The state of education has changed, and the chances of it going back to the way that it was before are unlikely. e-learning is a growing field and has been the best option for students that needed to stay at home or for higher education. Because of COVID-19, everyone is seeing the advantages of online education. Since the threat isn’t going away anytime soon and people are finding out just how great online education can be, the future of education is eLearning.
One of the best aspects of e-learning is that it resolves one of the biggest problems in education. The standardization of education topics and practices both improved and stifled education as a whole. It made sure that everyone could learn the same material up to the same level no matter where they went to school, but it also limited the creativity and flexibility of teachers. Through online learning, this problem can be addressed.
e-learning tools give students access to a much larger set of curriculum tools and subjects, making it possible to create programs that are better suited to the needs of individual students. In essence, students can build their own learning programs from different resources that can still meet their curriculum needs. This should lead to substantial increases in student learning since they can use a curriculum that interests them while still meeting the overall requirements.
Online learning also makes it much easier for students to learn on their schedules. Students all learn at different paces, which is perfect for online learning. Semesters will still have firm deadlines, but students can make use of their time however they want allowing for flexible learning schedules. This will allow students to learn when their attention is best, and spend the rest of their time doing other things.
Online learning is an effective way of reducing prices for everyone. Since students don’t need to go to school, parents can save costs on transportation and other expenses. It can also eliminate the need for large education facilities, reducing the overhead for institutions. For education institutions, the same transportation and infrastructure cost reductions can be used to create higher-quality content and more online learning resources. With the overall costs down, these savings can be passed along to the public through reduced taxes to support public education, and lower prices for private education.
Perhaps the biggest change that will keep students from going back to regular education programs is that they enjoy online learning more than going to school. The flexibility of elearning, additional topics to study, and more comfortable settings are a preferable option to going to school every day. If students have the option of continuing their education online, it is highly likely that they will choose to continue to learn outside of school. Most school systems are prepared for this and can facilitate a large segment of the school population staying home.
While these changes in education may seem drastic, making an adjustment to them is not difficult. For many students, this transition signals a fundamental change in their learning experience, and it is a major improvement for most. The technology that makes all of this possible has existed for several decades and can be found everywhere. Furthermore, this generation of students is essentially the second generation of digital natives (people born after digital technologies became mainstream items), and have a major advantage in learning online. Having used these technologies from an early age, it is how many of them access information the best.
