The world has changed because of technology. It is a powerful advent of the digital era that is gearing industrial and educational sectors to grow at a much faster rate than ever before. This transformation is also fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic. More importantly, the pandemic has pushed the shift from traditional learning to eLearning more rapidly. Online learning is also gaining momentum for two reasons, it ensures the safety of the individuals under these circumstances and keeps the wheel of learning going by enabling everyone to learn from home. In the beginning, this shift was rather treated as a necessity because of the pandemic by the institutions, but these institutions and companies are now seeing the actual benefits of eLearning over the traditional method of learning.
On a global scale, technology is disrupting the way the world learns and moves forward in the field of learning. It is impacting the way we live, work, and learn. At the beginning of the outbreak of the pandemic, it was mandatory to learn online or continue learning with online learning platforms and tools. However, the vanishing pandemic is not taking back the boon of technology in the form of online learning. It is being accepted and welcomed by several. So, eLearning is here to stay with us and make our learning journeys more personalized and simpler.
In this article, we discuss in detail and try to present a clearer picture of the eLearning Benefits for Students in Higher Education: how eLearning is taking industries and institutions by storm and also why you should embrace it for the greater benefit of the learners.
eLearning Benefits for Students in Higher Education
Scalability in Terms of Space
When we talk about scalability in terms of traditional classes, the class size is equal to the size of the classrooms. So, the number of students in one class is limited to the space of the room. This is the same as the number of seats available for a particular class or course, the availability of resources, and so on. Traditional classrooms cannot expand or lessen the burden on the resources or the tutor. However, in the case of an online classroom, the number of students attending a lecture or an online class is not dependent on the size of the room. Neither does a greater number of students put more strain on the resources or the tutor. There is no extra infrastructure cost involved to scale the classrooms for students. Neither do the students have to lose any opportunity to learn due to mere non-availability of seats.
Flexibility
eLearning can either be synchronous or asynchronous depending upon the needs of the learner. In some cases, it could be synchronous which many, many students of the same age and in the same class learn the same thing at the same time. Although it has been the way of learning for a long period, with growing technology, it is important to embrace the changing focus on personalizing the learning experience. Asynchronous learning, on the other hand, means flexibility to learn what an individual learner wants to learn at their own pace and time. It lets the learners choose when to study, how to study when to practice, thus making learning a valuable and quality experience.
Breaking Synchronicity with Self-Paced Learning
Synchronous learning is taking the back seat in the education domain now, as self-paced learning is giving the power to the students to choose their pace of learning. It also makes the availability of course materials when they want it. Self-paced learning is letting the students learn day or night, taking up self-assessments for as much practice as they want, and helping them engage in the learning process more effectively.
Accessibility of Learning Materials
One of the biggest eLearning Benefits for Students in Higher Education is the availability of resources, whenever the need arises. So, it is accessibility that gives the wings to eLearning. With just a smart device and working internet, students can learn from any place they are at. So, students need not waste crucial time by traveling to the institutions or waiting for the buses or for the rain to stop. They can start learning as and when they want, quite literally. Besides, eLearning is completely opening up the courses to anyone keen on learning them irrespective of which place they are in the world. It is breaking the geographical barriers be it cities, states, or even countries.
Affordability in terms of Cost-Saving
As opposed to the common belief of the people who think anything over the internet is pricy, eLearning is incredibly cost-saving. It can also be reused for a longer period, needs minimal to no updates over time, and saves the institution, and infrastructure-related costs.
Interactive Learning
The study resources available online with the learning platforms are present in multiple interactive forms. So, if any student struggles to grasp a concept just by reading can understand it thoroughly by listening to the complex concepts in the form of podcasts or seeing it in an educational video, images, or infographics.
Enhanced Results
eLearning has shown effective results for learners and has sped up the learning process. With increased flexibility, and availability of resources in interactive formats, learning and grasping go hand in hand. Students also tend to retain knowledge, they have shown excellent results in terms of knowledge retention with online learning thereby, enhancing the overall results.
Trackable Learning Progress
While manual measuring of student progress is taxing, tedious, and takes a lot of time for the tutors, it becomes amazingly manageable with eLearning. It is much easier to track individual student progress and also give feedback with the tools associated with eLearning.
Learning and Upskilling at Regular Intervals
We are living in an age where upskilling and updating your skills form the backbone of the learning journey. So, the curriculum and course materials need to be updated too. That also comes in handy with eLearning. Online learning makes updating an easy and hassle-free process and enables everyone to upskill, read any course books, or learn any course of their choice back-to-back.
Global Networking Opportunities
Online learning platforms often bring together students from diverse cultural backgrounds. This global exposure enhances cross-cultural understanding and offers networking opportunities crucial for career growth.
The Mintbook Edge in eLearning
Mintbook is a learning platform that enables online learning band make it easier, simpler, and much more efficient. The combination of a Learning Management System (LMS) and a Digital Library creates a seamless and enriched eLearning experience for students in higher education. An LMS system provides structured course delivery, enabling easy access to lectures, assignments, and assessments, while a digital library complements it by offering vast, curated resources for research, reference, and self-paced learning. Together, they foster a collaborative and personalized educational environment, encourage critical thinking, and equip students with the tools to excel academically and professionally. This powerful duo also enhances flexibility, allowing students to learn anytime, anywhere while ensuring access to diverse, authoritative knowledge sources.
It is enriched with a humongous repository of curriculum-based study materials and the best part about Mintbook is uninterrupted remote access to learning online as well as offline with the Mintbook offline digital library mBox. Find out more about how Mintbook is making online learning possible without the internet in our other articles here.
We refreshed the content of the article in November 2024 to make it more suitable for our readers.
