Is Online Learning the Future of Learning?

Re enforcing the current education system with technology enabled learning to deliver personalized and outcome based learning.

Ever since the advent of the Internet in the early 1990s, man’s relationship with the world has been defined as one of being interconnectedness, and for the most part, the Internet has been an ever growing medium that has given this interconnectedness a more concrete shape over the course of two decades. It is very difficult to imagine modern life without the existence of the Internet, an entity without which modern civilization would not have advanced the way it has. The benefit of the Internet lies in the fact that it can be used to satisfy a wide variety of needs, ranging from the commercial to the entertainment needs of human beings. Along with all the ease that the Internet brings, the rate at which one sees the increase in the number of online courses portals is testament to the superiority of online learning over the other forms of learning. Let us have a look at its essential, salient features:

A Focus On Skills, Not Semesters:

Traditional learning always takes place in the physical plane of existence, within the confines of the classroom. It lays its emphasis on a harmonious union between both theoretical and practical knowledge that is being imparted. In the case of higher (that is, university level) education, the different branches of approaches and the various specialized knowledge that is to be learned is divided into a fixed set of semesters, to reconcile with the entire length of the course itself. This has one obvious drawback, however: it tends to ignore a student’s skill set while emphasizing on things that a student may do well without knowing. Online courses relinquish the entire concept of semesters for the sake of honing the skills of the student. Online courses websites seek to make the learner as skilful as possible in the specific field of learning

A Hybrid Form Of Education:

Traditional learning relies upon pedagogy that is based upon imparting knowledge within the boundaries of a classroom, where the teacher and professor explains and elaborates upon the key concepts pertaining to the subject at hand. Such an oral form of teaching may be further augmented by the inclusion of diagrams and charts to enhance the understanding of the concepts at hand. On the other hand, online courses portals employ a richer, hybrid pedagogical method where different tools are utilized to maximize the understanding of the student and enable them to have a command of the subject they are studying. Online learning can include interactive videos, one-on-one interactions with the lecturer or the teacher over video chatting platforms, the instant sharing of essential information to a large group of people, etc.

Interdisciplinary:

It would be fair to say that in the realm of higher education and academia, there is an effort which seeks to attain a state of being where all of the subjects known to human knowledge can overlap on certain points, making the entire object of study related to a number of related but distinct disciplines. This is known as the state of being interdisciplinary, where a subject being studied can be applied to the study of other subjects as well. To varying degrees, traditional modes of learning have attained interdisciplinary status in many respects. But the true interdisciplinary potential of a subject is revealed in the case of online learning. Thanks to the rapid rate at which ideas can be communicated and shared to a large number of people, it has become possible for people concerned with a subject to know how that subject can be academically related to another subject on an international level.

Reinforcing The Lecture-Based System:

As a consequence of the second and third points, learning has evolved into another dimension of existence where it is not just restricted to the mere use of lectures to convey important information and to impart knowledge. Online courses websites free the process of attaining knowledge from its restrictive pedagogical methods and from the bounds of a fixed number of semesters so that anybody who might be interested in the subject can partake in receiving the specialized knowledge on the subject. This makes education and learning available for everybody, regardless of age, sex or occupation and at any time.

Looking at these salient factors, it can safely be said that online courses would indeed come to rule the world in a matter of a few years.