E-Learning: Viable Option For Higher Education

Professor Christensen Clayton of the Harvard Business School said, “e-learning is proving to be the great disruptor of traditional education reinventing approaches to learning.” 

True that. With ever-increasing costs of higher education and the mounting need to have higher skills to not just retain oneself in the professional but to actually grow, one needs to strengthen their repertoire of knowledge. E-learning is filling this gap by leveraging innovative technology to reach out to a wider student base in a cost-effective and easily accessible manner. According to research, the attention span of an adult learner is only 15 to 20 minutes making e-learning with its carefully created modules the need of today. It has indeed made online education flexible and time saving for learners. 

 

E-learning is popular among school children, university-goers and working professionals alike. A number of online education startups have ventured into the education market, funded by big IT giants pioneering the digitisation of the education world. These educational start-ups are not only working on elementary level but also on higher education by providing online certificate programs and many authentic certifications and specializations. The online pioneers in executive training courses have been working diligently and offering best online learning platforms like Talentedge, MOOC (Massive open online courses) and EdX  in collaboration with world renowned universities and colleges. 

Certificates from such online education platforms holds immense value for higher university credits and even the industry. E-learning is considered as one of the best education modes these days for pursuing higher education because of faster internet technology and flexibility of learning on the go, making it even more revolutionary. 

One of the challenges in E-learning for higher education is the operational costs involved. The subject matter has to be constantly maintained and upgraded. Apart from this, the viability of the course content has to be considered. These factors need to be monitored so that maximum students can derive benefit. 

In a survey for higher education pursuits, students of University of Washington UW have mentioned some of the reasons in favour of pursuing online certificate programs. The reasons are factors such as flexibility, cost along with convenience of time which are the usual obstructions in pursuing higher education. The demand for e-learning for accomplishing higher education is increasing because these factors are taken care of. Even for underprivileged students, e-learning is a viable and fulfilling option if the cost constraint is managed because many online education forums offer exactly the same curriculum that other physically established institutions are offering. E-learning is more advantageous for experts and professionals because it saves a significant amount of their time. 

Online education is booming globally and is bound to grow beyond imagination because it is beneficial for those who want to pursue higher education and upskill themselves but are working professionals with very little time. E-learning gives them the flexibility of updating their knowledge which is a prerequisite in their jobs.  The main forte of online learning is anytime-anywhere accessibility, even through varied mobile applications giving an additional push to the segment.

Therefore, internet revolution has indeed given online education a cutting-edge and made higher education options viable to pursue because of innovative learning strategies and value driven courses and options.