The Benefits of Face-to-Face Learning

1. Introduction

COVID-19 increased the gap between the teaching of the poor and the teaching of the rich: well-established universities, with multi-million-dollar endowments and foundations, were able to easily adapt to the new pandemic environment, moving their teaching from their premises to the Internet. Smaller and poorer companies, with limited resources for investments, exposed the enormous limitations of this form of teaching (and demonstrated that its supposed economies of scale were illusory). Since Jan 2020, classes at different levels of instruction at the University of Pavia were only held online. The government closed the universities to deal with the emergency. Even though COVID-19 has not been definitively defeated, I ask that we return to in-person teaching and learning to the extent that clinical and social conditions permit.

Pandemic or not, there are still reasons why face-to-face learning is beneficial. A lot has been said and written about how well or how badly the switch from in-person to online teaching has worked during the COVID-19 pandemic. Much less has been said and written about why face-to-face teaching is so much better anyway. The fact that face-to-face teaching is better may seem trivial and self-evident to many, but unfortunately it is something that needs to be continuously defended or only becomes fully appreciated in its absence. It is always useful to remind everyone of some widely accepted, common sense arguments that are relevant to the impulsive political moves of online advocates and cyber-prophets.

2. Advantages of Face-to-Face Learning

From my point of view, face-to-face learning situations are best for getting students involved and interested. I feel that by having students share their thoughts, ideas, and concerns out loud to their classmates or to the teacher, the students' focus, motivation, and engagement are increased because the students are no longer just learning from the textbook or the teacher's instruction. It forces students to really think through the information being reviewed or learned in the textbook and in-class lectures, and to express their understanding in their own style. Having students take part in structured or small group discussions allows students to think out loud and gather feedback from their own peers. Over time, face-to-face collaboration among students is enhanced, which can lead to stronger teamwork, greater student idea generation, as well as a vigorous peer exchange over questions related to the content being reviewed in class.

While online and hybrid learning formats may be suitable for some students depending on the kind of content being taught and the individual's style of learning, there are certain advantages that only face-to-face instruction can provide. These advantages include fostering student learning through collaboration and teamwork, and the training of essential soft skills such as self-awareness, social awareness, the ability to make responsible decisions, and the ability to maintain successful relationships.

2.1. Personalised Interaction

In face-to-face learning, educators have no doubt who is paying attention in class. They have the growing need to technologically cater to the diverse participants they might have in a classroom, and that is diverse in terms of interest, abilities, and attention span. To an educator, this typically translates as raising their voices, using the blackboard, visualising students' reactions (facial or otherwise). Class participation can also be varied. Some students tend to participate more vocally than other students. Higher student participation can mean more learning. In more traditional classes, teachers are able to tell who is listening, and students who appear to be inattentive can be called out. Pair work and group work is instantly created or modified based on the cues seen.

Face to face interaction in traditional classroom is more helpful in students' understanding and in better retention of subject matter and concepts. All students in class are able to understand their subject matter and can learn difficult concepts very easily if it is explained in front of them. Clearly, students cannot raise queries instantly if teaching is in online mode. In case of the traditional face-to-face classroom, students raise queries instantly as doubts come in teaching to the teacher without any hesitation, which can be cleared then and there. In traditional classroom setting, students' interaction with teacher and classmates has been seen to be an essential factor to drive personal learning. It has been believed as a vehicle to transport and exchange information, providing students' motivation. This means a real-time feedback between the educator and the student, and from student to student, provides a personal boost.

Teachers have personalised interaction with students, helping students understand complex subject matter.

2.2. Enhanced Communication Skills

Optimally, children are first socialised by their parents and then by the schools they attend. In social learning theory, Professor Albert Bandura emphasises the importance of intention and reward in social learning, based on interactions with those modelling pro-social behaviour. According to Bandura’s work in the 1960's and 1970's, children gain social skills when their primary caretakers use attention, praise, and rewards to acknowledge desired behaviour. In today’s society, however, many children attend after-school and alternate educational facilities where teachers and staff may promote an environment that rewards anti-social or "dishonest" behaviour. In schools where anti-social or disruptive behaviour is often exhibited, as may occur in virtual environments, children may inadvertently develop improper or awkward social skills, leading to ineffectual social learning. The modern education warnings about gaming and social networking/other internet website behaviours pertain directly to both social learning principles and children’s social skills. Conversely, face-to-face classroom participation enhances the process of socialisation by providing children with immediate direct feedback on social norms and acceptable behaviours and allowing them to develop a meaningful dialogue.

