 Online courses have their pros and cons, just like in-person courses. In this video we go through 7 pros and 6 cons of learning via online courses, which will give you a good idea of how best to use online courses to support your development, or if in-person courses would suit you better. For a long time I was very skeptical about online courses. Then I took one and found I learnt a lot from it, and it was really good. And now we produce online courses ourselves of course. I've been to many in-person courses in my business career too, and I've really enjoyed those. So personally I like both types of courses for different reasons. My name is Jess Culls, and I've been teaching business leaders and managers for most of my 25-year business career. I've also been lucky enough to attend a lot of courses in my career, in-person and more recently online. If you're new to this channel, Enhance.Training provides online business courses to help professionals, managers and business owners improve their performance. And if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe and share it with friends. So let's take a look at the 7 pros or advantages of online courses. A huge pro of online courses is that you can actually learn from anywhere with an internet connection. You can take a course while on holiday, when travelling on the train to and from work, in your own home, in the office and the list goes on. Online access makes a big difference, particularly if you live in more remote areas or outside a city where most of the in-person courses are held. If you have poor transport links or would have to stay overnight to attend an in-person course, then an online option might be a lot more appealing. You can choose where you want to learn and this might be in the comfort of your own home, the gardens so you can enjoy some of that sunshine and fresh air, or it might be somewhere quiet to keep away from distractions. The point is you get to choose. Another great advantage of online courses is that you can learn at your own pace, a pace that suits you. You don't have to wait for the slowest in the class to catch up or be made to feel slow by the fastest in the class. You can go over learning points until you're absolutely sure that you get it without annoying the rest of the class and you can do any exercises at your own pace or redo them as to suit your needs. You can spend as much time reflecting on what you've learned as you need to. If you zoomed through a course, you often only remember the last few points rather than those made throughout the course, so stopping and reflecting improves knowledge retention. And again, you can choose the pace to suit you and your learning style Another pro of online courses is that you'll save lots of time. When you just think about it, all that time spent travelling to and from where the in-person course is taking place, dealing with the traffic jams or finding a space to park, or dealing with late running trains, and time spent finding the right address in the right room, of course. And you can start an online course a few minutes after signing up to it. You don't have to wait days or weeks before starting the course as you might need to with an in-person course booked in advance. So while the online course itself may take just as long as an in-person course, you don't need much extra time outside of the actual course, unlike in-person courses. Another advantage of online courses is they are usually, but not always, less expensive than their in-person equivalents. Online courses are more expensive to create than the in-person courses. I mean, there's a lot more additional upfront investments in equipment and filming and editing and etc. But once they're made, the ongoing cost of running the courses is usually much, much lower. With in-person courses, you need to rent space and provide refreshments and of course pay the trainer with each course you run. These factors have some bearing on the prices charged. The cost of production of courses does not necessarily relate to the value of the learning provided, of course. Both in-person and online courses can provide you with a huge amount of value, or very little, depending on manufacturers, such as, you know, what's your learning requirements, compared to what the course is teaching. Who's written the course and who is teaching the course? Make sure you know what you want and do your homework. Many online courses give you access to the full content of the course for a lot longer than the in-person courses. With in-person courses, once you and the presenter go home, you've lost access to all that valuable expertise. You usually get copies of slides and then you have to make notes if you want to capture all that additional information that is verbally communicated during the course by the presenter. This can mean a lot of writing. I mean, I always struggle to balance the listening to and taking in what I was being told and writing furiously to capture all of those key points. And with online courses, you can just replay the video lesson again so you don't have to take notes and you can really focus on what is being taught. Safe in the knowledge that you have access for months or even years to the expert rather than just a day. Another great pro of online courses is that you can have a good look at the course or even do the whole course and if you don't like it, you can get a full refund. You have 14 days in UK law in which the provider must refund you if you asked. And many course providers offer a longer period than this. In contrast, with in-person courses, you often lose the