Please review my IELTS essay

Topic:

Some schools now offer courses on the Internet so that people can study online. Is this a positive or negative development?

My essay:

In this day and age, online education has been increasingly popular in schools due to the advent of Internet. Although it has brought out a lot of benefits, its negative side should not be neglected.

The main benefit of schools’ online courses is that students can learn in a flexible way. Some students are engaged in part- time jobs to pay tuition fees and plenty of expense or to have working experience, therefore, they do not have enough time to attend conventional classes. Nonetheless, by registering for the online courses, they are able to reach the balance between study and work. In addition, online education enables students to learn regardless of location. Many of them live far from the schools but they can still study all the lessons in their curriculum.

On the other hand, I believe that it is far more inconvenient for students to participate in Internet-based learning offered by their schools. First, there is no face-to-face communication between teachers and learners. They only chat with others through the Internet without direct interaction or some activities like discussion or presentation. Thus, the lessons will become tedious and make students lose the motivation in learning. Second, schools are unable to manage their students strictly. Teachers cannot know exactly whether their students are learning or not. Instead, they may play online games or watch movies, which is detrimental to their acquiring knowledge.

In conclusion, while technological advancements in education is a great leap for the world, I think that online education is such a negative development for students.