By communicating face-to-face with friends, family, and new acquaintances, one can improve social skills and the ability to read social cues. Interacting with a diverse group of individuals is especially helpful in this regard. Unfortunately, in online chat rooms, posted videos, and virtual discussions, users cannot always respond in real time, and thus individuals communicating online may experience stunted conversation and social skills. Verbal tics can develop even among people who were otherwise skilled communicators. That smiley emoticon in an online chat room cannot replace a real-life grin. Instant messaging and social networks do not provide the immediate feedback necessary for individuals to fully understand the consequences of their own actions on human relationships. Real conversations with real people are needed to help children and young adults make sense of their relationships and improve their social skills.

2.3. Immediate Feedback

Furthermore, receiving immediate feedback decreases the hassle and promotes meaningful conversation. For example, learners who receive immediate feedback acquire skills and knowledge faster and on most occasions are regretted by geometry and affective participating in that community of practices and or professional learning communities facilitate meaningful conversations, most supportive of guidelines that place emphasis on immediate and ongoing feedback.

Immediate feedback is essentially vital for the teacher who needs to know whether or not the learner has understood the teaching. By hearing their response to a question, confusion in the child's corrected immediately and the individual can be re-taught and buy into the classroom. In addition, 82% of learners urged hampered by ICT find that they learn best by actively participating in the lesson and getting immediate feedback from peers and teachers. This also explains that they would not perform as well if the lesson is delivered electronically. Factors impeding learners by ICT are limited access facilities, lack of bandwidth, lack of ICT support, and electricity reliability and cost concerns.

2.4. Collaboration and Networking Opportunities

Encouraging open-ended, freestyle networking to develop motivational skills and actualise the student's inherent potential is an important incentive for business schools around the world,  to continue to help students leverage their broader skill set by pursuing an international program through travel and direct interaction with people learning the rules by which firms operate around the world. Additionally, group projects, class presentations, and team tackling of case studies and feedback discussions are significant traits in assessing a student's ability to connect and influence others, providing valuable assurance and feedback, each of which can move a critical link to the independent research that is often the culmination of a student's graduate internship experience. Networking and other personal skills that merit true cultural engagement are not readily available virtually. They can only be developed in person because emotional presence is how we, as humans, naturally connect and communicate. This is highly dissimilar to the self-taught nature of developing non-pedestrian skills. Communicating in person is not only more natural and much more efficient than communicating virtually but also the most lucrative for human beings.

There is great value in networking opportunities on real estate programs due to the seemingly less structured nature of the marketplace. In effect, students are no longer funnelled through the structured employment processes of large companies that come to campus, and students must go to comply. Instead, students must venture out into the field on their own and engage their people skills to capture an internship. By definition, it is ambitious, low-key children that would seek an international experience while learning in an unfamiliar environment, especially if the program is in the area of global outreach.

3. Effectiveness of Face-to-Face Learning

Despite claims of the impact of digital learning on business, formal education, and individuals' learning and development, interest in the nature and dynamics of learning behaviour is increasing. Neuroscience is also contributing to advances in this field. People are carefully studying what happens in our brains as we interact, share, collaborate, look, feel, listen, and touch each other. A survey indicates that almost three-quarters of employers in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Belgium favour face-to-face learning over digital learning. Professionals put more faith in the face-to-face model as well—more than 80 percent of British, Dutch, and Belgian respondents report that the classroom is the place to go. Further, almost half of the people surveyed in these countries expect that, as the workplace becomes increasingly digitised and competitive, the need for workplace-based and face-to-face learning activities will increase.

Effectiveness of Face-to-Face Learning: While unemployment rates are at an all-time high, companies are still experiencing talent shortages. This seems to indicate that the gap between the skills people have and the skills employers need is still widening. Further, many of today's businesses are confronted with threats and opportunities that are, in part, the result of rapid advancements in technology. The number of knowledge-intensive industries is growing and the workforce needs to increase its stock of human capital to remain competitive. The ongoing technological revolution makes it increasingly difficult for companies, educational institutions, and individuals to capture what is truly important in driving individual and organisational performance. Debates and discussions seem to show that people are often overwhelmed by the amount of digital solutions available to support learning and development. Quite some pundits are worried that people tend to forget that the most important learning tool is the human brain. Even during the typical learning life phase from birth until eighteen or twenty years of age, people accumulate more information through human interaction than through formal classroom learning, let alone digital solutions. Nobel prize winner George Akerlof and Yale professor Robert Schiller argue that companies thrive by creating stories that resonate with customers. Digital learning has difficulty capturing the power of quality storytelling. People understand more if they do, demonstrate, interact, and make sense through meaningful conversations with others. Given these findings and concerns, it seems that face-to-face learning is both needed and still relevant.

