The
benefits and drawbacks of online learning
No Boundaries, No Restrictions:
Along with locational restrictions, time is one of the issues
that learners and teachers both have to face in learning. In the case of face-to-face
learning, the location limits attendance to a group of learners who have the
ability to participate in the area, and in the case of time, it limits the
crowd to those who can attend at a specific time.
E-learning, on the other hand, facilitates learning without
having to organize when and where everyone who is interested in a course can be
present.
More Fun:
Designing a course in a way that makes it interactive and fun
through the use of multimedia or the more recently developed methods of gamification
enhances not only your engagement factor, but also the relative lifetime of
the course material in question.
Cost Effective:
This is directed to both learners and teachers, but there is
a good chance that whatever your role you had to pay exorbitant amounts of
money at some point to acquire updated versions of textbooks for school or
college. While textbooks often become obsolete after a certain period of time,
the need to constantly acquire new editions is not present in e-learning.
It Just Fits!
As companies and organizations adopt technologies to improve
the efficiency of day-to-day operations, the use of the internet becomes a
necessity. As multinational corporations expand across the globe, the chances
of working with people from other countries increases, and training all those
parties together is an issue that e-learning successfully addresses.
Concerns that arise with e-learning:
Even given all the benefits of e-learning, one cannot deny
there are some drawbacks. Practical skills are somewhat harder to pick up from
online resources. For example, although building a wooden table is something
you can easily share information about, record videos of and explain, the
practical experience is essential. Pottery and car engineering are examples of skills
that require hands-on experience.
Isolation:
Though e-learning offers
ease, flexibility and the ability to remotely access a classroom in the
student’s own time, learners may feel a sense of isolation. This is because
learning online is a solo act for the most part, which may give the learner the
feeling that they are acting completely alone. As technology progresses and
e-learning benefits from the advancements being made, learners can now engage
more actively with professors or other students using tools such as video
conferencing, social media, and discussion forums amongst others.
Health Related Concerns:
E-learning requires the use of a computer and other such
devices; this means that eyestrain, bad posture and other physical problems may
affect the learner. When running an online course it’s a good practice to send
out guidelines about correct sitting posture, desk height, and recommendations
for regular breaks.
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon