4. In the past, if you want to learn something new, you might have to go to school or some other places to attend a class. But nowadays, there is no need for you to do so because of the appearance of the online learning. Last year, the online learning market was worth $166. 5 billion. In the latest survey of Global Shapers, among 25, 000 young people across the world, 77. 84% of them reported having taken online courses.
However, the growth of online education has not been without challenges. Since its early start in the 1960s, online education has been always criticized (批评) by some people for being short of quality control, especially for being short of high-quality teachers. It's also been said that online learning keeps students away from some of the advantages of being in a classroom, such as the communication between the teacher and the students face to face. Besides, being in a classroom doesn't always demand the Internet connection and the electricity supply.
Regardless of these concerns, online education has made great improvements in recent years. For starters, more and more schools of higher learning have introduced or improved their online education platforms. And a number of providers have also turned to user ratings (评价). "Star teacher", for example, has become a popular rating method in some countries. It commonly uses star symbols to show users' opinions about teachers and their lessons, which helps good teachers stand out from others.
Such progress seems to have reduced the doubt about the quality of teaching, and 40. 56% of people in the survey of Global Shapers have said online education is as strong as traditional learning in a classroom.
The development of education technology has also made online education become easier to get and more controllable than ever before. What a student needs are a computer, an Internet connection, and some basic IT skills. As for losing some advantages of a traditional classroom, online education has been making up for this through its flexibility (灵活性) and low cost. Besides, some people say that online education has greatly helped make easier to get, thus achieving the goal of "education for all".