A recent report by Business Wire revealed that the E-learning industry is estimated to grow by $21.64 billion by 2024. The figure isn’t surprising by any means since the demand for online learning is only increasing, and several schools have already settled into online teaching models.
But why is online education in such high demand? What benefits does E-learning offer over traditional classroom learning that make it an appealing option?
We discuss the most significant benefits of online classes in this post.
Contents
- 1 Why is Online Learning Better than Traditional Learning?
- 2 Benefits of Online Classes
- 2.1 1. Flexibility & Convenience
- 2.2 2. Variety of Programs & Courses
- 2.3 3. Cost-Saving
- 2.4 4. Enhances Self-Discipline
- 2.5 5. Less Intimidating
- 2.6 6. More Interaction and Greater Ability to Concentrate
- 2.7 7. Career Advancement
- 2.8 8. Improves Technical skill
- 2.9 9. Saves Time
- 2.10 10 Personalized Performance Metrics
- 2.11 11 Work Benefits
- 2.12 12 Now Hobbies And Interests Are Possible
- 2.13 13 Connects You To Industry Experts
- 2.14 14 Automated Quizzes And Games
- 2.15 15 Visualization Of Complex Concepts
- 3 Concluding Thoughts
Why is Online Learning Better than Traditional Learning?
Getting a college degree often requires students to quit working so they can attend classes full-time. However, stopping earning isn’t an option for many students.
Even if students managed to hold down a job in a traditional classroom learning model, juggling between professional and academic obligations could get tiring.
Online learning removes the need for a student to quit their job since they can study from anywhere, at any time.
Getting a degree online also ensures that classes don’t block off a student’s schedule entirely. They can access and take the archived classes at any time and get in touch with the instructor over email if they have any questions.
E-learning is typically cheaper than classroom learning. While students will need to pay about the same for tuition and books, they will save on transportation and boarding costs.
But the best advantage online learning offers over traditional learning is that it’s highly accessible. A student can get a degree from the most prestigious institutes halfway around the world as long as they have an internet connection.
Benefits of Online Classes
1. Flexibility & Convenience
A student can study at any time, from anywhere. The flexibility offered to students allows them to meet personal and professional obligations.
A lot of students lead a lifestyle with a constantly changing schedule. Some students are professionals that are always on the move, while others have children or family to take care of.
Making it to a class on-campus isn’t a possibility for these students. While students are still expected to turn in assignments and take tests at prescribed times, they have the freedom to study the material whenever they can find the time.
Another advantage of online classes is that the lectures are accessible 24/7, and a student can get in touch with the instructor at any time.
Students enrolled in online courses receive notes, assignments, announcements, and quizzes over email or on the course’s portal. They are also free to speak with their fellow students at any time.
This makes learning exceptionally convenient.
2. Variety of Programs & Courses
Regardless of what field of study you want to pursue an education in, you can be sure that there’s an online program offering certification. There are courses online on everything from nursing and science to math and graphic design, and that’s only the start.
You can find an online course on virtually any concept you want to learn. What’s more interesting is that schools and online learning platforms make more courses available every day. This ensures that there’s an option for everyone.
If you’re currently studying a program and your school doesn’t offer it online, you can find a school that offers a similar program and have your credits transferred to the other school’s online program.
3. Cost-Saving
Online courses tend to be cheap, but if you’re getting a degree online, you will need to pay more or less the same tuition fee as you would in a traditional course. You will also need to pay for books.
But the nice thing about online learning is that you will save money on virtually everything else. You don’t have to relocate, pay rent, or worry about transportation and parking.
You will also save costs since you won’t need to eat outside. Further, you will make just as much money since you won’t need to quit your job to get a degree online.
4. Enhances Self-Discipline
One of the biggest challenges with E-learning is the lack of motivation to study. Even the best students deal with procrastination, and a lack of self-belief often leads to poor performance.
However, enrolling in an online class will help build self-discipline. You can have the easy way by staying on track with studying or learn the hard way by performing poorly on tests.
But ultimately, you will learn how important doing things on time is. You will also learn that no one is looking over your shoulder and that you’re responsible for your success or failure. In this way, online learning makes for a student-centered learning environment, and students are obligated to strive for active learning.
Once you build the self-discipline required to do well in an online course, you will see improvements in other areas of your life.
Furthermore, it will spark interest in you to learn more about how things work. If you fully engage with an online learning model, you will find lapses in your knowledge that you will need to fill. While you can rely on an instructor, looking it up on the internet is often faster and easier.
This habit of filling lapses in your knowledge will stick, and you will build skills to find and synthesize information and find answers to questions that come your way.
5. Less Intimidating
It’s easy for students to feel intimidated in a classroom environment since many fear they’ll look bad if they ask questions.
Having direct access to the instructor via email removes a lot of the hesitation that comes with engaging and asking questions.
If the class is live and not archived, the students don’t have to interrupt the class. They get an opportunity to learn from the conversation they have with the instructor over email after the class.
6. More Interaction and Greater Ability to Concentrate
Instructors teaching in classrooms often do not have the time to get to know the students in their class. There can be several reasons behind this: it’s often the time constraint, but it may also be that the class is too shy to interact.
In an online course, there are many ways for students to interact with each other and the instructors. Mailing lists are only the start – bulletin boards and chat rooms make it easy to communicate.
