Online Learning 101: All You Need to Know About
- Updated on 15 Nov 2020
- Child Learning
Contents
Forbes projects the worldwide market for online learning platforms to be worth $325 Billion in 2025. Online education in India has come a long way with the development of technology, enabled by the availability of high-speed internet and smartphones. The advent of the internet has brought about changes in the way we shop, eat, buy, and even study. Education has now become integrated into technology-driven platforms referred to as online learning or EDtech platforms that are helping innumerable people learn the online way.
India sees an immense revolution in the digital landscape that has made its way into the education system and transformed students’ learning. Schools, colleges, workplaces have acknowledged the multiple benefits of online learning and embraced it wholeheartedly by incorporating it into their curriculums.
What is Online Learning?
Online learning or e-learning is a digitally supported form of education that relies on Internet support for student and teacher interactions. The online learning format can take an infinite number of approaches to instruct and learn outside of conventional chalk and blackboard classroom way of teaching, away from school grounds.
With online instructions and internet access, anyplace with Internet access and power can be transformed into a virtual classroom. Online learning incorporates sound, video, text, activities, virtual preparing situations, and live classes in real-time with educators and students using different platforms and interfaces. At the point when used to its maximum capacity, online learning for students has been demonstrated to be more successful than the traditional eye to eye guidance in classroom environments. It may very well be connecting with, fun, and custom-made to fit in nearly anybody’s timetable.
How Online Learning Helps Students
The rapid progression of technology and innovation, coupled with the evolution of online learning for students, has changed the education system across the globe. From schools, higher education, PhDs, and even certifications, online learning has made it all possible.
Offered by a portion of the world’s highest level foundation, online learning provides all of you the advantages of going to your fantasy college, with the additional comfort of a learning experience customized to your timetable. With courses accessible in pretty much every domain and adaptable plans to suit pretty much every way of life, several students are progressively choosing online learning as a feasible option. For students aiming at higher education, online learning helps eliminate the constraints of distance, allowing them to study an online course by a college, not in your nation of origin but instead on an online learning platform!
Advances in innovation currently permit students to concentrate efficiently online while communicating with schoolmates, engaging in discussion forums, watching addresses, and partaking in subject-matter related conversations. Online learning delivers the same amount of mentor criticism, inspiration, and learning objectives as classroom centric learning. Additionally, online instructors pay similar consideration to guarantee that their online learning candidates get related degrees of support that their classroom counterparts do.
Keeping in mind how online learning came in handy amid the present health crisis, the potential solution lies in building a robust and resilient education system by choosing online learning for students. Let us enumerate the several benefits of online learning :
- Eliminates the constraints of distance
- Helps you learn at your own time and pace
- Is a cost-effective option over the regular on-campus courses
- Helps you broaden your perspective by opting for courses from different universities
- Helps you communicate effectively with your peers over electronic mediums in a diverse setup when undertaking courses from foreign universities
- It is suitable for the environment as it saves energy and also reduces CO2 emissions, according to a British study.
Online Education Programs
Online education programs are offered in the following formats:
- Massive Open Online Courses/ MOOCs are courses that provide a series of lectures delivered to online “classrooms” that comprise as many as 10,000 people.
- Online Courses – Such courses are offered either as a part of a program in an online format or provided by online learning platforms. Students enroll in such classes to learn or amp up some of the skills or subjects of their interest.
- Fully Online Programs- Such online education programs offer certifications or degrees recognized by colleges and universities across the globe. Additionally, you can earn them from the confines of your home.
- Hybrid Education Programs – Hybrid education is a mix of both online and offline courses that allows students to undertake the course of their choice partly on campus partly online.
Online Learning Platforms
Below are some of the online learning platforms that have made a mark in the Edtech industry with their splendid solutions for online learning:
- BYJU’s: The Bangalore based online learning platform provides online learning solutions through online video lectures from students of class 1 to class 12, and even for competitive exams. The app, launched in 2015, is the largest app that delivers effective online learning programs to students panning across varied age groups.
- Khan Academy: Khan Academy works on the fundamental- education is a basic human right. To this end, the online learning platform offers a range of free online courses that integrate instructional videos, a personalized learning dashboard, and even free exercise assignments. This platform entirely focuses on K-12 students, with content in subject matter from algebra to English language education, chemistry, and even history and civics. It allows interested learners to access study materials for standardized tests, including the SAT, ACT, GRE, and a few.
- Whitehat Jr: WhiteHat Jr is a unique online learning platform looking to build the coding basics for children between 6 and 14 years. The startup has created a coding curriculum, including programming for machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics, and even space technology. The programs are 100% online facility instructed by certified tutors working in remote setups.
- NPTEL: The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) is an online repository of courses initiated in 2003 by the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Guwahati, and Roorkee) along with the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The platform generates web and video courses in all major branches of engineering, physical sciences, basic sciences, and selected humanities and social sciences subjects at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels and management courses at the graduate level.
- Unacademy: The online learning platform is a community of 3 million+ subscribers and boasts of more than 250 million views on their YouTube channel. Unacademy has leveraged the online academic space by creating content that propagates the concept of online learning for students right from their homes. Also, available as a mobile application, Unacademy has hundreds of educators who are working hard on improving the online learning experience for students anywhere, everywhere.
- Coursera: An international leader in online courses, Coursera has tailor-made courses provided by professors and universities all across the globe. While the courses are free for all, you can avail of certification by paying a small price.
- Udemy: Founded in 2010, Udemy is another global online learning platform that is extremely popular among Corporate houses for training their workforce. The platform hosts a variety of courses from clinical research, maths, programming, biotechnology, yoga, photography, and a lot more.
Final Thoughts
A study conducted by Britain’s Open University found that by implementing online learning for students, they saw an average of 90% less energy consumption. The benefits of online learning extend to the environment as well. A productive learning setup with substantially more flexibility than a traditional classroom, online learning has helped students continue their education even in the present COVID-19 times of social distancing.
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