Benefits of e-Learning
Over the past decade, e-learning and digital technologies have metamorphosed from early-user novelty to mainstream necessity. In the process, they have dramatically changed the way education is being imparted to users across all sectors. The term ‘e-learning’ first made its appearance in 1998. Since then, online learning has continued its unbridled expansion, thereby changing the education sector forever.
The worldwide market for e-learning is projected to cross $100 billion by the year 2015. This is because an increasing percentage of companies are now relying on a blend of online training and traditional methodologies to take their employees’ skills to the next level.
According to a survey conducted in 2011, almost 72% of the 600 companies surveyed felt that e-learning helped their business to adapt and integrate rapidly with the latest changes in their niche sector. E-learning is opening up new vistas in the training and education sectors while simultaneously providing access to high quality higher education to a wider audience.
The stunning growth of e-learning has been fuelled by its several benefits that make it so acceptable to a growing number of diehard users.
Today e-learning is accessible to more and more people chiefly because of its affordability. Because of it, education at all levels no longer entail an assortment of expenses towards study materials, travel time, teacher fees and so on.
In fact, e-learning has removed one of the prime barriers to quality higher education and professional training by enabling anybody with just a computer and internet connection to use it. Many online education sites offer support systems where a community of students and instructors interact regularly and share knowledge. There are learning tools galore, online tests and quiz apps to assess progress.
E-learning is definitely more flexible and adaptable than traditional classrooms. Both students and professionals can complete courses at their own pace and from the place of their choice. The pace of progress can be customised to suit individual capacity to grasp the content, assimilate them properly and then move on to the next level.
For seasoned professionals and students of higher education, e-learning is a much faster way of completing a certain course when compared to regular books and classrooms. This is because they can pick and choose study materials, thereby skipping those portions which they are already proficient in.
E-learning removes the inconsistencies associated with different teachers conducting different classes. Variance in style of teaching and conducting classes can make a critical difference to your learning process. This is something which can be easily avoided with e-learning.
Easy to Update
Updating your knowledge or honing your skills should no longer force you to skip your normal life and make that tedious journey to an actual classroom. With online education you can now simply upload all kinds of latest study materials to your server and use them at your convenience.
E-learning enables you to retain the acquired knowledge for a longer time and revamp it anytime you want. This is because the study materials and instruction apps can be accessed anytime. With traditional education you may retain the books but you will still have to spend on an instructor. Another reason is that e-learning combines contents, audio and video which create a better impact on your learning faculties.
Of course, e-learning isn’t right for everyone all of the time, which is why classroom based group training is still very popular. In a future article we will look at some of the problems associated with e-learning, which will explain why the ‘horses for courses’ approach to learning is increasingly seen as the way forward.