7. Career Advancement
Online courses help people expand their career possibilities and ensure that they don’t fully rely on the economy to keep them safe.
Someone interested in climbing the corporate ladder can take leadership, economics, and business administration courses. People are also interested in changing careers, and taking an online course can help with that.
8. Improves Technical skill
Students can’t learn from online classes unless they develop some technical skills. Enrolling in a course helps you pick up skills like email and web browsing, giving you an advantage over people that don’t have these skills.
Learning to browse the internet can allow you to find jobs, compare colleges, plan travel, and connect to people from around the world.
9. Saves Time
Many well-established institutions have well-established campuses. These campuses are vast, exotic, and built on big lands on the main city’s outskirts.
As many families tend to be within the city for better access to resources, students going to such institutes must travel a lot.
Prominent educational institutions are present in territories far from residential areas. This is to ensure that there is peace around the students.
So, if a student goes a long distance using public transportation or an uber, it will take them an hour or more to get there (depending on traffic).
Thus, if your college is, say, 1 and a half hours away from your home and the college lasts up to 6-7 hours. Then, you will be spending 9-10 hours in total for college.
But, if you take the same college courses online, you would save travel time and would be less tired.
10 Personalized Performance Metrics
What could be better than monitoring your growth and weaknesses and being able to work on them?
This point is also applied to offline learning. Teachers assess the students based on their scores and mistakes and guide them through the course. But, certain parameters are left behind in real-time mode. These are the ones the algorithm can now assess online.
Online tests are more reliable in measuring one’s performance than pen-paper tests. The final report includes elements like accuracy, a performance chart, and relative performance throughout the course of the semester in relation to one another.
This statistics report provides a comprehensive analysis of one’s performance. Moreover, it aids the student in analyzing their performance approach.
Also, everything is private to oneself and accessible, unlike the paper answer sheets, which can get damaged.
11 Work Benefits
Education has no age barrier. Online classes are a perfect fit if you are a dropout student who has entered your first year or a working individual who wants to learn high-end skills to switch your current job.
A few renowned institutes have an age barrier for high school. This restricts people from underprivileged backgrounds from having a course and a tutor of their choice.
These fine institutes are said to have a well-designed curriculum. But, many people can’t try them by default because of the system.
Many other institutes are now coming up with online distance learning programs to fill up this barrier.
These programs provide similar education to those of well-designed institutes.
Thus, helping many individuals who are looking for a career switch while carrying out their current job. Hence, giving them dual benefits.
Now, you can upscale yourself from being a regular software developer to a manager role by picking up the right course for yourself.
12 Now Hobbies And Interests Are Possible
The curriculum becomes complex and heavy as a student climb one year up.
Studies occupy a major part of their timetable. It’s because they either need to appear for college entrance exams or sit placement in the coming semester.
The constant up and down from the institute to home takes up a lot of time, especially one’s energy, that they have no time to follow their passion.
This makes their daily-life monotonous and deprives them of creativity.
It has been proved in various studies that individuals who have a knack for creativity and problem-solving are meant to perform well among their peers.
However, following a routine with no time for hobbies or interests can restrict their mental development.
It is proven that people who have hobbies and interests are better at communicating their ideas and have a good social presence. Moreover, these individuals can connect more with themselves and act on their self-esteem.
Online courses are a plethora of knowledge. One can not only learn technical skills but work on their hobbies by taking classes on painting or violin to brush up their co-curricular skills. This can help them to grow as an individual and perform better at work.
13 Connects You To Industry Experts
The prevailing curriculum at schools and colleges hasn’t been thoroughly revised for years. This has created a gap between the industrial need and the curriculum taught to the students.
However, the curriculum for online classes is planned as per industry standards. These classes are conducted by experts from renowned industries who have first-hand experience in the field and are willing to guide new individuals on a similar path.
Via one-on-one sessions, you can directly have a word with them and analyze how the job space functions and what are the other necessary skills you need apart from the course.
Also, these individuals are a great source of referrals who can vouch for your skills during an interview with a high-end firm.
14 Automated Quizzes And Games
Learning can’t be more fun without interactive quizzes, riddles and games. Automated weekly and monthly quizzes and riddle games can spike one’s interest in the subject and even help one learn kinds of stuff outside the syllabus with ease.
These quizzes also record your performance and give a metric report, like a regular online exam or test.
Now you can learn new topics without going through textbooks and check out your performance on the leadership board.
The winner gets a few points which can be used for hints for the next quizzes and help one rank above among their classmates.
15 Visualization Of Complex Concepts
A major problem among students is that they find the texts in the textbook quite difficult to understand. Some theories and concepts have diagrams for their support, but some don’t.
This makes it hard for one to imagine the concept in their head; hence, they have to rote-learn to score marks on the tests. But with online classes, that’s not the case.
Instructors use digital imagery and animation to break the concept to make it graspable. This makes visualization quite easy for students who were earlier unable to score good marks due to a lack of understanding.
Not only that, but it also solves the problem of rote learning and makes an individual thorough with the concept, boosting their confidence and knowledge.
Concluding Thoughts
Online courses are an increasingly popular way to get educated. As the advantages of the mode of learning begin to outweigh the disadvantages and the demand for online learning increases, it becomes more and more apparent that online learning is here to stay. In spite of having Pros and cons of elearning, the future is all about online classes.