current and future video usage trends in the education sector.

The Online vs Offline Learning Survey in Education Sector will focus on understanding the video usage patterns of K12 students, Graduates, Exam Aspirants and those who are Employed. It will also identify the factors influencing video usage in the education sector. The Online vs Offline Education Survey in 2022 is a comprehensive report that provides a detailed overview of the current and future use of video in the education sector.

Education Survey Background and Objectives

Surveys are important because they provide researchers with data that can be used to make informed decisions. Survey data can help researchers understand how people feel about a specific issue, how they behave, and what they believe. Surveys are often the best and usually only reliable way—to discover what people think and want.

Our Video Usage Analysis Survey aimed to collect information and opinion of students, aspirants, professionals, and graduates about how video consumption impacted learning in 2021. We collected unbiased survey data and analyzed it based on results or opinions. This valuable feedback is our baseline to measure and establish a benchmark to compare results over time.

Online vs Offline Learning Survey in Education Sector Methodology

The Video Usage Analysis Survey was conducted in January 2022 by VdoCipher. The analysis in this report is based on both Online Polls and Manual Survey Questionnaires. The Manual Survey was conducted among a sample of participants, including K12 students, Graduates, Aspirants preparing for competitive exams, and employed. The Manual Survey Questionnaires were distributed via Google Forms for the participants to fill in. Also, the participants were limited to demography based in India.  On the online side, the poll was conducted on social media covering Global demography.

Manual Survey Questionnaires are important because they allow for more personal interaction with the respondent. This can help to gather more accurate information. Manual Survey Questionnaires provide accurate data about people’s opinions and experiences. They can be conducted in a variety of ways, including through interviews, focus groups, and our chosen way of questionnaire forms.

Our Manual Survey methodology involved a few in-person questionaries which included multiple-choice questions (5), Yes/No Questions (5) and some Open-ended questions (2). The verbal responses were collected on a Google Spreadsheet attached to Google Forms for further analysis in combination with the results of Online Poll results.

Nearly, 30% of the respondents gave no answer to the subjective question about the platform and reason of liking and that’s why their data was cleaned and processed for observation results to be procured. They were usually marked with “None Specific” and “No Reason Specified” markings respectively.

Survey Results (Charts, Stats and Online Poll result)

In this section, we will present the outcome of our Video Usage Analysis Survey and will try to draw various inferences out of it. We will also present related study results so that the viewers can observe the similarity and contradictions based on their sample demography or time frame in which they were conducted.

The Shift in Learning Mode

Internet usage has seen a tremendous surge in the form of video chats, video streaming, online classes, and online gaming since early 2020.

• A Pew Research survey highlighted that 90% of Americans believe the internet has been essential to them.
• In our Video Usage Analysis Survey, 46.3% learned new things in life by both offline and online means. Among the remaining, 38.8% believed online mediums helped them learn things. The proportion of offline learning in life was just 14.9%. This may be presumed due to the shift from traditional learning to online learning in recent years.
• Statistics by Statista also show that internet penetration in the United States is at approximately 91%. We adopted – willingly and not-so-willingly – new ways of using the internet for business, education, and social activities.
• Similar to the Manual Survey results, when the audience were asked to choose among the two modes, 65.75% of respondents chose the ‘Online’ mode out of 946 responses received for the question.
  

Online Education better than Offline?

Online education will continue to increase in popularity as costs get lower due to technological availability and the quality of instruction continues to evolve and improve. Learning online will become more of a norm and less of a novelty within the next generation.

• In December 2020, the U.S. National COVID-19 School Response Dashboard found nearly 56% of schools adopting a hybrid model, 29% offering in-person instruction, and 15% running remotely.
• While in our Manual Survey, only 47.8% of participants believed that online education is better than offline. With 52.2% of participants inclined towards offline education, the margin seems very small.
• As per the ‘How America Pays for College report’, conducted by Ipsos, 75% of college students and their families prefer to have in person-only or hybrid learning next semester, citing difficulty concentrating and difficulty collaborating with peers among their top critiques of online education.
• In the conducted online poll survey, the audience was asked the question, “Is online education better than offline?”. 1074 poll responses were recorded. Nearly 61% of the audience felt online education to be better than traditional learning. For Higher Education or 4-year institutions, retention rates for online students were 60–65% compared to a 75–80% retention rate of students in offline courses. This report was published after thorough research in 2016.

Both online and offline learning has specific benefits and drawbacks. To the learners, Some learners prefer interactive and visual methods. Others prefer face-to-face training to online training. Both types of education are essential in their own right. Even though online learning has benefited us, it will never replace classroom education completely.

Have you benefited more from online learning?

Peer-reviewed open access scientific journal, PLOS One accessed student’s experiences with online teaching following Covid-19. In the survey, after two weeks of online education, 8/16 students (50%) expected that their learning outcomes would be inferior with online education compared to their pre-COVID-19 education at campus. After 12 weeks, 15/ 21 students (71%) expected their learning outcome to be lower, and, notably, none of the students expected it would be higher. On both occasions, most students reported that studying had become more difficult compared to the time before the pandemic.