3.1. Active Engagement

Although extensive research has shown that active learning strategies benefit a wider range of students, the shift from lecture-based to active learning is not normally followed by increased student performance. I test the effects of the organisational structure that is included with active learning practices and find that it too benefits a range of students. Overall, I find that active learning is a learning process that is beneficial to students. The challenges associated with such a transformative pedagogical approach are that there is limited time to do it justice in the classroom and that it often reduces class size in the eyes of the students. These challenges need to be overcome. Studies that investigate if there is a subset of students where some are more likely to resist interventions, and how intervention or intervention modifications can be used to provide these students with the structure necessary to embody active learning and thus offer the attending benefits, need to be assessed. In addition, measures that can help frame quantitative evaluations of the structure of active learning need to be conducted to understand the benefits of active learning relative to the sex and gender of the students and the course that it is taught in.

I review the literature on the impact of active learning. I find that students are more engaged in courses where the instructor is lecturing less and they are doing more, "active learning." The primary form of active learning is "planned writing." Planned writing requires students to write about a predetermined topic, which gives the student the opportunity to write in their own words and instructors are easily able to verify that the student achieves successful knowledge transfer. Studies have found that planned writing increases attendance, reduces the achievement gap, challenges students' writing skills, has a lasting impact on in-class discussions, and challenges their critical thinking skills. Planned writing aids the cognitive process and also has soft benefits associated with gains in motivation and reductions in maths anxiety. Planned writing can also have direct mechanical benefits through the positive effect it has on both midterm and final grades. In-class problem-solving exercises that directly apply course material to real-world applications also serve as a form of active learning. Assigned activities have the secondary effect of promoting deeper student understanding by allowing the student to wrestle with complex concepts for an extended period of time.

3.2. Real-Time Problem Solving

The opportunity for students to connect with each other is a large advantage to a real classroom setting. When students can compare notes, work on assignments, and study for exams together, it helps reinforce what they are learning. This also gives them the social learning experiences that they desire. Real-time problem solving is a benefit for students. Through the interaction between the students, the professor will be watching to see how students are solving problems or completing assignments. If a professor notices a student continuously doing something incorrectly, the professors can quickly put a stop to it before it becomes a learned habit that will be hard to change.

Professors can easily identify a struggling student through watching body language and observing academic behaviour. Instead of leaving the child behind, the professor is able to catch the student before they are completely left behind. Establishing personal relationships between students and teachers can be established in the classroom. Because of these relationships, professors are able to notice early warning signs in students. Once these signs are caught, students are able to receive immediate help. This is beneficial to the student because they get the support they need in the early stages of struggling with the class material. This also allows a support team to promptly form to gather different perspectives and help the professor in identifying why the student is struggling.

3.3. Practical Application of Knowledge

There is another and more far-reaching reason why students must show ability to carry out their communication responsibilities and transfer their knowledge. When they leave the high school classroom, will they many times (in comparison to graduates in other major areas of study) witness the practical use of their discipline? If they do not see it and transform that practical knowledge previously acquired, they will not understand or will choose not to place a value on it. More concerned with their own disciplines, colleges do not focus on the practical applications of this subject area. This makes the subject area not only undervalued by future educators but not understood by parents, administrators, and educational policy/decision makers as well. With understanding comes respect.

My students will not only use this professional knowledge and/or skill in their particular job, but in turn they will teach that knowledge or skill to a great number of individuals in their schools and communities. As their teacher, I can provide books and handouts so they will be experts in our particular subject area, but will they be able to carry out this expertise, making it understandable to the thousands who they in turn will teach? No! This practicum is designed to develop all students' communication skills and their ability to transfer their expertise into the hands and minds of individuals ranging from future preschoolers to new assistant teachers and to parents/citizens who are stakeholders in our public school system. I not only require that students demonstrate expertise in practical skills and knowledge, but they realize their responsibility to transfer this knowledge to others, their futures!

