Online v/s Traditional PhD in Cybersecurity: Pros and Cons.
An online PhD cybersecurity is a great choice with plenty of universities and institutions to choose from. However, there is always a question of which is better. Is it the online or the traditional course that helps better? Both online and traditional PhD in cybersecurity are of their value. However, here’s all that makes the classification clearer and easy to choose from.
Online PhD Degree in Cybersecurity- The Benefits
While it is good to do an online PhD cybersecurity program, there are both advantages and disadvantages of the same. Here are some of the benefits of attending an online program:
Immediate interaction
One of the biggest benefits of attending an online PhD degree in cybersecurity is that the attendees get to talk to the teachers or academicians in real time. Be it with their friends or the teaching faculty, the students get to connect with their classmates and teachers at the same time from anywhere in the world. As a result, they get to raise their queries, concerns, and suggestions in real-time and resolve them within a matter of minutes.
Extensive Networks
As a student joins an online class in cybersecurity, they not only get to learn from a renowned professor, but also get to interact with a global team of students doing the same course. With the guest lecturers offering seminars, webinars, workshops, and courses in between, students get to widen their knowledge span and learn, gather knowledge, and understand the field from a wider set of resources. In the long run, it helps build a strong personal and professional network which can help in a long-lasting career.
Access to Resources
While there is a limitation in the number of resources provided in a traditional cybersecurity degree, it’s quite different from how it works for an online degree. Each faculty in charge of teaching each elective shares their respective resources to students sooner or later which has long-term access to students till the end of their course. These resources and the learning are also one way of predicting the professional future in this field and the possible jobs after doing an online PhD cybersecurity.
Impactful Learning
With the help of technology that progresses daily, there is an immensely positive impact on learning as a whole. Online education has also paved the way for a better and deeper understanding of concepts to students comprehensively and interestingly. As a result, it enhances their communication, enriches their learning patterns, improves their skills, and keeps them at the forefront of the professional fields just by doing an online PhD degree in cybersecurity.
Worthy Development
Choosing an online program in any stream of education is always better when measured in terms of education. It is a flexible program that offers a set of resources that can also be put to a later, long-term use. Thus, it also helps in learning about a lot of applications used in real life, improving communication through them, and the easiest ways to find and settle down with the most rewarding online careers.
The Flipside: Limitations of an Online PhD degree in Cybersecurity
While an online PhD degree in cybersecurity is great, it has some limitations. Some of them are:
Restricted Learning
The basic difference that makes an online PhD cybersecurity a second thought is restricted learning. While it is fun and immersive to sit at home or in a comfort zone and learn new concepts, there is always a lack of interaction and communication which harms the sociability and interactive abilities of the students. This could make them a good student, but could affect their interactive skills immensely.
Dedicated Learning
While many students blame the current education system, it always is the best choice when it comes to dedicated learning. Especially in a field like cybersecurity, there is a high need for the students to invest time in research, and practice, and have their ground concepts strong so that it helps them grab a better job. Remember, the ones with an online PhD degree in cybersecurity have more experience in intricate learning. With the number of social interactions, assignments, tasks, and projects, they always have a better idea of working and solving issues they face in their work fields.
Bad Networks
Bad networks are something to be blamed always during an online PhD cybersecurity program. This isn’t just the case of cybersecurity courses, but every other online course. The technical glitches during class hours become the villain of every computer degrees online. This makes it mandatory for students to have enough power and internet backups to suffice them to complete the course, not leaving them behind.
Lack of Understanding
A small yet notable part of the drawbacks of most online courses is the teachers not ensuring that the students are on the same page as that of the teachers. While the teachers keep going back to students for their queries, concerns, and doubts N number of times in a traditional PhD in cybersecurity, it’s the other way around on online platforms. Most of the time, the classes happen within a certain time limit and the teachers are often open to clarifying a few queries and concerns, leaving out the rest of them. Thus, a lot of doubts of the students are left unclarified, marking their knowledge as incomplete.
Conclusion
While the demand for both traditional and online PhD in cybersecurity is high and increasing, it is difficult to say which is more beneficial. Both ways of learning have its benefits and limitations. Ultimately, the best part of attending such a course in-person or online is stepping into a career-oriented world with plenty of opportunities.