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SCHOOL OF

ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET
STUDENT DETAILS
Student
name:
HUỲNH NGỌC YẾN NHƯ
UNIT AND TUTORIAL DETAILS
Unit
name:
Academic English
Tutorial group:
Lecturer or Tutor
name:

Student ID
number:

21001064

Unit
number:
Tutorial day and
time:

AEn-T321WSB-6
Mon, Tue, Thu
(8:00-11:15)

Mr. Gabriel Ryan

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS
Title:
Individual essay
Length
Due
:
1200 words
date:
Home campus (where you are
enrolled):

02/01/2022

Date
submitted:

02/01/2022

DECLARATION
I hold a copy of this assignment if the original is lost or damaged.
I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been copied from any other
student’s work or from any other source except where due acknowledgement is made in the
assignment.
I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been submitted by me in
another (previous or current) assessment, except where appropriately referenced, and
with prior permission from the Lecturer / Tutor / Unit Coordinator for this unit.
No part of the assignment/product has been written/produced for me by any other
person except where collaboration has been authorised by the Lecturer / Tutor /Unit

Coordinator concerned.
I am aware that this work will be reproduced and submitted to plagiarism detection software
programs for the purpose of detecting possible plagiarism (which may retain a copy on
its database for future plagiarism checking).

Student’s
signature:

Huỳnh Ngọc Yến Như


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Note: An examiner or lecturer / tutor has the right to not mark this assignment if the above
declaration has not been signed.

INDIVIDUAL ESSAY
AEN-T321WSB-6
LECTURER: MR. GABRIEL RYAN
Some universities offer online courses as an alternative to classes delivered on campus. Do you think it
is a positive or negative development?


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Education is widely acknowledged as a vital determinant of human development in every
nation. However, due to the complicated COVID-19 outbreak in the context of today's world, education
has been confronted with a multitude of difficulties and hardships, and practically almost all students
have been forced to switch from face-to-face classes to online learning. It seems to be the most
plausible solution up to the present time. According to Xu and Tang (2021), China's Internet users for
learning account for 46,8% of the total online ones. To be more specific, the number of online students

had risen to 423 million by March 2020, a remarkable growth compared to 222 million from the end of
2018. As the demand for distance courses is rising, an enormous number of educational institutions
have a propensity to provide e-learning as an alternative to on-campus classes. There is a social
controversy about whether this educational innovation should be applied or not. To clarify this issue,
the global market of e-learning, as well as its both-side impacts, will be indicated in the essay below.

Admittedly, the worldwide market of e-learning is on a sharp upward trend under the influence
of the COVID-19 pandemic. An online course, in general, is a web-based class that can be viewed on
digital devices (mobile phone, laptop, computer) through online education platforms such as Zoom,
Google Meets, Microsoft Teams. Strikingly, Coursera is an educational technology company that
provides every individual with massive open online courses (MOOCs) and degrees from approximately
80 leading universities and companies. In the past few years, before the emergence of COVID-19,
students tend to prefer the traditional face-to-face method, so remote learning seems to be far-fetched
and uncommon. At that time, online courses were considered to have a dreadful stigma, being seen by
various individuals as the 'poor cousin' of direct classes (Wieland & Kollias, 2020). During the crisis of
epidemic, the education system has been influenced harshly when the government promulgates the


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lockdown policy and forces schools and universities to be closed. Based on UNESCO’s statistics
(2020) 186 countries have implemented nationwide closures, impinging on nearly 1.3 billion children
and youth from primary to higher education. To prevent negative impacts related to education in the
present time, learners tend to register for distance courses rather than traditional ones in hopes of
continuing their studies. In the research of Chernev (2021), he reported that as of the end of 2019, the
worldwide e-learning industry was valued at $187.877 billion, this figure has currently reached over
$200 billion in 2020 and is predicted to rise to $376 billion by 2026. These statistics demonstrate a
dramatically upward trend of remote learning, especially in the COVID-19 outbreak.

On the one hand, online courses bring numerous advantages for students, among them,
affordability and smart education are the two outstanding. Obviously, the national economy in general

and individuals in particular have been severely influenced by the epidemic. All enterprises and firms
have been obliged to close according to government regulations to prevent community spread. Parents,
consequently, are unable to go to work to do for a living, leading to a financial shortfall in their family
while they have to afford their children's university tuition fees. Since almost accredited high-quality
institutions from around the world offer online courses at a lowered price. Winthrop University, for
example, offers a 12% discount on its summer tuition while American University suggests 10% off.
Students in Florida Gateway College can take two classes for the price of one (Thompson, 2020).
Moreover, students' commuting costs every year are not negligible. Based on the research from
Santander Current Accounts, students are spending an average of £600 million per year traveling to and
from university (Commane, 2013). And in this investigation, Hetal Parmar (2013), Head of Banking at
Santander, supposed that the expense of enrolling in a university puts most learners under financial
strain and the growing cost of transportation is expected to be a significant concern. Such distance
classes offer no commuting cost, which alleviates the financial burden on learners’ families.
Additionally, restricting humans from going out helps to diminish possible risks of being injured from


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car crashes, bringing about the decreasing number of traffic accidents. One practical example is in the
Tarragona province of Spain, the figure for traffic collisions per day dropped by 74,3% during the
lockdown period (Saladié et al., 2020). Consequently, online courses consumed 87% less energy and
emitted 85% less carbon dioxide compared to full-time campus-based ones. (Roy et al., 2008). In
general, thanks to lowered tuition fees and no commuting costs, online classes reduce the financial
pressure on students' families.

