The world is changing at a rapid pace and what is driving the change is the new means of communicating with each other. Educations systems are no exceptions, they too are changing at a great speed and technology is replacing a lot of things.
Distance education is considered as a blessing to the students and professionals who want to study further while continuing with their jobs or who might not be able to attend a full time course for many reasons. Today, e-learning is a part of the distance educational system and it holds an important place and is a boon to many learners.
Higher education can no more be confined within the boundaries of the institutions. The dynamism of the education system and the changing needs of the society has forced distance learning and e-learning to come together.
Let’s take a look at how e-learning helps in distance education
Cutting across the boundaries:
One most important advantage of e-learning is to be able to access the information from anywhere and anytime. It is one of the best means to gather knowledge in an interactive way. Students can listen to live lectures and also interact easily with the teaching faculty without any hurdles and this is recreating a traditional classroom environment though virtually.
A boon for self-learners:
Distance learning courses or programs often help students or professionals to study according to their comfort zones. With e-learning, online education has redefined convenience for both the teachers and students. With the rapid adoption of smartphones and increasing dependence on data, e-learning has opened up a new world of mobile based learning. This has come as a boon for the self-learners and has allowed them to gather the course content even before they decide to opt for the course.
Audio and video conference:
Both audio and video conference can be implemented in e-learning courses. The distance education system uses a blend of technologies like interactive faculty chat sessions, online virtual classes, quizzes and webinars. A shared whiteboard also lets a group of people communicate easily by highlighting, pointing or even drawing. The programs can be easily demonstrated to remote learners with software applications having sharing system.
E-learning has become extremely popular and the journey of education in India has changed into learning that is instant, self-driven and on the go. Distance education has experienced a sea change over decades and it is the only way to sustain a better future.