4. Addressing Challenges in Face-to-Face Learning

How are these challenges addressed by studying face-to-face mode? Does technology have any dominant supporting role in addressing these challenges? As a future teacher, what do the graduating students have to say about their preferred mode of instruction during their learning years? Do they think they have achieved their learning outcomes and achieved personal growth by participating in face-to-face mode with a large class size during their graduation years? How do you, as a prospective graduate, view your faculty facilitation in a large group face-to-face classroom? And what strategies do you think teachers should incorporate into teaching with technology in order to promote self-directed learning of students?

Every mode of instructional delivery has various dimensions that can contribute towards student satisfaction and favourably, their learning. However, we know, and the existing research on the subject shows, that face-to-face learning mode is most preferred by both students and instructors, where a number of educational and social benefits are associated with it. However, it is also true that, like any teaching and learning modalities, face-to-face instruction also presents a number of challenges and issues. Some of the challenges of face-to-face learning are related to both teaching and learning.

4.1. Overcoming Distractions

I find it interesting that brain-imaging technology and post-experimental interviews have provided evidence of the differences in the brains of students who use social media and multitasking tools frequently and those who do not. In a March 2012 article on multitasking and social media in the New York Times, Dr. Gazzaley of the University of California at San Francisco reports some disturbing results when testing those who engage social media excessively. Furthermore, in a follow-up in the July 14, 2012 article, "Wasting Time is New Divide in Digital Era," writer Matt Richtel quotes a colleague of Dr. Gazzaley's, Clifford Nass of Stanford University, who suggests that frequent multitaskers' focusing and listening skills will be impaired even when the electronic device is nowhere around. Dr. Nass said, "... they are suckers for irrelevancy. Everything distracts them."

I can recall with some embarrassment that almost every class session finds me scolding one or more of my students about using their laptops in less-than-productive ways. I have caught them emailing other classmates, searching online dating sites, playing solitaire, practicing for their next volleyball game by watching online videos of the experts in action, and undoubtedly a myriad of other things I have not as yet discovered. I have noticed that it is those students who gossip and surf during class that are the most vocal in their complaints when they fail to do as well on exams as the more attentive students. Since that discovery, I now make a point of standing close behind the wildest of offenders during exams and I can almost see them giving me the finger. I will endeavor to keep myself free of the taser in this situation. This is not a young adult problem, but one that I and other faculty my age face. During those nights when we find ourselves unable to sleep, we Google ourselves and feel momentarily important as a result, and during the day we sneak a peek at our email or Facebook page just to see if someone important is talking about us. In fairness, it is not so much the technology as it is a form of adult ADD, at least when I judge myself.

4.2. Managing Time Effectively

Time management becomes the issue that lecturers oftentimes face. The teaching-learning process requires the use of time well. Each lecture has a time limit, but if the students fail to understand the lecture, the lecturer would like to give them more explanations. It is not about the use of the time, but about the quality of the materials. There also are students who come late or lazy. At the appointed time, their chairs are still empty. Therefore, lecturers need to manage time wisely. They may give a brief time warning to students who are late, which may be a tap on their desk. When students understand the materials in a detailed way. They are also able to use them properly. If the materials in the lesson are detailed and can be presented using materials from real life, not directly from books, they will get the point.

Some learners find it difficult to manage their time properly. A number of issues impact on their time management. For example, they fail to plan their time; they give priority to pleasure instead of learning materials. Learners are expected to use time optimally for their performance. In a face-to-face instruction, tapping the table by the lecturer is a signal to manage their time better and to use it wisely. Lecture time is scheduled, and we cannot add additional times once the schedule is proposed. It is proposed to manage both the content and students' activities during the lecture time. The lecturers also have to consider the quality of learning, and that the participants should understand the materials given comprehensively. Time management is also important for two additional purposes. On one hand, it prepares the students to be on time for other purposes, which is very useful for a number of activities in their daily life. Time management can help students to meet deadlines, which means that students who do not manage their time properly often experience anxiety and tension when they cannot meet the deadlines.

