Some universities now offer their courses on the Internet so that people can study online. Is this a positive or negative development? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Online learning has already started conquering the university world, with lessons now delivered through apps such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom. As any time that a change occurs, it is natural to ask yourself: is this good or bad? It is true that many positive aspects can be found. First of all, online learning offers students flexibility. Thanks to online classes, it is now possible to follow lessons almost anywhere, with the only need for an Internet source and hopefully some silence. It is also useful in terms of time: while with traditional classes, students were forced to make time to travel for a certain place to their class, maybe leaving earlier in order not to be late, now with online classes they can follow lessons from the comfort of their houses, using all the time previously spent on commuting for something else. Last but not least, it is also cheaper: the only costs students will have to face are university fees and maybe the price of a computer, if they don't already own one. If we want to be extremely precise, we could add Internet expenses, but that's it. Students won't need to transfer if the university is in a different city from their hometown and therefore they won't have to pay rent fees and the general costs of living in another city. However, online learning has also a darker side. What students earn in terms of extra time or save in terms of money, they lose in terms of human interaction. Are we sure that interacting with professors and classmates through a computer screen is the same as in person? Not only the communication online is more difficult, but it usually leads to more incomprehensions since it's harder to understand other people's feelings and emotion through a computer. In addition, for all of those students that are starting their university experience online, it's far more difficult to make friendes or establish meaningful relationships if they have never met their classmates in person. If we believe that the university experience is important not only for what we can learn and how we can improve in terms of academic success, but also for the human interactions we can have and the ability to work and co-operate with others we can obtain, then online learning is now the right solution. And it's also important not to forget the health repercussions online learning could have: is it really healthy to spend that much time in front of a computer? Prolonged screen time could lead to a worse eyesight or at best cause headaches, which even if short are certainly not pleasant. In terms of health, online learning could also lead to a more sedentary lifestyle, which is already one of the biggest problems of the present time, since we are slowly becoming more sedentary everyday. In conclusion, it can be said that the negative aspects of online learning outweigh the positive ones and thus universities should prefer traditional methods of learning.