The ever changing technological advancement is catching up with all the traditional systems that used to define the parameters with which we conducted our activities. Technology has infiltrated into our education systems, creating an avenue where education is carried out courtesy of technology.
Online learning, also called virtual learning or e-learning has opened up a wide platform and raised the bar in the different educational curricular there are. E-learning can therefore be defined as “a platform through individuals are dynamically linked to a given network or system and are able to swap or exchange information that relates to a given discipline“(Yen, 2005).
Traditionally, the classroom was a composition of a room with a tutor or instructor with students as the participants. This system facilitated face to face communication, enabling the class to hold many interactive forums in the course of their study. Combining the two concepts then, we can define e-learning “as a learning environment that exists solely in the form of digital content that is stored, accessed and exchanged through networked computer and information systems” (Yen, 2005)
The comparisons, therefore among the two platforms vary, but there are similarities to the two also. The difference among the two is basically one, that in an actual classroom, everything that is in that setting is tangible and both the learner and tutor have to physically change locations in order that they attend classes.
A virtual class on the other hand occurs through a purely intangible media that is the internet. The students just get connected to an internet source anywhere around the globe and log onto their respective online portal. That is how my online college experience compares to that of a student attending real classes at Harvard University.
Online learning can in many ways be used as a platform towards the advancement of personal profiles via their programmes. The advantages of online education vary, meaning there are many ways through which it can propel one to the crème of higher education. There are five features to online education, these are; convenience, they enable one to learn at his own pace at a time when a person feels he’s ready to get into the virtual class.
This has helped even the fulltime employees in the different sectors get certified in their various fields of interests. There is control; a student is able to dictate his pace of studying hence he acts as his own manager. This allows the student to determine the most appropriate time for the learning process, and allow for emergencies that may arise in the duration that he is studying for the given paper.
They facilitate connection, in that the interactive forums available on the platforms provide an opportunity for the students from different parts of the world to share the ideas on the topics under study. Cost; they are cheaper compared to the real classroom, and facilitate faster completion of the courses at cheaper rates. These courses nurture a student’s commitment to the given units that one has to cover as only the resilient finish up these courses. Generally, the online courses enhance personal growth and commitment.
E-leaning has many constraints ranging from environmental, cultural to other minor internal and external factors. Environmental factors range from a set of the soft ware’s that make it possible to conduct the study. Appropriate software which provides the best learning environment is therefore required to acquire optimum services (White, 2007). Cultural factors encompass an individual’s personal belief and his perceptions about this mode of study.
References
White, S. (2007). Critical success factors for e-learning and institutional change: some
organizational perspectives on campus-wide e-learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 5(38). 12-14.
Yen, M. (2005). E-learning systems and parameters. Journal of academy of Business and Economics, 2 (12). 54-57.