Importance of E-learning in the Contemporary Education - Essay Example

Why E Learning is significant in the contemporary education Electronic learning, also known as e learning is a unique academic set up in which learners do not enjoy physical interactions with either their colleagues or their teachers. Instead, the learners communicate to their teachers through numerous online media including electronic mails, video conference facilities and mobile phones among others. In most universities, students have access to a large online library from where they access all their learning materials (Strauss 8). E learning creates a virtual classroom in which students carry out learning just as is the case with many other physical classrooms. The number of students registering for varied courses in universities is increasing as demand for education increases. As such, the universities often carry out extensive researches in order to develop appropriate product packages that respond to the needs of the market. E learning is such a development that offers appropriate solutions to the predicaments. The advent of the internet coupled with the rising demand for higher education has given rise to distant learning facilitated through the internet. E learning is a fundamental contemporary development that enhances the efficiency of education for students. The learning process presents both the learners and the teachers with myriad challenges that require effective considerations. Despite such, the e learning is an appropriate contemporary features that learners must appreciate thus use in overcoming the numerous challenges they faced in the past. Students often consider numerous factors in their selection of both the courses and their preferred universities. E learning continues to present appropriate effective thus improving the standards of education throughout the world besides making education increasingly affordable as the essay below portrays. In the United States, nearly every university among other institutions of higher learning has online options through which they admit students from all over the world. The incorporation of online learning has diversified learning thereby increasing the number of students receiving high quality education without incurring the traveling and settling expenses. American universities are on high demand as students from all over the world scramble for courses offered in in the universities. The adoption of e learning thus creates a platform that enhances the facilitation of such learning thus enabling students indiscriminate of their backgrounds to receive high quality education. Despite the increase in demand for international courses, especially those offered by American universities, e learning has numerous advantages and disadvantages thus requiring effective considerations. Another equally vital advantage of e learning especially for the earners is that it has a futuristic approach to education. E learning portrays the importance and place of technology in the contemporary society. The advent of the internet created a global village. E learning fosters this argument by creating a situation in which people can access high quality education regardless of their locations. As explained earlier, American universities currently have students from different nations a feature that continues to portray the integration of ideas in the world. E-learning further demand students to have adequate technological skills in order to facilitate the use of the technology to facilitate their learning, the method is therefore futuristic as learners have specialized skills that enable them to interact with their colleagues and teachers besides accessing other academic materials. This portrays the future of the society. Electronic learning is cheaper and more convenient than in physical classrooms. Most of the renowned universities such as Harvard and Oxford have online learning options. Such options are often cheaper than those requiring students to attend classes physically are. The fact that students do not incur travelling and settling expenses makes the form of learning cheap. Cost is a major factor that people consider when looking for courses. The fact that students can therefore obtain high quality degree in such prestigious courses as law and medicine from equally prestigious universities as Oxford and Harvard makes e learning a preferred option. Additionally, learning in a different country often requires students to incur travelling costs besides the numerous social implications of settling in a new society. E learning therefore offers a unique platform, one in which learners obtain high quality overseas degrees without facing the negative implications of learning in new countries. Among the key advantages of the internet is the fact that it overcomes geographical barriers. The world is therefore a global village, one in which every part if accessible spontaneously. Such is a major advantage that enhances the convenience of e learning thus validating the rising demand for courses from the leading American universities. E learning creates a platform in which people from different parts of the world attend classes simultaneously regardless of the varying time zones (Crane 33). Students therefore enjoy their classes just as is the case in physical classes at the comfort of their homes. Such is a major advantage that explains the rising demand for e learning in numerous universities in the American universities. Just as is the case with any other development, e learning has specific disadvantages key among which is the lack of physical interactions among the learners. Humans are social beings who value their social interactions (Clark and Richard 21). As such, learning often offers an appropriate platform for learners to interact with others thus developing their skills. Distant learning for example pools students from different cultures thus creating a cosmopolitan society. This equips the learnings with effective interpersonal and communication skills as they learn the cultural differences among people from different societies thus enhancing the learning process. E learning creates a virtual reality, one in which people do not enjoy the physical interactions thus lack the factual feel of interacting with people from varied cultural backgrounds. Other disadvantages of the learning process include ease of cheating. As discussed earlier, the internet pools resources to the learners but denies the learners the dedicated supervision of the teachers. This creates and enabling environment for the learners to consult books among other learning materials during exams and other assessments. This eliminates integrity in the learning process thus decreasing the quality of higher education. Additionally, the fact that the learning process is reliant on technologies and power makes communication asymmetric in most cases. This impairs communication among students and their teachers. Communication is an essential aspect of learning that enables the learners to interact with their teachers and among themselves. Through such interactions, students ask follow up questions thus seeking clarifications on contentious issues. This enhances the quality of learning. The lack of such features in the online platform minimizes the quality of higher education. In retrospect, E learning is a contemporary learning technique appreciated by different learning institutions throughout the world. The developed countries including the United States are leading the pack in adopting e learning features (Rosenberg 31). Key among the reasons for the adoption of e learning among institutions of higher learning is competition for market. Institutions of higher education such as colleges and universities are business organizations such as any other that seek to maximize their profitability. As such, the institutions employ unique features in order to increase the number of their students thus enhancing their profitability. E learning is key among such features that promise a wider target market for the universities. Through e learning, American universities currently compete for students throughout the world. E learning has therefore globalized learning as universities admit students from different regions throughout the world. E learning is futuristic and therefore provides effective ways of resolving the problems bedeviling the society. Technological features such as the internet for example provides effective ways of communication among the learners besides presenting an appropriate platform for the learners to share such fundamental resources as libraries. Universities began by developing effective online libraries before adopting the e learning mechanism. As explained earlier, e learning employs the numerous technological features. This makes the leaning spontaneous and efficient. Learners for example enjoy limitless storage spaces as they use cyber space for storing their academic materials. Access is a fundamental factor that most students consider and enhances the quality of education. E leaning creates an ideal society in which access to the online libraries, sharing of the academic materials among students and even communication among the students and their teachers occurs spontaneously. The ease of access, storage and sharing of academic materials are some of the efficiencies that students enjoy in e learning platforms. Such enhance the efficiency of education thus making learning convenient to the learners. Works cited Advanced Priniples of Effective E-Learning. Santa Rosa, Calif: Informing Science Press, 2007. Print. Clark, Ruth C, and Richard E. Mayer. E-learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer, 2011. Internet resource. Clark, Ruth C, and Richard E. Mayer. Scenario-based E-Learning: Evidence-based Guidelines for Online Workforce Learning. New York: Wiley, 2012. Internet resource. Crane, Beverly E. Using Web 2.0 Tools in the K-12 Classroom. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., 2009. Print. Rosenberg, Marc J. E-learning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001. Internet resource. Strauss, Valerie. "Three fears about blended learning". The Washington post, 2012-09-22. Print. Read More