On the contrary, we were able to observe that participants who were nearly forced to adopt Online Education due to Covid-19 for 2 years have a better acceptance. Their responses include 55.2% of participants choosing ‘yes’ as their choice and the remaining 44.8% believing in Offline modes of learning.

Cost of Online Education vs Offline Education

A study called “Making Digital Learning Work,” released by Arizona State University analysed the cost of delivering education of large-scale online efforts at six colleges and universities. In the study, When they compared the overall costs of online courses with average costs at four of the institutions, they found that the savings for online courses ranged from $12 to $66 per credit hour, a difference of from 3 per cent to 50 per cent of the average credit hour costs”

Digital learning can help institutions reduce costs and pass along savings to students. This can be done through three primary mechanisms: raising student-to-instructor ratios, drawing on a broader network of adjunct faculty, and avoiding additional operations costs.”

The same can be corroborated in our Manual study where 61.2% of participants believe that Offline Education is costlier than Online one. In the online survey, we asked the audience to choose “Which education system they believe is more costly?”. Interestingly, out of 1070 poll responses, 621 (58%) respondents opted for Online education as more costly compared to offline.

To understand the contrast between the Online and Manual Survey, we must recall that Manual Survey had an audience only limited to India and the Online Poll had a Global audience. This can also be inferred as the Indian Audience having a majority overview towards Online Education being less costly while the Global audience having a reverse overview on that.

Have you ever done Online Group Study?

The benefits of online group study are many. First, online group study allows students to learn in a collaborative setting from one another. This type of study can provide students with various perspectives and deepen their understanding of the course material.

Additionally, online group study can help students develop essential teamwork skills. Various skills teachers can educate students on different in-demand subjects, such as programming, digital marketing, copywriting, or UI/UX design. Group members must work together to stay on track and complete assignments on time. Finally, online group study can be a cost-effective way for students to receive supplemental instruction.

• One participant in the survey says that screen-sharing allows him to better understand some of the students’ issues in the group. Some participants feel that there’s simply no ideal replacement for face-to-face study groups. Beyond the other considerations, online learning requires more self-discipline.
• While many K-12 students are now connecting using Zoom to form smaller group study communities. 55.2% of the respondents said they had done online group studies, while 44.8% did not feel a need for the same.

Recorded Videos, Live Classes or eBooks?

The participants were given four choices to select – Recorded videos, eBooks, Live Classes – One to One, and Live Classes – One to Many.

• Interestingly, 55.2% opted for recorded videos, followed by Live Classes One to Many (23.9%), Live Classes – One to One (17.9%), and 3% for ebooks. The result clearly states that students prefer video learning over ebooks. The reasons can be many.
• Recorded Video content is absorbed in a more accessible and easier manner. Students can learn and review in their way to playback recorded lectures. Learning is more easily accessible for everyone with playback speed adjustment and closed captioning features. This way, students who may have disabilities or prefer to learn a certain way can review what works for them.
• Some participants said they need to hear lessons more than once to comprehend. They can re-watch lectures as many times as they want or need. Also, without thinking about slowing down the class or course for everyone else.
• Coming to Live Classes One to One, which was the second voted online learning content mode, one K12 student says, conversations are almost student-driven. The student has complete control over the instructor’s questions and their feedback. Some students feared answering questions in one to many live classes and comparatively felt less stress in one to one interactive classes.

Social debates are already raging on the internet and offline on whether ebooks are still the best way to learn or learning videos presents a better alternative. Both learning modes have their strengths, and one is always better for specific tasks over the other. For example, videos appear as a better medium when used for introducing complex topics instead of reading.

Short vs Long Videos

According to the research study at the University of Wisconsin, most students agreed online video content learning helped them. Also, it notably worked best when video length was kept below 15 minutes. Another article by Wall Street Journal, too, made the same deductions. The optimal preferred video length is 6 minutes or shorter. This was when the students watched most of the way through these short videos.

• The average engagement time of any video is a maximum of 6 minutes, regardless of the video length. Also, the engagement rate decrease as videos lengthens. On average, learners spent around 3 minutes on videos longer than 12 minutes. This means they engaged with less than a quarter of the video content.
• Certificate-earning students engaged more with videos, maybe because they had greater motivation to learn the material. The VdoCipher survey found participants opting for short video content (40.3%) over long-form video content (16.4%). For 43.3% of participants, the length of the video was not a concern. They were comfortable in both, short and long videos.

Do you think your school should be available in the Online format?

The use of online courses among K-12 students has grown rapidly in recent years. All high schools in metro cities now require students to take at least one online course. Most online courses, particularly those serving K-12 students, have a format much more similar to in-person courses. The teachers have virtual discussions among the students, assign homework, and follows up with individual students. On comparing online and in-person classes, however, online classes aren’t as effective as in-person classes for most students.

