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SOLART STUDIOS ENT
Painting and Printing on Arts Works
Article: Online Learning
Author: Olusola
David, Ayibiowu
Edition : 11
Year : 21 August,
2017
Published: Online
by Creative Arts Solution Foundation
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 (further discussed in later chapters) 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. And
that's a great advantage of online learning!
Let's blend all of that together and apply it in a
real-life scenario:
In an effort to enhance the credibility of course
material, oftentimes a professor will summon a field specialist to give a
lecture relevant to the topic at hand. In the traditional model of education,
the professor would have to extend an invitation to said expert, and incur the
costs of his flight, stay and training.
With e-learning:
With e-learning the professor has the ability to host
a guest lecture without having to spend much money. It can be done virtually,
with cameras for both the lecturer and the students, and with the use of
microphones to facilitate the same level of interaction that would be possible
if the lecturer were physically present in the room. The added benefit comes in
when we are able to replay the lecture and gain even more out of it. Students
that missed out can view the recording, or students that attended can watch it
again to further their understanding.
Concerns that arise with e-learning
Even given all the benefits of e-learning, one cannot
deny there are some drawbacks. A good example of a disadvantage of online
learning is that 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.
Can we learn online by utilizing e-Learning tools?
One of the most longstanding debates in the field of
education has been whether or not we can benefit from e-learning to actually
learn. We realize the reservations of people who will argue that computers
promote procrastination and offer distractions, however we owe it to ourselves
to dig a little deeper and see the other side of the coin which shows that we
can actually benefit from e-learning.
It's true that as individuals we don't all respond to
one teaching method in the same way - some learn visually, and others learn
with repetition or writing. E-learning responds to those different needs with
the use of different types of material, whether that is audiovisual content or
interactive testing on the go, there is a plethora of options to cater to the
needs of each and every learner and in the end, help them learn online in a
much more efficient way.
E-Learning, in comparison with traditional learning,
allows for easier access to online resources, databases, periodicals, journals
and other material you wouldn't normally have easy access to from a library. If
a student has trouble understanding part of the coursework, finding tips on the
matter couldn't be easier than having immediate access to supplementary,
unlimited and free material online! Moreover, e-learning is designed to cater
to the needs of different types of learners, who wouldn't normally do as well
in a traditional learning environment, as well as complement the traditional
learning environment with more features to make it an even more appealing
option for the skeptics.>>read more...
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