Still unsure about online education?
Let us help! Tech has completely taken control of our lives. So, does it mean, advanced technology will also back our education?
No, and yes! Low-cost mobile phones or PCs and readily available internet make online education more appealing. Isn’t it? Earlier our ancestors used to cross rivers, climb walls, and whatnot to reach school but today we just need to turn on the device. And we’re good to go. When you have such flexibility why would anyone want to get up at 5 in the morning to attend school or college, right?
Even World Economic Forum says the overall market for online education is projected to reach $350 Billion by 2025. This data is proof that the surge for online education is going to be strong, allowing each of us to avail the benefit of online education while sitting at home and sipping coffee or whatever you prefer.
Also, we should thank the pandemic for giving us this opportunity because e-learning was a major restriction during the pre-covid era. Schools and colleges never even allowed their students to use mobile phones and other electronic devices (especially for academics). Now, there’s no class without the internet, documents are being shared over emails, online conferences, and video calls for classes and so much more is seen inside traditional classrooms.
Like every approach, online education also has its advantages and challenges, let’s know about those:
Benefits of Online Education:
Economic Competitiveness
E-learning is much more affordable than physical learning. Because in online education there’s no cost of real estate, study material, transportation costs, and more. So, the program/colleges charges you less. The online education study material is also available anytime for you to access as many times as you want.
Lifelong Learning
Businesses and apprentices find value through this mode of education. Now we see an ever-increasing competitive workforce that is continuously learning and improving. E-learning very efficiently takes care of the knowledge management components producing more and more learning individuals and companies. This has benefitted not just the knowledge seekers but their employers also in many ways.
Social Access
E-learning is for everyone. It fits well with those individuals who could not enter higher education due to personal or academic reasons. They get access to education while still taking care of their personal and family responsibilities.
Better Education
Online education is a great way to break social constructs among different classes. It offers education to everyone even people who don’t have lacs to spend. Students can learn from online tools like discussion forums, reflection, and dialogues over topics at different times and locations. The link between theories and technology facilitates a better learning experience. This is precisely what is required in a knowledge-based economy.
Cost-Effectiveness
Compared to a conventional education system, distant e-learning can provide quality education to a large number of students. Students now don’t have to pay for the college building, maintenance, and mobility costs to get the deserved education. Also, online education is quite affordable in comparison to physical classes.
Geography
For a sparsely located area, it is not feasibly possible to provide training opportunities through traditional training methods. E-learning is the way at such locations. If you have a device and connectivity this mode is best for students sitting anywhere in the world.
Personalization
Every learner has individual learning goals. This platform allows learners to choose their learning path and pace. While still being invested in the course, learners can decide what to learn and when.
Challenges of Online Education
However, there has been a range of arguments about the rapid development of e-learning in recent times. There can be varied and contradictory arguments for each one of the above points depending upon the perspective of individuals. Some common arguments against e-learning are the dipping student engagement and the monotonous online learning experience.
Online education or e-learning is a very new chapter or method and is vulnerable to many challenges. What are these e-Learning challenges and how can e-Learning be made more productive and engaging? Let’s discuss:
Less Motivation in the Classroom
E-learning requires a lot of self-motivation. This is one important factor for which students fail to complete online courses. On the other hand, face-to-face regular communications in the conventional form of learning, peer-to-peer activities, and schedules keep the students on track during their sessions. Online education lacks inspiration and of course, students can not be mind-ly present during e-classes!
Lack of Accreditation & Quality Assurance in Online Education
If E-Learning was considered effective, all online schools would have been qualified and accredited. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. A lot of online learning platforms are still unaccredited, the materials are not quality checked and the quality assurance is not there. This has weakened the legitimacy of online education.
Inaccessibility to Computer Illiterate People
In the recent NSS survey, computer literacy in Indians aged 15 and older is only 24.7%, and in rural regions at 18.1%.
This shows that the computer literacy rates are still far from good. A major chunk of the population still struggles to appropriately use computer devices making it difficult for them to access. In parts of the world that are still underdeveloped, the situation is often terrible. Our country, for example, is one of the major players in the world of E-Learning, but there is a large gap in computer literacy in the population. This makes many people believe that online learning is an addition and not a replacement for traditional education.
Limited Disciplines
Since all disciplines are not created equal and some can be easy but others difficult to grasp, e-learning cannot be applied successfully to all the education fields. In today’s scenario, E-Learning tends to be less suitable for scientific fields like medical science and engineering because these need practical knowledge. But it can be easily applied to social sciences and humanities. It does not also reimburse for real-life industrial training for engineers.
Lack of Face to Face Communication
Since there’s no upfront communication with the instructor, this method might hinder student feedback. There is a lack of pressure that primes the reasons for the abandonment of courses by the students. Nudging by professors may seem undesired but it is one effective method for student retention.
No Emphasis on Practice
Online instructions are based more on theories than practices. Although this can be fixed by more inventive methods of teaching, still a large part of E-Learning focuses on developing theoretical knowledge.
Poor Student Engagements
Not all the students are as committed. Many get distracted and busy very easily because at our age we have access to much more information than what we can consume. This brings in a lot of hurdles and there is poor engagement. Online learning brings up more challenges when compared to a traditional classroom in terms of engagement because students are detached from their instructors.
So there have to be proper measures to prevent feelings of isolation and keep them motivated. Online teachers must be more alert about maintaining the same levels of engagement and may need to use many more tools in their classrooms for good involvement from students.
Conclusion
E-learning is a fast-growing industry and will change the education system radically. In 2024, the online learning platform market is expected to reach US$5.50 billion.
This is a great number but the disadvantages of online education are still very impactful and that overshadows the prospects of this field. But the fact that E-learning is super beneficial for many students cannot be denied, especially in this COVID-19 pandemic situation.
At present, it may be correct to say that e-learning continues to grow in scale but it is also reflective of the poor utility of this economy. So far it does not seem to be a sustainable alternative to classrooms due to its initial stage (and some drawbacks). Also, it is largely used as a supplement and there needs to be a lot of improvement in terms of costs, faculty time, competition, and learning models. Although online learning has several challenges to address these limitations can be overcome gradually by the upgrade
Therefore it can be concluded that online learning is beneficial to the students, tutors, and the institution and can be implemented in all learning institutions but research must be carried out on how to improve this learning process.
The biggest advantage of online education is having flexibility and accessibility. Online courses and programs benefits can be gained from anywhere, at any time, as long as you have a stable internet connection.
Online education is an approach to learning where students get knowledge and skills through digital platforms, such as websites, learning management systems, and online courses.
Distance education and online education are indeed related but not same. Distance education is a broader term which includes various remote learning methods, including online education.
