ELearning Takes Pole in the Digital Age of Learning

In a digital age where technology and gadgets have become irreplaceable for communication, teachers of the 21^st century are desperately cracking their brains for ideas to capture their students’ attention. Enter eLearning, a new, advanced and creative way to encourage learning through the use of digital facilities and tools. The idea of e-learning has been around for some time—as early as the late 60s. But recently, it is becoming increasingly popular among schools and companies thanks to the development of better and more advanced technology.  

E-learning, also known as authentic learning is a flexible online education platform for students to access educational materials posted by their teachers. As opposed to a traditional classroom setting, eLearning provides students with a virtual classroom setting for genuine learning to take place. The novelty lies in engaging student to learn responsively, sans the conventional, old-school method of textbook rotary memorization. Rather than initiating a top-down flow of information, eLearning encourages students to give valuable inputs and opinions, thereby making it easier for teachers to monitor their students’ performance. This shift in learning promotes a two way communication between students and teachers. Students may feel more self- assured to participate in educational activities and give valuable feedback to their instructors who have the flexibility to modify their teaching methods and focus to cater to the needs of individual students. In the past, this feat would be highly impossible in a conventional classroom setting.

As today’s generation of students are highly involved with new media, it comes to no one’s surprise that digital and fast-moving visuals are increasingly needed to feed this  group of hyper receptive graphic addicts. A recent study reports that approximately 4,600,000 college students take at least one of their classes online and this will increase to 18,650,000 by 2014. By 2019, half of all college classes are expected to be conducted online. In comparison to online training, one study pointed out that 85% per cent of every dollar spent on classroom training is spent on delivering it to its students. Mathematically, this means that time, travel, rental and other expenses are all factored into a typical classroom lesson, and students only get to receive 15 per cent of authentic knowledge for each dollar paid. Considering all these factors, students who undergo online training programmes take home a larger slice of the pie. Since eLearning takes place at anytime and anywhere, learning is stripped down to maximum convenience and accessibility. No longer do students need to bear the unnecessary costs of traveling and material fees. Leaning can take place spontaneously with greater freedom of expression and development of ideas.     

The popularity of eLearning these days is not just limited to school-based learning. In fact, companies too, are beginning to favor eLearning because of its benefits which include reduced operational costs, greater flexibility and simple to follow training programs. According to the Institute of Management and Administration (IOMA), corporations save between 50 per cent and 70 per cent of their costs when they replace instructor-based training with online training methods. To elaborate, by conducting lessons through online platforms, courses can be delivered into shorter sessions and spread out over different days so that the business would not lose an employee for entire days at a time. It also improves productivity as employees no longer need to travel or fight rush-hour traffic to get to a class. More significantly, eLearning has proven to have unimaginable cognitive effects. One of which is an increase in knowledge retention by 25 to 60 per cent, further highlighting the effectiveness of online-based learning. (Watch video below).

As mentioned earlier, the development of better technology has unlocked new ways for companies to address the issue of educating and re-training their staff. More companies have the ability and are gradually offering online learning platforms for their workers to learn and adopt new skills. By 2011, 77 per cent of American Corporations were already using online training methods, a remarkable surge from four per cent in 1995. Currently, the global e-learning industry represents $56.2 billion worth of corporate training. The Global Industry Analysts (GIA) predicts that this will grow into a $107 billion market by 2015.  From these examples, we learn that corporate eLearning is one of the fastest growing and ever-promising markets in the education and corporate sectors. Companies have also discovered that eLearning is fast becoming the second most important training method within organizations, with companies increasingly moving towards blended learning and eLearning, rather than instructor led training sessions.

All these being said, there are still loopholes in the system which I believe are still existent. Firstly, not every company would be suitable for online training sessions. Industries that is heavily dependent on the hands-on, experimental approach like the manufacturing sector cannot be completely reliant on eLearning.  While visual graphics and online simulation can provide one with adequate skills, it hardly provides users with real-life experiences which can only be attained through instructor led courses. This may hinder those who need practical skills guided by an instructor in a classroom-based setting.  Lastly, let us not forget that the main drawback about eLearning is the requirement for individuals to have access to a computer and the internet, a circumstance which should not be taken for granted for all.

References: 

http://info.shiftelearning.com/blog/bid/247473/18-Mind-Blowing-eLearning-Statistics-You-Need-To-Know
http://visual.ly/online-education-visual-history