4.3. Creating a Supportive Learning Environment

There are several benefits in face-to-face learning. One of the advantages of face-to-face learning is a better support network. In addition, students and instructors understand and comprehend the material better during a face-to-face learning experience. Face-to-face learning also promotes a friendly and fun environment to learn in. Each learning type actually incorporates a mix of learning strategies. Face-to-face learning promotes communication, which can help with trust and relationships. It may also help with more commitment and follow-through for both parties. Face-to-face learning can be tailored to your individual needs. In formal learning settings, they bring more interpersonal interactions and weekly face time with peers and teachers.

Face-to-face learning means in-person learning where students and instructors attend in person. This type of learning is also called traditional classroom learning since it has been around for so long. Face-to-face learning is one of the oldest forms of learning. The newer form of learning is an online classroom where everything is done online.

5. The Role of Technology in Face-to-Face Learning

I love teaching large university classes. In these courses, my students engage in challenging activities with their classmates and with me. Complex, real-world problems demand critical thinking, creativity, and in-depth knowledge of physics. Outside of class, my students have access to a wealth of information about physics concepts and techniques. They use readings, websites, and videos to build knowledge and reinforce their understanding of these ideas. I carefully choose activities for my students that do not simply replicate or replace the content they explore on their own. Instead, in-class activities help my students develop their knowledge and problem-solving skills by learning how other people approach complex problems. Through these experiences, my students learn to become thoughtful, collaborative learners who can communicate and implement sophisticated ideas.

Online videos and other digital tools have become important parts of many classes. However, effective use of these tools requires more than just sharing information. A well-organized talk can help people understand complex ideas, become inspired, and learn more. A well-planned activity can encourage people to connect with one another, work together to solve a problem, and learn by doing. Great teaching often involves a carefully balanced mix of information sharing and interaction. In this way, technology can play a role in enhancing face-to-face learning without taking the place of interactions that require people to be in the same physical space.

5.1. Integration of Digital Tools

Digital tools serve as aids to face-to-face instruction, not substitutes. Applying digital tools in a way that enhances the efficiency of the learning process, from scheduling to content delivery, assessment, and feedback mechanisms, is providing innovative solutions to traditional teaching constraints. By freeing face-to-face instructors from routine administrative tasks, repetitive preparation marking and related activities, faculty can focus on imparting valuable subject matter and learning how to teach in increasingly student-centered ways. The associated changes to pedagogical roles and responsibilities for both instructors and learners are beneficial in driving learning efforts for further development and innovation in universities.

There is vast potential in the integration of technology in a face-to-face curriculum, with the greatest being that it complements the face-to-face components of the curriculum. Successful integration is thus underpinned by the use of effective and appropriate technologies which enhance the learning environment. This coincides with the SAMR model, which categorises integration of technology into teaching as enhancement, transformation, and redefinition. While digital technologies can certainly offer alternatives and sometimes stand in place of traditional tools and practices, case studies show that such usages do not enhance learning. With the term disruption used in common parlance more often than ever, it is important to remember that the elements of a learning environment that technology cannot recreate are valuable. These are elements like direct human-to-human contact and the feelings of connectedness to both the content being learned and one's peers and instructor.

5.2. Blended Learning Approaches

Blended learning, where traditional classroom-based teaching is supported by technology that the schools provide for student-centered online learning, provides new forms of communication, but also the interaction necessary for group learning activities. These aspects are essential in developing students' learning and technology skills. Coders, designers, and makers who are moving forward with vast amounts of validated learning will easily change the status quo of traditional, one-size-fits-all pedagogies. The hybrid classroom model introduces students to learning situations never seen before. Thus, it is who will serve the educational technology leaders of tomorrow in the production of leaders of a change in online learning. This trend will continue until we produce e-learning enthusiasts in the future and many students, promoters of technological advances.

Already, many public and private schools in the U.S.A. require students who graduate from high school to take online courses or blended learning courses if they want to attend college. Most private and public universities also require students to take some of their core courses online. They claim that online learning prepares students for what is expected in terms of digital literacy, interaction, and communication in college. These prerequisites are becoming increasingly necessary for success in their careers. Hence, public schools and private K-12 schools (private schools alongside public schools that pay for students' courses) will both have to escalate students' online learning experiences and improve their technology skills.

5.2. Blended learning approaches: Although the adherents of online learning have over-promised its potential, it is arguable to assume that they are mistaken. According to several educational technology opinion leaders, many schools will take the plunge and continue with online learning. They are convinced that such services will significantly disrupt the traditional education model in the United States.

