Balancing life and studies in a classroom without walls: graduate students’ perspectives on online learning

Abstract

Technological advancements taking place in the 21st century are changing the ways in which classes are taught (Allen & Seaman, 2011). Education worldwide is reaching far beyond the four walls of classroom by offering courses online. This paper explores students’ perspectives on the quality of courses offered online by one Kazakhstani University, based on the advantages and challenges 12 master’s degree students faced while studying some courses online during two academic years of their enrollment. According to the results of this study, participants highlighted the flexibility of online education in pursuing their academic endeavors concurrently with other responsibilities as the main advantage. However, students were challenged in managing their time due to overlapping dates for submitting the tasks completed for online courses. Since the findings of the study have limited generalizability due to small size of population, several recommendations will be made for the future research.