Effectiveness of E-learning in Todays Skills

Go back to 2020. It is Monday; it is not a holiday, but all students are at home. Classes are going on. Teachers are teaching; students are taking notes and answering questions. All this in front of a computer screen. The COVID lockdown brought a great change in the way people interacted, bought things, taught, and learned.

The words “online learning” became very common in remote villages. Learning through computers was not a new thing; it was there even before the lockdown. But regular classes through a computer were a new experience for almost the whole world. Online learning, e-learning, offline courses, working from home, studying from home — these are some words that have entered the vocabulary of many of us.

E-learning is a method of delivering a live and interactive course over the Internet. Online courses for different streams, be they arts, languages, technology, hobbies, etc., are available on the net, which is why they are referred to as e-learning. With the advent of the Internet and fast streaming of data, there has been a revolution in the education sector. The traditional face-to-face, chalk-and-talk classroom is fast becoming an alternative wherein the trainer and the trainee no longer sit in the same room but may be continents and time zones apart.

Compared to the traditional classroom method, the effectiveness of E-learning can be summed up by the following benefits:

1. The cost of setting up the facility for classrooms, the transportation costs of both trainers and trainees, and the cost of the resources are greatly reduced. Training costs at Ernst & Young were reduced by 35% and 40% at Rockwell Collins when they switched over to e-learning from normal classrooms.

2. There is a lot of time saved, as the time required by the trainers and students to travel to the classrooms is saved. This not only has a say in saving time but also on saving fuel, which has a considerable environmental impact.

3. Online courses are not bound by geography, as trainers and students can interact with each other from any part of the globe. It allows both one-on-one sessions as well as mass teaching for learners across the globe, giving it wider coverage.

4. Many organisations require their employees to go for certifications to upgrade their skills. Online courses give the student the choice of choosing the appropriate course for the certification.

5. E-learning allows people of all ages, occupations, qualifications, and experiences to take up courses of their choice. Working professionals as well as homemakers can take up courses of their interest at their convenience to update their skills.

6. Particularly in technical courses, e-learning allows the updating of content as and when the knowledge base gets updated. It means that there is greater flexibility in the content and syllabus preparation. E-learning makes the content scalable and allows quick updating of matter, concepts, and ideas. With online electronic media, concepts can be easily explained using multimedia like graphics, videos, animations, and slides.

7. E-learning gives the learners the option of going through the lessons any number of times. It allows rereading and revision, especially during exams. Studying at one’s own pace gives one the freedom, flexibility, and time to go over the lessons repeatedly.

8. E-learning allows the students the flexibility to focus on particular areas in which they are interested. They can leave out the topics in which they are not interested. This helps them give more time and interest to their subjects. It also makes the learning interesting and enjoyable.

9. Now there are multiple certification courses offered by reputed e-learning platforms like Udemy, Coursera, Udacity, etc. at affordable prices. With technology getting quickly updated on an almost weekly basis, skills, particularly technical skills, on an e-learning platform give any person on any part of the earth an easy, affordable, and flexible way to update themselves.

Other than the formal courses on the platforms mentioned, there is a wealth of video content on YouTube, Vimeo, and similar video sites. People visit them for any doubts they have about their day-to-day activities.

A few of the e-learning portals that one can access for paid and free courses are:

• Udemy
• Coursera
• Skillshare
• Teachable
• Simplilearn
• WizIQ
• EdX
• Udacity
• MasterClass … and many more.