5.3. Leveraging Online Resources

Students may be challenged by the perceived effort or necessity of using a variety of virtual tools when navigating their coursework due to the time zone or technical constraints. Within the synchronous session, assume students are part of a face-to-face community by fostering reasons to support and communicate with one another. Utilise video conferencing to allow for small group collaboration or teamwork in real time. Students strengthen their interpersonal skills when negotiating group work and inclusive discussions. As online learning has shown, students may struggle to maintain a work-life balance, leading to a range of emotional or frustration experiences. It makes it difficult for students to navigate the more impersonal asynchronous distances. Providing a virtual space within the synchronous session where students may take a 'breather' while talking with a classmate helps to create psychological safety. Students are given a chance to deconstruct course relevance and demonstrate metacognitive reasoning to connect and apply new information. During these group work discussions, individual contributions become a rich resource to develop verbal communication skills. Students are expected to engage in rich collaborative sessions that support the development of articulating a well-thought-out educational conversation.

Distance students are likely to utilise video conferencing or web-based chats for their synchronous course sessions. Instructors may choose to perform virtual office hours, use targeted instructional videos within the learning management system, or offer flexible participation options within discussion boards. Online Learning Centers commonly offer physical and virtual tutoring sessions. Students who are utilising instructional videos on their own, accessing tutoring, or performing coursework asynchronously via video conferencing tend to get frustrated. By employing these best practices, instructors can make use of the full array of active, experiential, collaborative, and peer engagement activities. While students are leveraging the opportunity to interact live with another person, they should be encouraged to add their web camera feed for a face-to-face interaction. Students are unable to make these connections if neither instructor nor student webcams are activated. Only when a visual connection is made can nonverbal cues and body language be used by both parties to facilitate mutual understanding.

6. Case Studies: Successful Face-to-Face Learning Implementations

The second type of institution is generally wealthy, private or public, with similar mechanisms in place. The UK university system fits this profile on many levels and scales. On the one hand, the massive increase in the number of students generally make these institutions less advisable to "small" undergraduate teachers, but on the other hand, this helps those who focus on teaching get support staff for technology and administration, as seen in larger institutions. Dealing with an undergraduate mass is also so universally painful that a scarce administrative staff, or even the provost, occasionally pays attention and decides to address a particular issue. Once the problem of gender segregation arises and there is a concrete facility that now expects at least 20% of the student body to enrol on programming, as I wrote in my previous blog post. For different reasons, smaller institutions were not yet able to address the issue. In contrast, larger institutions frequently try technology as a first solution if they have stable structures; after all, they have more money and can afford the risk.

Over the past few years, we have had an opportunity to help or have seen colleagues at other universities institute face-to-face learning on a massive scale. Two kinds of institutions have made these kinds of changes. The first type consists of "new", or red brick, newer universities with a strong central authority. This description fits my own university - its student body grew by an order of magnitude over the last 10 years to around seven thousand students today; most of them are female; math and computer science service courses used to be stable, but when the body of students reached over a thousand students, those could not handle popular small courses. One or two younger and more enthusiastic instructors were typically blamed for every failure. Two such instructors stepped forward, and the central authority simply said, "Do something." I am told this was before they decided to go face to face. They refused becoming the quarries of an online education vendor and tried running an informal blog instead. This led to a socially ratified exchange of information in which learning occurred naturally as a side-effect. Soon after this, two instructors who replaced me at NEOU tried to promote one such blog in the Department of Math and Computer Science and were successful.

6.1. Educational Institutions

Educational institutions have space for social interaction, emotional development, and physical activity which are essential for the holistic development of the child. Students need this emotional investment, this sense of belonging, and they also need the ability to make physical and mental connections. They also have to provide students with quality psycho-education through opinion, conversation, and vocational guidance teams. Being forced to stay at home gives them the autonomy to motivate and study, but intensifies the lack of social contact, makes them lose the rhythm and concentration, the essential physical activity, and the emotional stability, giving rise to the feeling of living in a real nightmare. In addition, digital platforms and content are designed for everyone, but not for a specific person. Remote tutoring is necessary for the success of students assigned to tutoring units. Especially in more challenging disciplines such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry, which are already difficult in interactive mode.