option of a refund within the last week or so before the course takes place. If you pull out or don't like the course, getting a refund is a lot harder or it may not be possible. So online courses give you a great opportunity to check that you will learn what you want to learn from the course without the risk that you can't get a refund if the course was not suitable for you. With online courses, if you don't want to, you don't have to interact with anyone. You can take the course without anybody knowing. For instance, this might be useful if you have a work situation where there is an expectation that you must know X whatever that is and is now too late or too embarrassing to ask for help. Taking an online course to fill your knowledge gap would be a really practical solution. You would get the help you need without any negative consequences at work. Or you might find that meeting a room full of strangers is stressful and difficult. Ultimately, you are much more in control and you can choose the level of interaction that you want. Now let's look at six cons or disadvantages of online courses. In-person courses give you a lot of opportunity to interact socially with other attendees and the course presenter. The networking opportunity available is a large advantage of in-person courses. This social interaction remains an important part of the learning experience for many. And online courses simply do not have the same level of interaction. Many online courses encourage interactions through forums and group emails, yet these don't match the in-person experience. If interaction or networking with peers or the course presenter is a big part of your learning experience, then an in-person course will be a lot better for you. Another con of online courses is that it's much harder to learn from your peers and all from other attendees of the course. With in-person courses, there's much more share of experiences with other attendees from the frustrations and problems through to solutions. You can tap into that collective experiences of the group rather than just the course presenter. These peer interactions are valuable learning experiences and can make the course a lot more enjoyable, of course. Often, you realise that many of the others that are attending the course are facing the same challenges that you are, and as a group, solving them is a lot more fun and productive. This peer group experience is very hard to replicate in an online course. Another con of online courses is that you need to have self-discipline and self-motivation to sit down and do the learning. We all have busy lives full of distractions from friends calling, kids demanding attention, or the latest episode of our favourite TV series. With online courses, you don't have the peer pressure nor the course presenter moving you through the course material and learning points. This can be a really big deal for many people. So if you struggle more with self-discipline and self-motivation than the average person, then ask yourself if online courses will work for you as well as an in-person course would. Online courses have a higher drop-out rate because of that self-discipline and the self-motivation needed to complete them. When you have a group sitting around you, pushing you on, or you have travelled for an hour or so plus to get to the course, you are much more likely to complete the course. And I certainly haven't seen many in-person course attendees get up and walk out part of the way through the day. With online courses, you can easily stop doing the course. You might think, I've got access for a year. I can complete it later, and then you just don't get round to it. Not having access to a laptop, a computer, or a tablet makes learning online a lot harder. Learning on a phone is, of course, possible. It's just not as easy due to the smaller screen. If a loss of the content is shared via recorded videos and the internet connection is poor and those videos keep freezing, for instance, your learning experience will not be great. So you do need access to a good internet connection and a reasonable computer or tablet to make learning easier and practical. The need for good technology is definitely a con of online courses. Great when it all works, really not when it doesn't. Another disadvantage of online courses is that study time and personal time are much more likely to clash. When attending an in-person course, you have a defined start and finish time and a different location to learn at. When learning online, the study is less defined and therefore can clash more easily with other demands you place on your time. Creating boundaries is harder with online courses as you have access to them for 24-7. So there you have seven pros or advantages of learning via online courses and six cons or disadvantages. As you might have guessed, there is no right or wrong. Many people get a lot from both online and in-person courses. In the business world today, one of the most important things you can do to help your career is keep your skills up to date and adapt and learn new skills as company requirements change. After watching this video, I hope you have a better idea of which type of courses online or in-person is likely to suit you best. We hope you enjoy learning whichever route you choose. And of course, do take a look at our online courses that we offer at enhance.training. If you like this video, then subscribe and hit the bell to get notified of our weekly video releases. This really helps us produce more videos to help you. Thanks very much for watching and I look forward to seeing you again soon.