E-learning, in other words, seems to be a ‘Smart Education' innovation that successfully
improves the teaching environment via the applications of technology gadgets. In contrast to printed
books, e-book integration not only allows undergraduates to access an endless amount of knowledge
conveniently but also improves studying productivity effectively. For example, the use of print books in
hospitality and tourism education is hampered by various factors such as portability, reading, storage,
handling, and availability, e-books are the greatest alternatives to solve the related printed-bookchallenges above (Piramanayagam & Seal, 2020). In addition, the absolute competency of both soft

and hard skills has been significantly boosted due to the presence of remote lectures. It is undeniable
that up-to-date technology is no longer an illusory dream in this day and age. By approaching distance
classes during university time, learners have a privilege to gradually get familiar with computer skills
such as researching, presentation, and so on, which is one of the most crucial techniques in the 4.0 era,
and also a major benefit for them in the foreseeable future. According to the McKinsey analysis
(Bughin et al., 2018), the requirement for employees with fundamental computer abilities will
ameliorate up to 69% by 2030. Hence, it is notable that the capacity to handle proficiently digital
devices is flourishingly essential, especially in competitive business environments. To sum up, online
courses create conditions for students to be exposed to technology equipment from an early age, giving
them a significant advantage in their later lives.


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On the flip side, despite having various benefits, e-learning also has some inevitable drawbacks,
such as technical issues and health hazards. Not every student has an opportunity to get access to
modern appliances, in reality, it appears to be challenging for learners and professors in remote areas to
approach state-of-the-art digital devices. The research of Virgin et al. (2021) emphasized that English
instructors in PalangkaRaya have struggled with a heap of troubles caused by a lack of adequate
infrastructure. These issues include unstable Internet connections and out-of-date computers and
laptops. Besides, the survey by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)
reported by PTI (2020) presented that about 27% of students lack smartphones and laptops as well. So,
the university shift from on-campus to online classes may deprive students in rural locations and lowincome families of opportunities and rights to access education. In terms of students’ health, many
parents express their concern when their children stare at a screen constantly for a long time. Spending
thousands of hours in front of a screen, students are likely to develop bad posture, eye problems
because of the blue light reflected from the computer screen, fatigue, stress, and also insomnia. Anshu
et al. (2016) revealed the fact that participating in screen-based activities made 97% of college students
more irritated. Besides, in an article by Balram (2020), Dr. Laura Sterni, director of the Hopkins
Pediatric Sleep Center, affirmed that the more technological gadgets learners use, the more negative
impacts sleep cycles have. Moreover, the higher levels of depression, anxiety, and also perceived
attention problems have been related to increased screen use (Katzenstein, 2020). She explained that

the blue light from computer screens is able to suppress nocturnal melatonin secretion, a substance that
helps humans fall asleep easily, and also change circadian rhythms. This mechanism is proved to
activate much more powerfully at night. In conclusion, technical problems and health dangers are the
two top worries of students during the online-learning period.

To summarize, distance learning has both-side effects, positive and negative as well. Although
there are minor unavoidable disadvantages of courses delivered on websites such as technical issues or


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health problems, it is believed that students gain more than they lose from the aforementioned online
studying method since it seems to be ‘Smart education' which is a convenient solution in COVID-19
outbreak, a revolution in the contemporary education system. Not only does it provide a more
affordable price, but it also curbs the number of traffic accidents. To maintain these positive impacts,
both lecturers and learners should be self-aware and use the assistant tools logically.


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REFERENCES
Anshu, Sarita, Nupur, Shreya, Avinash, & Sidharth. (2016). TO STUDY THE ROLE OF
ERGONOMICS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTER VISION SYNDROME. Journal
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Balram, A. (2020). How online learning can affect student health. The Johns Hopkins News-Letter.
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Bughin, J., Hazan, E., Lund, S., Dahlström, P., Wiesinger, A., & Subramaniam, A. (2018). Skill shift:
Automation and the future of the workforce. McKinsey & Company.
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Chernev, B. (2021). 27 Astonishing E-learning Statistics For 2020. TechJury.
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Commane, R. (2013). University students join the daily commute. The Money Pages.
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Piramanayagam, S., & Seal, P. (2020). The Choice Between EBooks and Printed Books: A Study
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PTI. (2020). At least 27% students don’t have access to smartphones, laptops for online classes:
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Roy, R., Potter, S., & Yarrow, K. (2008). Designing low carbon higher education systems. International
Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 9(2), 116–130.
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Thompson, E. (2020). Should Colleges Offer Cheaper Tuition Due to COVID? TheBestSchools.org.
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UNESCO. (2020). 1.3 billion learners are still affected by school or university closures, as educational
institutions start reopening around the world, says UNESCO. UNESCO.
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Virgin, N. F., Qalyubi, I., & Qamariah, Z. (2021). THE CHALLENGES OF ENGLISH TEACHERS IN
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Wieland, N., & Kollias, L. (2020). Online Learning Before, During and After COVID-19: Observations
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