Keeping the doors of their establishments open in order to offer face-to-face classes to children and young people seems to be a risky task given these times marked by a pandemic. However, a good part of the parents in Portugal say they feel safe and that returning to school is essential to prevent damage to their children that may be irreversible. Therefore, there is still a great desire from the part of the pupils, the parents, and the school community to return to face-to-face classes. Pupils miss their friends and teachers, the dynamics experienced in schools, the sports activities, and the moments of fun. However, in addition to the main educational contents, schools also have the important mission of teaching roots, of dialogue, of building solutions at a local level, and to provide their feelings and emotional states to their students. This environment is a priority and indispensable in the training of the individual. Schools cannot be replaced by screens and the interaction they involve.

6.2. Corporate Training Programs

However, what about the side effects of the remote training methods corporations are embracing, specifically as it applies to the bottom line? Is the cost and the additional billable hours from employees truly beneficial to the corporation, who is in many cases starting to wonder why staff at all levels of the corporate structure are more anxious and stressed? It is estimated that around 20 percent of people are the type who engage more effectively when they can "attend" smaller remote training sessions alone while at their computer, thus retaining more via their remote training experience. It is estimated that at least 80 percent and as high as 90 percent actually retain more information in face-to-face training sessions as compared to online training. Samuel Greengard touched on this fact in a TrainingMag.com article when he mentioned in the book "Remote: Office not Required" by Jason Fried, the fact that face-to-face meetings provide experience and the opportunity to learn. However, if the overwhelming majority of today's corporate (remote) learning experiences are failing our employees as far as retention and fostering well-rounded learning (in a multitude of ways), would it not benefit the organizations to reconsider its training methods?

Corporations are drafting their largest budgets to date, allocating millions of dollars for online portals, e-learning systems, software, and on-demand learning materials to replace face-to-face training. From the perspective of the corporation, it is not difficult to understand this shift. It means not only lower training costs, but less expensive travel costs for individual employees. It also allows for a uniform message to be delivered, with printed training materials and lower costs of training staff members at remote sites. For human resources personnel, it has the added benefit of streamlining employee evaluation and competencies.

6.3. Professional Development Workshops

The conference venue often has special facilities like virtual classrooms or inviting open spaces. Also, generally, delegates come from major bases like London, Tokyo, New York, Dubai, or other major multinational hubs. Conference organisers, by utilising this base, can bring in speakers and workshop leaders from a diverse melting pot of experience. Face-to-face participants may well build up personal relationships with presenters and other delegates, which will become valuable resources. When returning to teach, the teacher will have a new set of resources and ideas as he or she will have had an unparalleled chance to engage in peer-to-peer learning.

Most of the conferencing in education takes place online by using webinar software. At best, these are a very poor substitute for the relationships you can build face-to-face during conferences. As a professional development tool, they are very inferior to the days away from work offered at face-to-face conferences. The formal presentations are short with an intolerable time lag when questions are asked. They do, however, have the advantage of saving time away from home, airport, and travel costs. However, these savings are unlikely to be large if one selects professional development, which is by definition expensive.

7. Conclusion: Embracing Face-to-Face Learning in the Digital Age

The current review attempted to investigate the benefits of face-to-face learning and tangible educational experiences, which are concepts that lend themselves to investigation. Despite the limitations of the conducted searches, the current review makes a significant contribution to the field and highlights the significance of face-to-face learning, especially under the current environment favouring digital learning. Embracing the significance of face-to-face learning solutions may signify a transition to a new form of educational model intended to raise benefit from both digital and live social interaction learning modes. Such a transition may prove significantly important during early childhood educational stages, where fundamental sensori-motor skills and social abilities are laid and hard to establish later. Given the numerous benefits associated with real-live educational practices, the findings of the examined studies may encourage educators to work toward establishing educational models that incorporate face-to-face interaction in learning processes at the most feasible educational stages.

The contemporary world is in the midst of a revolutionary social transformation, characterized by the increase of digital services that are progressively altering the way individuals work, interact, and learn. This current digital and online mode of living impacts individuals over time, promoting the acceptance of a new lifestyle that involves extensive interaction and exposure to information online. The contemporary educational system has started employing predominantly digital tools, causing a plethora of benefits and an increased flexibility in learning processes. This adaptation, however, has various disadvantages, including an extension of the effort dedicated to screen time, with potential effects on mental and physical health. Therefore, it may be critical, under the current circumstances, to consider the well-documented benefits of face-to-face human-human interaction and tangible experiences, including educational ones.