5 Advantages Of Online Learning Without Leaving Home
With changing times, the learning process too underwent enormous changes which is visible around, though online learning has not replaced the traditional learning. Lots of people are accepting it without any prejudice. Also, most of the universities support eLearning and have included it to their curriculum in some or the other way. According to a joint survey conducted by KPMG and Google, the advent of online education can be seen in categories like - Primary and secondary supplemental education, Test preparation, Reskilling and online certifications, Higher education, Language and casual learning. Out of these categories, test preparation and online certifications have more number of users and it is making rapid progress. These two categories are bound to increase in a vigorous pace.
So, What is Online Education?
In simple words, Online education is nothing but a learning process that take place over the internet. The term is synonymously used with Online learning, eLearning, Digital learning and sometimes Distance learning.
It makes use of multimedia -
Audio
Video
Pictures
Text
to make the learning process more interesting and effective.
When exactly did online learning start?
This is not a new concept, Online education existed way back in 1960s. Which means it is 170 years old! The University of Illinois created an Intranet for its students where they could access course materials as well as listen to the recorded lectures.
Since then many platforms provided online educational courses. And by 2009, the world couldn’t deny the impact of online education.
Why Online Education?
The world now runs on internet, it is sliding towards digitalization and education sector is not far behind. Online Education has tremendous scope in terms of improving the quality of education. While the western countries adapted to this learning, India is no where lagging behind. With internet reaching out far and wide into the country, learning is at your fingertips, just a click away!
5 Advantages of online learning
Lets look at the advantages of online learning that makes it likeable.
Accessibility and Flexibility: Online learning can be accessed from any part of the country be it urban, semi urban or rural, there is no boundary. On the top of it, this is the digital era where internet is affordable, with government initiatives to boost digitalization. It is a flexible option which does not require the student to travel. The student can study from the comfort of the home or while travelling, it doesn’t even add physical weight on your shoulders like bags and books do. All you need is a laptop/mobile/desktop and a steady internet connection to access it anywhere.
Learn at your own pace: The recorded lecturers lets the students learn any subject at his/her own pace without unwanted hurry. The student can pause, rewind, repeat the lecture until it is understood.
Regular updates: The notifications update the student of new updates and additions and it is quick (most operate in real-time) so that time is not wasted in waiting for notification and changes.
Affordability: Online learning lends the student control over money. A student can decide what to pay for and skip what is not needed. It is an economical option and doesn’t require huge amounts of money, and provides great value for the money paid.
Assessments: The online assessments on tests taken gives an overview of the student’s performance in the assessment. Regular short tests helps the learning process without much distractions. The results are tracked and stored and analytics helps is creating measurable results and reporting without much error. One more big plus is that it helps teachers keep track of their students performance and saves their time (No correction required).
Apart from the above mentioned advantages it can said without much explanation, that online learning is an eco-friendly option. A student will have access to thousands of questions, study material, previous year exam paper, lectures and repeated tests to help better one’s performance.
What some research claim about Online Education
Many research has been carried out to investigate the advantages of online learning and how it affects the student.
- Harvard research showed that short, regular assessments
- Cut down distractions
- Tripled note-taking behaviour
- Improved student retention
- According to IBM, students learn more than they do in traditional way, as learning online gives students full control over their own learning
- The Open University in Britain have found that online education equate to an average of 90% less energy and 85% fewer CO2 emissions per student
Survey by Google
Joint survey conducted by Google and KPMG says that the demand for online education sector is going to increase by CAGR 52% by the year 2021 and the demand for Online test preparation websites will go up by CAGR 64% in 2021.
