Topic: Write a 250-300 word essay on the following topic: "Evaluate the effects of online educational programs on students’ performance."

Online courses are now becoming more and more popular day by day among educators, especially students due to the COVID - 19 pandemic. This essay will evaluate this learning form’s impacts on students’ achievements and make an objective judgment on its value. The essay will provide several pieces of evidence of online classes, proving that this kind of education brings both benefits and drawbacks. First, it will define this method and its popularity. Then, it will estimate how online courses affect students’ lifestyle and their study results. In the last 2020, a deadly pandemic disease called COVID - 19, caused by Coronavirus broke out and quickly spread to the world. As a consequence of this outbreak, a tremendous number of countries had to lock down their cities, which means closing schools. Students could not go to school for a long time, leading to the delay of education. To handle this, the government decided to open online classes instead of schools. Online learning was born, in its first few months, it seems difficult for both learners and teachers to get used to it. But nowadays, online courses become the most viral learning way in those countries that are struggling with the pandemic. On one hand, online learning does partly handle the problem of educational postponement. Thanks to cutting-edge technology, teachers are still able to transfer knowledge to students even though they could not meet face to face. Moreover, most online learning tools namely Zoom and Microsoft Teams have a recording mode and save it as an mp4 video. This assists those who cannot understand their teachers’ lessons at that time or have some connection troubles can review and understand it in depth. Last but not least, online classes provide students a clearer view of teachers’ lessons Powerpoint, or notes on the blackboard. It is undeniable that students these days are more likely to be nearsighted, which is the reason why they find it hard to follow and take notes of the lesson. On the other hand, there are certain drawbacks to learning online. The most common and objective matter relates to network connection and devices. It is irrefutable that the network seems to be unable to handle an enormous use of people around the world, resulting in the laggy connection that educators usually deal with. Besides, sometimes even devices could be broken or lag too, such as microphones, cameras, or audios. This problem would lead to the misunderstanding of the lesson of that student. In addition, students would be lazier and have a bad learning lifestyle because of the teachers’ uncontrol. This phenomenon might make students’ achievements go down as a result of not studying. The introduction of this essay highlighted that online learning has profound effects on students’ outcomes. This evaluation essay has shown that these impacts have both positive and negative sides. However, after considering both sides, it is easy to see that online courses cannot be more effective than offline courses, and the latter assists students in results better than the former.