Classroom learning has occurred for thousands of years. One of the first known civilizations, Sumer, had classroom learning where future priests used cuneiform and clay tablets. In this system, and the ones that followed for centuries, only the very wealthy could afford education, with the students usually young males, reports UCLA's Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative website.
In the United States, a push towards public education began as early as 1785, when the Northwest Ordinance called for a portion of land sales in each township in the Michigan Territory to go toward schools. By the 1840s, reformers such as Horace Mann and Henry Banard began creating statewide school systems, a model followed to this day.
Online learning began in the private sector as a way for companies to train new employees. In 1994, the first complete online curriculum was offered by CalCampus; by 2006, 3.5 million students were involved in some sort of online learning course, reports American InterContinental University.
Classroom learning, as its name implies, occurs in a classroom as a teacher or professor imparts information to students in the form of lectures, discussions, and learning materials. Classroom-based learning may also involve lab work, where students practice procedures and processes. In online learning, a teacher or professor provides instruction and learning materials in the form of Internet-based resources, such as websites, videos, online presentations, digital scans of texts and interactive software.
Classroom learning requires a physical location and set schedule, allowing students to interact and receive feedback from teachers immediately and easily take part in study groups and group projects. With Internet-based learning, students can reside anywhere in the world as long as they have a computer to access the needed materials. While online courses have deadlines, learning and other activities can occur at any time before the deadline, and can occur conjunction with other activities, such as child care.
A physical location means that students must live close enough to the classroom to attend. Students who have full-time jobs or other responsibilities may find the set schedule challenging, and a few students can dominate discussions or sensitive topics may create an uncomfortable learning environment. To learn online, students need a computer that connects to the Internet and software to access the learning materials. While online learners can benefit from group activities, the lack of physical contact can make group interaction difficult, and it usually takes the teacher longer to answer questions and provide feedback.
While classroom learning and online learning both improve students' education and job training, successful online learning requires specific personal skills and qualities. The individual nature of online learning makes it easy to miss deadlines or not complete group assignments. Students participating in online learning should have strong organizational skills as well as a solid work ethic, cautions the University of Connecticut.