Online Learning-Misconceptions vs Reality: Benefits of being early an adaptor
e-Learning or online learning is the new education methodology, which has taken over the education industry, as a storm, especially with the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. It is, indeed, the next level of education in schools, colleges, institutions and also for learning and development activities at many enterprises.
For educational institutions, Online learning is a cost-effective, engaging method and its adoption will increase learning outcomes of the students, and also reduce extra pressure on teachers, providing a structured learning management system.
The e-Learning industry in India is witnessing a steady growth rate year-on-year, but many are hesitant to adopt the solution. Schools and colleges that won’t adapt to e-Learning will surely be left behind. The inhibitions in many minds and hesitation to adopt online learning are due to the following reasons:
- Some consider online learning to be as a short-term solution, which is needed only for the duration of covid-19 or such situations
- Some think it is expensive
- Some feel it may be too complex and thus students and teachers may not be comfortable and thus not use it
- Some do not see any perceived, long term benefits
- Some feel online learning is not needed and few mails combined with SMS notifications are enough to manage teaching and activities.
The aim of this article is to bust the misconceptions related to e-Learning and help users to explore some of the realities. And we are positive that you will adopt online learning soon after.
Misconception 1: No clarity of teaching and students don’t understand the lessons properly
Reality 1: Online Learning solutions provide secure and rich digital content, in various formats (doc, pdf, xls, graphics, video) relating to impressive context, and, real-time analytics reports
Teachers have various options to make learning easy adaptable to their students with various available content forms. Moreover, online lessons have discussion forums. If any students face any difficulty, they can discuss with the respective teachers and the later will guide the former. Students can refer to discussions any time in future, even in the offline mode.
Top e-Learning solutions offer advanced reporting options that allow teachers to analyse specific information about the students and customise their teaching methodologies accordingly for the improvement of their students and to keep themselves upgraded, in the form of defining a personalised learning path, catering to each individual student. Also, respective principals can gain insights into the performance output of the students and teachers too.
Misconception 2: Managing an e-Learning solution is complex and increases the overhead for teachers
Reality 2: e-Learning solution is easy to use and addresses teacher burnout
Many Teachers consider e-Learning solutions as complex and time consuming, as they think it takes a lot of effort and time to create and maintain content in an e-Learning solution. However, in reality, it is not the truth.
Uploading lessons on e-Learning solutions are as easy as any other social media platform. Adding up to this benefit, teachers can create content once and can use it repeatedly, year after year, and also enhance it, at a later stage, as when they want. Many online learning solution providers have auto correction features that assists the students to get instant scores and reduces the time spent in manual correction by the teacher.
Reality 3: e-Learning/online learning empowers both teachers & learners
e-Learning solution is not meant to change the teaching methodologies or replace a teacher, but it is meant to enhance the educational curriculum of an institution. One of the many benefits of e-Learning is the flexibility it offers and its blended learning approach.
Every student is technology savvy in this digital age and spends a lot of time on the internet, independently. With 24/7 access to study materials in various forms, students are empowered to choose when, where and how they want to learn. Also, teachers can relax from their daily hustle and manage to share a rich content repository with the students for a better engagement at their own convenience and not worry about the cumbersome correction procedures. Teachers can create their own lesson, share references from any website link, YouTube videos, pdf links, eBooks and many more. This, in turn, increases knowledge retention of the students as they can revisit the lessons multiple times which lessens the teacher’s tedious tasks.
Misconception 4: e-Learning is Difficult and cannot be Personalized
Reality 4: e-Learning is personalized, intuitive and easy to use
e-Learning solutions help schools, colleges and institutes to give personalized care to students and look after the specific needs of the learners. Teachers get the freedom to create interactive, customised lessons for the students in an easy and simple way and keep the students engaged individually. And this personalization is not difficult. Anybody can use e-Learning solutions, as they are extremely intuitive and easy to use.
Misconception 5: e-Learning/online learning applications take a lot of time and effort to set up and have no security
Reality 5: It takes just a few hours to install and make your school/institution online while providing the utmost secured content
Various online learning solution providers have advanced unified application systems that can be deployed in less than a day to any remote or urban place. They also don’t need any visitation or IT expertise to get and maintain the online learning solution. Many such solutions don’t have maintenance cost and the data is completely safe as they are the cloud-based solutions. Providers make sure that the intellectual property of the school is thus not circulated but utilised by the students and teachers effectively.
Misconception 6: Institutions face a lot of trouble in communicating with parents
Reality 6: Online Learning applications are the best solution to keep the parents up-to-date about their children’s performance and latest notifications
Online Learning solutions help parents to monitor their children’s performance regularly. Also, the schools, colleges and institutes can notify the parents with a few clicks (any time) and can aim to resolve issues on priority. Many e-Learning solution providers enable parents to pay fees through their systems too. Online learning solutions help schools and students bond with their parents better and effectively.
Now, these misconceptions shouldn’t hold you back from embracing the next generation of education, in the form of online learning or e-Learning. Look beyond the myths and partner with an e-Learning solution provider, who can make your institution’s goals an outstanding reality.
Benefits of early adoption of e-Learning solution
It is extremely important to emphasise on how e-Learning/online learning solutions can continue to provide the learners (students) with academic development during any phase. It is imperative for parents/guardians of younger children who are working and missing a lot of information about their ward’s educational performance. e-Learning solutions strike a balance between keeping the students entertained as well as academically engaged.
Schools and educational institutions are adopting e-Learning solutions and providing unified portals that can be easily used by the students, teachers as well as parents. Adopting e-Learning will not only increase the learning outcomes of the students but will also positively impact the professional self-development of teachers. Additionally, there are free and secure resources available on the internet and other platforms that can be used by teachers to create engaging content (digital rich multimedia) and students can access them under parents/guardian supervision. An effective e-Learning solution is an amalgamation of traditional methods and digital platforms.
It is definitely the right time to develop a better world for the future generations and give the opportunity of smart education and think of creative innovations for times ahead. It is not a short term need and educational institutes will need it even after COVID-19 pandemic, to stay relevant in the technological world and give their stakeholders the best solutions.
At mPowerO, we make online learning easy to adopt (in just a few hours) and use by the various stakeholders of an institution. We have developed a unified e-Learning and management solution (learning management solution) that offers blended, secured learning solutions to the students that benefits the teachers in every sphere and helps the parents to stay up to date. In order to understand our e-Learning and management solution better, contact us for a follow-up meeting and/or arrange a demo session.
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