Live Lessons VS Video Courses: What Is The Difference?

Almost everyone has thought about taking online classes at least once in their lives. I bet, at first, you will open your computer and conduct a search to know what’s what on the Internet.

Before you start your search, stop and think for a while: “What is the best kind of online courses I can pick: live online lessons or video courses and why?” After you find your answers, continue your deep search.

But how do we know what is the best suitable type of learning for us? To know some useful tips and tricks, keep reading our article.

What Are Live Lessons?

Knowing what live lessons are, is the first thing you must start your online learning process from. To be honest, I didn’t know what the difference was until I went deep into this topic to write an article.

Live lessons are defined as follows: synchronous events organized in a live virtual meeting room where students and teachers have their lesson online, communicating via video, voice, and whiteboard. To have the image thoroughly, imagine you are taking private language courses with a language teacher at your home via Zoom, Google Meet, or Skype. You may ask questions on the spot, actively participate in discussions, and create a pleasant environment for learning.
As to the types of live lessons, they are divided into 2 kinds: group and private lessons.

Private Classes As a Branch of Live Lessons

Student-centric learning process

Private classes are a kind of student-centric online course where the whole attention is drawn to only one person. When I was in school, I remember how my friend and I were talking during class, not hearing what the teacher was saying. But when we were in one-to-one classes separately from each other, we were all ears during the class.

It is because in the classroom there are so many students, and no one will notice you speaking with a friend. This way you may miss important information your teacher is saying. But when you are in a private class, you have nothing to do but to listen carefully.

A personal and unique approach

One-on-one learning allows student mistakes and weak points to be more visible to the private teacher.

Recognition of weak points and mistakes makes the learning process more fruitful. Such mistakes and weak points are getting exposed through some discussions, questions, and other activities where you get much attention from your teacher.

Skill and ability-based tutoring

According to new genetic research from The University of Western Ontario, no two people are alike, even if they’re identical twins.

Of course, we are different and we need to get unique approaches when learning. You may have a better understanding of language grammar, but others in routine speaking. This means each person should attend a class based on his abilities, not to lose too much time on general lessons. Not only you but everyone will succeed when he/ she is treated especially based on experience and type of personality. Keep this in your mind!

One more benefit of one-on-one learning

Do you know what common things students, businessmen, and mothers have?

The answer is clear - they are busy almost all day long. But do you know that busyness is not an obstacle to learning at any age and place you want?

For those who are thirsty for learning, we find a better time management tool. You can take 1-to-1 accelerated online classes and finish them in a month while saving time and getting individual education at the same time.

Group Lessons As Another Branch of Live Lessons

The word “group” already implies the meaning and type of lessons.

They are general and designed for all.

Group learning doesn’t offer personalized approaches to learners. Such courses are taught generally, not only for you and your convenience but for all in general.

Your abilities aren’t taken into consideration as well.

There is a fixed guideline tutors are following to conduct group lessons for all. So, no matter what level your knowledge and skills are at, you will be taught the same way as others. To accomplish your course, you need to do your best and catch up with your coursemates in every situation.

Group lessons are more interactive

Since there is more than 1 learner, more discussions, as well as interactions, occur than in private classes.

To hold my class interestingly, I once used Adel’s. “Hello” song to make my students memorize such simple phrases as “Hello” and “How are you?” in English.

You are allowed to ask questions and get the answers from your teacher.

When taking live classes you are allowed to ask questions on the topic as much as you want and get the answers to them on the spot.

Private VS Group Live Lessons

Are you confused about what type of learning is beneficial for you? If so, don’t get confused. Instead, recognize your weak and strong points, set up your budget, and go to pick your best piece of cake.

Your choice of a learning type depends on your

• personality and preferences
• knowledge
• time
• purposes

Take private classes on difficult subjects

You had better take private live classes on subjects that are hard to learn and require an individual approach in understanding better.

As the majority of people claim, such complicated subjects are maths, chemistry, Russian or Arabic, web programming, etc. This way you will get much valuable knowledge as you are treated individually.

Choose a group style of learning if want to get a part of more interactions

Group live classes are preferable when there is a need to have more interactions and to communicate to improve your skills. To get to practice your foreign language speaking and understanding skills, take group kind of lessons where you will be a part of discussions and such activities that will contribute to your language learning advancement.

For example, the interactive game called “Secret Word” can help your language learning process go perfectly.

In this group, game students are given a random topic and a random word that has no connection with the topic. The students must hide the word in a speech masterly to make sure other students will not guess the hidden word. The other students listen to the speech attempting to guess the secret word.

Video Courses

Another type of distance learning is video classes.

They are already pre-recorded lessons

There is a teacher who gives the same general knowledge to all or sometimes it’s just AI voice.

What to do if some important questions arise?

Where to find answers?

In this case, you need to get your answers on your own through the Internet. One of the options is to leave a comment below the course and wait for an answer but only God knows when you will get your answer. This is perhaps the greatest disadvantage of video courses.

Pay once but take your class whenever you want or can

There is no fixed time to take video classes.

You pay once but are allowed to take your class at any time you want and how many times you want. No matter what time it is, it is a weekday or weekend, holiday or work-time you can take your course.

Learn at your own pace

Apart from being good time management tools, video courses enable you to learn at your own pace. If it is your day off you may take 2 or 3 video lessons and accomplish the course faster. But if it is your busy week you can take only 1 lesson in that week.

Such kinds of lessons mostly are for busy people who are willing to learn with a fee schedule or refresh their knowledge in a short period. Most educational videos also have subtitles, so you can still enjoy content made by an educator that doesn’t speak your language.  

Promote your self-study process

Video courses make you promote your self-study process. When you have questions but not answers to them you will surely start to search for information. While searching, you will come across interesting and valuable information that will help you in the future and will get you to the point where you will be able to find your answers by yourself every time.

Live Lessons VS Video Classes

Not to beat around the bush, we are not going to repeat all the advantages and disadvantages of live lessons and video classes one by one. Our aim is to understand which one to choose when in doubt and why.

As we noticed, both live lessons and video classes have their weak and strong points, and your choice mostly depends on your

• characteristics
• preferences
• the time you provide for online learning

If you are the kind of person with a hard-working character and don’t have enough time to attend in-person classes but need to learn regularly in a short time, then live lessons with live teachers will surely suit you. We are putting stress on the word “regularly” not by chance as even though you are the person who schedules your own lessons there is a need to take them regularly.

Online learning quality mostly is up to the online learning platform and its tutoring tools

The next question you probably worry about is the quality of classes. Believe in our words quality mostly is up to the online learning platform where you take your lessons. No matter if you are taking live classes or video lessons, you will get the desired result when the quality of the online learning platform and its tutors is high. So, at first, check the feedback about the platform and tutors then make your final decision.

If you are not aware, a new platform, that is offering private live lessons on more than 25+ subjects, has already come out. The platform is called Lrnkey which stands for “key to learning”. On Lrnkey you may find your private tutor, have your first trial with him/her for free and then decide whether to take the live class or not. This platform allows highly qualified tutors from every continent of the world to become a tutor and get paid as well, which is considered to be a big step towards the globalized new era of online education. There was an additional tip we gave you to make your online learning more effective. Hope you will use it in your learning process.

Conclusion

Partially your online learning quality depends on your choices. You should pick your online learning type based on some characteristics we have mentioned above, time and preferences, before getting started taking your classes. Deliberate on your choices deeply to get the best results of online learning. When you decide, the next step is to find platforms that comply with your standards and really offer high-quality lessons.

Will be glad if our guideline helps you in making the right choices.