Have We Clicked Too Far?

What we lose when learning becomes entirely online

There’s no disputing the fact that we’ve made learning more accessible than ever in the last five years. Online education has enabled training to become faster, cheaper and infinitely scalable, but it may be time to ask ourselves, are we actually learning less deeply?

As undeniably useful as online education is, the further along this path we move, the more we need to consider whether, in our rush to digitise, something fundamental about human learning has been lost.

Celebrating the Revolution

It goes without saying that online learning has brought remarkable gains in flexibility, accessibility, and affordability, opening the doors of education to audiences who might never have reached them before. Research from Oxford College shows that 21% of British people are using online learning, and with a 900% growth rate since 2000, it’s the fastest growing market in the education industry.

Learning remotely removes barriers posed by time zones and physical distance and lets students learn at their own pace and from any location, making it easier to fit education around work and family commitments. It’s been a genuine revolution in how we share knowledge and build skills – and a development that should be celebrated unequivocally.

But as powerful as digital learning is, it can’t, and shouldn’t, stand alone.

The most meaningful growth still happens when people learn together, in real rooms, through shared experiences, reflection, and human connection. The future of education isn’t about choosing between online and in-person, but we do need to acknowledge that face-to-face learning is still fundamentally human.

What We Lose When We Leave the Room

The more training moves entirely online, the clearer it becomes that certain elements are missing from the virtual education experience.

For a start, in-person learning fosters better academic discipline and focus. Being physically present in a classroom limits distractions and multi-tasking, and holds students accountable in real time. It also creates stronger interpersonal skills and social connections and offers more immediate and personalised feedback from tutors.

From both the perspective of the instructor and the student, the importance of non-verbal communication can’t be understated. Cues like facial expressions, tone, posture, eye-contact and gesture give context to words and learners instinctively use these cues to understand the nuance of what’s being taught. They also help tutors to constantly assess engagement through body language like subtle fidgeting, sparks of recognition, or a look of confusion that might not be noticed on screen.

As much as we instinctively know that things like the spontaneous conversations before and after a session, the shared experience, or the collective focus of people gathered in one space aren’t just small details, research backs up the idea that multisensory input (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) strengthens learning.

Studies show that gestures, movement, and spatial presence all help embed concepts more deeply in memory than text or speech alone. And learning experiences that combine visual, tactile, auditory, and even olfactory and gustatory stimuli can not only enhance learning motivation but also positively influence psychological factors such as anxiety levels, self-confidence, and learning attitudes. 

Ultimately, we are built to learn in a human-to-human environment. Our sensory and social wiring means that learning limited to screens and text engages only part of the system. When we bring back movement, presence, and human connection, we’re not adding ‘extras’, but restoring the conditions the brain was designed for.

When Learning Depends on Human Connection

Courses that develop interpersonal skills rely even more heavily on finding the right balance between online and in-person learning. In counselling, for instance, what’s being taught isn’t only a cognitive process but a relational, emotional, and embodied one. Counsellors must learn not just what to say, but how to be with someone in distress, the kind of presence that can’t be taught fully through screens or theory alone.

Counselling, along with many other subjects, is taught through relationships as much as through curriculum. And in-person learning allows trainees to experience, not just observe, the empathy, trust, and presence they’ll one day offer to clients. It’s not a matter of resisting technology, but of recognising that some human capacities can only be cultivated through shared human experience.

Despite its many strengths, remote learning can’t reproduce the relational depth and immediacy that make in-person education so powerful. It’s important to acknowledge those differences when making decisions as to what percentage of a course, or which topics within it, can be effectively covered online and which might need a more human delivery.

The Future of Education

The answer isn’t to reject digital learning, but to rebalance it. Online platforms have expanded access and democratised knowledge in ways that would have been unimaginable a decade ago, and that’s no small achievement. What’s needed now is a more deliberate integration: one that combines the reach and flexibility of online education with the depth and richness of real-world interaction.

In practice, that means hybrid approaches blending self-paced online study with collaborative workshops, mentoring, and shared reflection. The future of learning isn’t about choosing sides; it’s about designing experiences that honour both efficiency and empathy, scale and presence, convenience and connection.

The next step for education is to find the equilibrium where technology enhances, rather than replaces, what makes learning deeply human.

By Emily Warburton, CEO of Number22