Jessica Heppen and colleagues from the American Institutes for Research, assigned second-semester Algebra failed students to either take face-to-face or online courses in the summer. Students algebra test scores were lower in the online medium. They also rated their class more difficult than their peer of face-to-face option.

58.2% of our survey participants feel that schools should not be in the online format. Both studies found evidence that online schooling was less effective.

Overall, Being in person with teachers and students creates social pressures and benefits that help motivate students to engage. Some students do as well good in online courses as in in-person courses, some may actually do better. On average, students do worse in the online setup, and this is mainly true for students with weaker academic backgrounds.

Other Research on Online Vs Offline Education

One research conducted by Senthil Veerasamy and Susobhan Goswami, published in the International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (2022), explores the academic performance of students in online versus offline learning environments. The study utilized statistical tools like descriptive analysis, independent t-tests, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to assess whether online learning provides better academic performance compared to offline (face-to-face) learning.

Descriptive statistics showed a slight advantage for offline learning in terms of academic performance, with average scores of 73 (offline) versus 71 (online). Independent t-tests and ANOVA further supported the significant impact of the mode of learning on academic performance.

Another study conducted by Priyanka, published in the International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (2023), investigates the preferences between online and offline modes of learning, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This research collected data from 100 students across various regions in India, using an online survey structured into four sections to gather personal information and views on both learning modes.

Key findings and data include:

• Demography – The respondents consisted of 53% males and 47% females, primarily aged 18 to 25 years. The educational background ranged from high school to postgraduate levels, with a significant portion in urban areas (58%).
• Preference – 53.5% preferred offline learning, while 46.5% opted for online learning.
• Inclination – 70.7% favored hard copy study materials, showing a strong inclination towards traditional learning resources.
• Compatibility – 60% reported no difficulty in finding offline coaching, indicating accessibility to face-to-face educational services.
• Focus – A higher focus and interaction were noted in offline classes, with 80% of students finding them more engaging and motivating.
• Technology – About 60% had a laptop, and 88% had an internet connection, crucial for online learning.
• Engagement – Despite the convenience of online learning in saving time and enhancing efficiency, a considerable percentage of students (64%) felt bored compared to offline classes.
• Online Platforms – YouTube was the most used platform (86%), followed by Google Meet and specific educational websites.

Appendices

Survey Questionnaire

1. How do you mostly learn new things in Life?
   Online/Offline/Both
2. Do you think Online education is better than offline?
   Yes/No
3. Have you benefited more from online learning?
   Yes/No
4. Which Education System is more costly?
   Online/Offline
5. Are you aware of any Online Tutorial (Tuition/Coaching) platforms?
   Yes/No
6. Have you ever done Online Group Study?
   Yes/No
7. Which type of Online Learning Content do you like more?
   Recorded Videos/Live Classes – One on One/Live Classes – One to Many/eBooks
8. What Videos do you like more?
   Short/Long/Both
9. Do you think your school should be available in the Online format?
   Yes/No
10. How many daily hours do you usually spend on Online Learning?
    <2 hours/>2 hours
11. Which eLearning site or App is most used by you and why do you like it?
    Subjective Answer

Technical Terms

We have tried to produce this report in very easy language for our intelligent users. We believe that moderate terms like sample size and demography are also understandable as per our readers’ capabilities. If we have missed explaining a term within the report, kindly search it on any search engine of your choice and we believe it will be easily learned.

Ethical Considerations

All participants gave their informed consent. The questionnaires did not include questions about personal health information or sensitive data. The quantitative data were collected through a self-administered survey. The participants provided their written consent to draw observations on data except for their names and identity.

FAQs

Why Classroom Learning Is Better Than Online?

The physical presence in a classroom environment enhances focus, minimizes distractions, and fosters a sense of community and collaboration among students. The structured schedule of offline learning helps in better time management and discipline, contributing to more effective learning outcomes.

What Is Better Online Or Offline Classes?

Offline classes are better for those who value face-to-face interaction, hands-on learning experiences, and a structured learning environment. On the other hand, online classes offer flexibility, accessibility, and convenience, especially for those with time constraints or geographical limitations.

What Is Offline Education?

Offline education typically involves standard teaching aids like textbooks, physical materials, and on-site facilities, emphasizing real-time learning and interaction.

What Major Difference Do You Find In The Teaching Of Online Classes And Offline Classes?

The major difference between online and offline classes lies in the mode of interaction and communication. Offline classes benefit from direct, in-person interaction, allowing for nuanced communication, including non-verbal cues, immediate feedback, and spontaneous discussions. In contrast, online classes rely on digital platforms, offering greater flexibility and accessibility but potentially limiting the immediacy and depth of teacher-student interaction.

References

• Business Wire – link
• Statistsa – link
• Sallimae – link
• PLOS Journal – link
• Academia Edu – link
• US Edu – link
• Delhi Univ – link