Nurturing E-learning Habits in Young Minds

It has been a constant endeavor of every teacher to provide a conducive environment of learning that motivates and excites students. There were some challenges like motivating students, maintaining students’ interest, identifying distractions in students and bringing the distracted students back on board. Fortunately, e-learning has come up with strategies and techniques to solve these challenges in an effective manner..

E-learning is the process of utilizing computers, the internet and new emerging technologies to develop an effective learning system crucial for students to enhance their learning skills and ability to master their subjects in a highly motivated learning environment. The audio-visuals etches a mark in the minds of the student’s memory to help them retain the concepts and subject knowledge for very long periods of time.

E-learning has helped teachers to redefine their strategies and concepts of teaching to enable them to teach more effectively and efficiently.

E-learning offers online programs that are custom-tailored to help students develop real-world skills like communication, problem-solving abilities, creativity, empathy, self-control, and perseverance by motivation through effective computer programming that is enjoyable as well as educative.

There are two types of E-learning approaches that are customized to suit the different learning needs of the students. They are:

• Synchronous E-learning: 
• Asynchronous E-learning: 

Synchronous E-learning: 

This learning approach provides for live interaction between students and teachers. The scheduling for classes will be the same for all the students enrolled for a particular class. The interaction between students and teachers will be through a medium in the form of educational conferences, interactive webinars, online chats, and lectures broadcasted at the same time. 

All the interactions will be virtual, meaning that both the teachers and students will not be present physically in the same classroom. In the virtual classroom, students would not feel lonely as they will have other students with whom they can discuss and interact through chat. Benefits of synchronous E-learning are:

• Students can clarify their doubts immediately, as the sessions are interactive
• Can take part in real-time discussions
• Enhance their presentation skills
• Doubt discussion by a student with the teacher will prove beneficial to other students. This is because they are in the virtual classroom. By listening to the discussion they can gain more insights into the subject. This will improve their knowledge about the subject.

Asynchronous E-learning: 

This learning approach provides students the flexibility to complete their assignments at their own pace, but within a given timeframe. Students working on independent assignments can utilize this approach where they would receive course materials in the form of documents, posts, blogs, and videos. They can work offline without the need to be live for the entire duration of the session. Benefits of asynchronous E-learning are:

• Create courses: Produce affordable courses that can be accessed by many students online without the requirement for teachers or scheduled one-off sessions.
• Versatility: Students have the freedom to learn whenever and whenever they choose, on any device, from any location in the globe.
• Enriched learning activities: Discussion platforms in asynchronous online learning allow students to ask questions and receive tailored responses.
• Learning choices: Students are given the flexibility to complete their assignments independently through a variety of activities such as viewing videos on demand, reading papers, posting questions in discussion groups, doing assignments, and evaluating the projects.

Advantages of E-learning for students:

Adjustability:

• Flexible, can be modified according to requirements
• Designed to accommodate any number of students. 
• New advancements in learning technologies have enhanced student’s learning of the subjects and motivating them to learn more.
• The 24×7 feature helps the student to study at any time of the day as the student wishes.

Cost effective:

• E-learning’s greatest benefit is its cost effectiveness. The price reduction is effected on cost saving through transportation and accommodation of both students and teachers.
• Non-requirement of costly textbooks has reduced the cost of students’ education. 
• Eco friendly, as there is no printing of books and less paper wastage.

Remote learning:

• Previously, students pursuing an academic career going to college was the only option. Today, students have a variety of options to complete online colleges that they had no access to before.that are offering a variety of options students never had before. 
• In E-learning, there is no campus and no fixed schedule.
• Unlimited study material accessibility. Students can access the studying material as 
• many times as they need. 
• E-learning courses provide the comfort of preparing for the exams at a student’s own pace leisurely without the need for entering the campus.
• E-learning enables students to earn e-learning certificates online, certificates can range from a career certificate to a doctorate.

Credit Transfer & Commutation:

• Students who are facing obstructions to attend summer classes in the form of job or place of living, can utilize E-learning courses and transfer the credits to their primary educational institution. This will make a student’s life easier who wishes to maintain their summer jobs in order to pay for their education.
• E-learning minimizes traveling as students are not required to go to an educational institution to pursue their education, They can study in the comfort of their homes. Thereby reducing the commutation time and reducing the scheduling time.
• E-learning during harsh weather conditions can be helpful through online classes where the students can stay at home and listen to classes and attend discussions, Thus E-learning reduces absenteeism.

Quick advancement in career:

• The main benefit of E-learning is data synchronization. Data is regularly updated from various available reliable and relevant sources.
• E-learning with its constant updation helps you to learn the latest advancements in education. This will prove beneficial for people who took a break from their academic studies. This will enable them to pick up where they left off earlier at some point of their lives.

Time efficient: 

• When compared to traditional classroom teaching techniques, the study time of E-learning is significantly lowered to roughly 30% -60%.
• E-learning classes use a rapid start and immediately begin the subject content. As a result, E-learning training may be implemented in a matter of weeks or even days. This allows for content absorption.
• E-learning helps the students to study at their own speed, thereby, eliminating the need for group instruction.
• Whenever it comes to selecting studying resources, students can choose from a broad range of learning tools. They can quickly bypass lectures that they think irrelevant and classes that they have already attended.

Consistency in Teaching:

• In traditional classroom teaching is widely susceptible to mistakes. E-learning eliminates these mistakes by standardized and consistent training.
• E-learning enables teachers to teach lessons in a consistent manner with a wide spectrum of coverage to ensure all the students receive the same amount of knowledge.
• E-learning ensures there is no stoppage of imparting education due to shortage of teachers. E-learning along with a couple of highly-qualified and experienced teachers can impart education to thousands of students.

E-learning and personalization:

• Learning levels will vary from student to student. E-learning provides several options to allow students to better adapt to their desired learning.
• Students are motivated to pursue their higher education without neglecting any courses in the syllabus,
• E-learning caters to each student’s unique needs and goals. It allows the students to navigate at their own pace and choose a path of selection.

E-learning Analytics:

Student data is very essential for initiating and improving the standards of learning outcomes in the e-learning industry. The e-learning platforms demonstrate very high efficiency in procuring students’ data. Data analysis is done to obtain meaningful patterns. New strategies are developed based on the data patterns through e-learning.

Educational institutions utilize e-learning analytics tools to effectively use the new data to identify key deficiencies that are in the course materials. A new analysis will be run to see whether the implemented changes have affected any improvement or not.

Conclusion:

E-learning is gaining significant prominence in tertiary education. All data points to increasing enrolments in E-learning. This in conjunction with the pandemic has provided a great impetus to E-learning from a low starting point.