Technology-based learning thrives through virtual classrooms due to its increase in students' academic performance and motivation and decrease in test anxiety.

Technology-based learning is rapidly becoming a necessary educational tool at schools and universities, which is evident through the rise of virtual classrooms. This new education has many benefits, as well as disadvantages for student’s learning, but it has been determined that the benefits outweigh the detriments for the typical student. A study by two professors from Alzahra University in Tehran depicted that technology-based learning decreases test anxiety, while increasing academic performance and motivation. Media Psychology is a recent field of study that evaluates how technology impacts students in this psychological manner. It is significant to analyze these effects in order to improve the future of students' learning behaviors.

Technology-based learning has psychological benefits for students, including an increase in academic performance and motivation and a decrease in test anxiety. 

In order to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of technology-based learning, it is crucial to compare an online classroom setting with a physical classroom setting. In a physical classroom setting, a student gets the attention they need from teachers, but it can also be stressful with other students around them. It is common to compare your academic performance with classmates, as well as get anxious and nervous about expressing your opinion to a group of students or even taking a test with others.

In an online learning setting, there is no face-to-face interaction and students are not amongst their classmates, so they do not compare their grades and they are able to take a test on their own time in their own comfortable atmosphere. This not only reduces one’s social anxiety, but also significantly decreases one’s test anxiety. In addition, students tend to have more motivation and do better in an online setting.

So if this is the case, shouldn’t teachers only use technology-based teaching? Dr. Scott Roberts, the Director of Undergraduate Studies and a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland, explains some psychological effects of technology-based learning and illustrates that isolating students to a strict technology-based learning environment may take away from important social necessities for students.

The study from Alzahra University tested these three dependent variables, academic performance, motivation, and test anxiety, through a 200 high school student sample. 100 students were randomly put into control and experimental groups, where the experimental group used an online site for their educational learning. The graph to the right portrays the test scores of the students in their assigned groups after the semester ended in order to compare the scores between online learning and traditional learning. The study concluded that learning using technology increased one’s academic performance, as well as academic motivation, and decreased one’s test anxiety. These results are significant because they suggest that technology-based learning could be the key to improve students' education.

Virtual classrooms are rapidly evolving at schools and universities, which indicates that the future of education will exist in an online format.

The successful discoveries of the effects of technology-based learning have created a rapid growth of virtual classrooms throughout America. Lindsey Cook, a reporter for U.S. News & World Report, wrote an article that discusses a 2004 prediction of how education will be conducted in 2014. The 2004 prediction indicated that education will be enhanced by technology and students will choose how they want to learn. In addition, it expressed that most students will use virtual classes for some courses instead of entering a physical classroom setting to gain the information. In the following video, Dr. Roberts compares virtual classrooms to an in-class setting and how the educational differences affect students' needs.

The internet and other useful education applications have increased the amount of schools and universities implementing these virtual settings. The 2004 prediction explained that virtual classrooms would pioneer in adult education and then rapidly move all education to an online format. Although the prediction was accurate regarding adult education, online courses have only been slowly progressing in grades K-12. However, students are starting to obtain the resources themselves. For example, Khan Academy is a technological tool that provides online education, which allows its users to access this information at anytime and from anywhere. This type of education is always available and it will continue to grow. It is expected that individuals in the next 10 years will learn how to use virtual classes effectively in order to obtain more educated students and professionals.

Dr. Roberts explains that technology-based learning is a tool; it must be used correctly in order to provide effective learning. For new applications to be used successfully, such as virtual classrooms or specific software, it is important to learn how people absorb knowledge using these types of technology.

The success rate of virtual classes are so high that schools have even transformed their entire institutions to an online format. In addition, some schools are even replacing teachers with computers and other technological advancements. Learning online will continue to grow in the next 10 years, with the expectation that virtual classrooms will completely take over student education.

Pew Research Center conducted a survey in spring 2011 of 1,055 college and university presidents in America to evaluate the expectations of online learning. The college presidents indicated that at the time, there were limited students participating in online courses, but come 2021, half of the college presidents suggested that most students will take online classes. The growth of online education is evident nationwide and colleges are beginning to prepare for this transformation. In the survey, 62% of presidents depicted that in 2021, more than half of college textbooks will be strictly digital. Therefore, there is significance in studying how these changes will effect a student's education. 

Media Psychology is a new and growing field, which evaluates how media affects the individuals who use its tools.

Media Psychology is an emerging field that evaluates the psychological components that arise from the new technologies created. As you can see, it is crucial that technological advancements are studied to analyze its effects on the individuals that use it. Technology has become a prominent aspect in most individual's everyday lives; an article in the Media Psychology Review explains that our world has become completely media dependent. Televisions, computers, and cell phones are staples in society today. This field of study researches the interaction between media communication and psychology.

The article discusses the difficulty to define the field due to the complex aspects of psychology and the media. The purpose of Media Psychology is to discover how new technologies effect its users to better the human experience and create beneficial social change. Experts in this field of study are the individuals that proposed the benefits of technology-based learning. Learning how virtual classes affect students enables institutions to improve their educational tools and enhance the knowledge of future generations. As virtual classrooms continue to grow, so will the field of Media Psychology, which will continuously learn and teach the effects of evolving technologies in order to benefit the lives of its users.