1.2 Advantages of online learning

Although online education has its limitations, there are several advantages of online learning that explain why eLearning may be the greatest revolution in today’s education.

Advantages

1.Self-Discipline

Taking an online course requires more self-discipline to follow through than if you physically had lecturers and other students expecting you to be in the lecture theatre with them at a specified time. Enrolling in and completing online courses demonstrates a high level of self-discipline as well as illustrating that you are able to take initiative and don’t need to wait for others to tell or show you what to do.11

2.Improved Virtual Communication and Collaboration

Learning to work with others in a virtual environment can make you a more effective leader. You’ll develop critical leadership skills by utilizing specialized knowledge, creating efficient processes, and making decisions about best communication practices, such as what should be discussed in-person or electronically. 12 2. Efficiency Online learning offers teachers an efficient way to deliver lessons to the students. Online learning has a number of tools such as videos, pdfs, podcasts, and teachers can use all these tools as part of their lesson plans. By extending the lesson plan beyond traditional textbooks to include online resources, the teachers are able to become more efficient educators.10

3. Accessibility of time and place

Another advantage of online education is that it allows students to attend classes from any location of their choice. It also allows the schools to reach out to a more extensive network of students, instead of staying restricted by the geographical boundaries. Additionally, online lectures can be recorded, archived, and shared for future reference. This allows the students to access the learning material at a time of their comfort. A large number of educational institutions and students today are moving towards online digital courses in almost every field. The methods used by online learning programs are primarily aimed at delivering the best possible learning outcomes in the digital world, thus contributing to the overall vision of the educational institutions. In digital learning program development, courses are designed to maximize instructor-student and student-peer relationships through a range of highly effective and collaborative instructional tools and methods. The objective of each course is to create an interactive experience wherein students can actively engage in the learning process.11

4. Affordability

Another advantage of online learning is reduced financial costs. Online education is far more affordable as compared to physical learning. This is because online learning eliminates the cost points of student transportation, student meals, and most importantly, real estate. Additionally, all the course or study material is all available online, thus creating a paperless learning environment which is more affordable, while also being beneficial to the environment.12

5. Improved student attendance

With online classes, since the classes can be taken from home or location of choice, there are fewer chances of students missing out on lessons. 13

6. Suits a variety of learning styles

Every student has a different learning journey and a different learning style. Some students are visual learners, while some students prefer to learn through audio. Similarly, some students thrive in the classroom, and other students are solo learners who get distracted by large groups The online learning system, with its range of options and resources, can be personalized in many ways. It is the best way to create a perfect learning environment suited to the needs of each student.14