IELTS Writing Task 2 essay with model answer

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic

Some universities offer online courses for students. Do you think this is a positive or negative development for students?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

Model Answer:

Education lays the foundation stone for the success and progress in life. Nowadays, with the boom in the field of information technology, several online courses are available to the students at the tertiary level of education. It is often debated whether this form of online education has its merits or its demerits. However, in my opinion, it has a definite positive effect on the student community which I will discuss over the course of my essay. 

Undoubtedly, online courses offered by various universities have their own advantages. Firstly, they actually give wings to the thought that the world is flat and it is an important factor which can bind people from all parts of the globe together. Due to these online courses, students from different parts of the world get a chance to study in the world-renowned universities which are far away from their hometown. This, in turn, is very economical and convenient to the students. To illustrate, all major universities in the UK import higher education to at least 30-40% of foreign students through their online courses in the respective streams. Moreover, economically deprived students can continue their quest for knowledge through these online courses which save them the money needed to travel and relocate to a new city. For example, in a recently conducted survey in India, it was found that this trend of online education has doubled the number of the students going for university education who would have otherwise backed out due to financial constraints. Last but not the least, it enables professional to pursue higher studies to improve their job prospects. To specify, most of the management colleges offer online management courses which help working people to improve their qualification without quitting their job.

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Having said this, it is also true such online courses have few drawbacks. Like, online courses are unsuitable for subjects which need practical hands-on experience. For example, science subjects like physics, chemistry, and biology involve a lot of laboratory-based exercises which cannot be fulfilled through online teaching. 

To conclude, I believe that online courses offered by universities greatly help the students to pursue higher education and their advantages clearly outweigh their shortcomings. In fact, online courses actually help to spread education far and wide instead of restricting it to the confines of the classroom. 

Total Words: 384

Task Achievement: 9

Coherence & Cohesion: 9

Lexical resources: 9

Grammar: 9

Overall Score: Band 9

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