Online distance education is gaining prominence as compared to college studies, says Sarika Lidoria
The online distance education has turned a new leaf in the approach of delivering knowledge through a blend of personalised learning, accessibility, and innovation. The fusion of technology and academics can transform the way our society perceives edification and has the potential to level the playing field in education as it provides the wings to transcend the boundaries that confine the aspirations for learning.
Online distance learning has become the preferred port of call for legions of young minds with an unquenchable desire to acquire knowledge and expertise. It has provided redemption to millions of students from the burden of exorbitant funds required at brick and mortar universities to accomplish their dreams of higher education. It has revived the fervour for learning and improving skills among working professionals who don’t need to relinquish their jobs to enhance their academic credentials. The educational community has been witnessing a meteoric rise in the number of ‘glocal’ students — students residing in their home country while pursuing foreign education, due to the platform provided by online education. With top universities across the globe leveraging the scalability, capability, and affordability of online education, its demand is bound to go through the roof.
The multi-dimensional benefits of online education have led to its greater acceptability within the educational fraternity. The adoption of learning analytics and artificial intelligence has provided an impetus to personalised learning where students have the liberty to plan and control their learning process, thus enabling self actuation. Advanced software applications and metricshelp to track the preference of individual learners and accordingly provide content in the favored format. With the prowess of cloud technology, immense amount of information and resources are at the disposal of students.
Online courses embedded with gamification leads to greater engagement and involvement, making the process of learning fun-filled and worthwhile. Also, augmented learning is completely changing the dynamics of education delivery, harnessing the caliber of virtual reality. It enhances the process of understanding and simulation through customisation of content in alignment with the learners’ interest.
The concept of flipped classroom has gained traction due to advancement in online education as students learn at their own pace at home through easy online access to the course content whereas, the classroom hours are put to better use for problem-solving with professors.
As per the report by Global Market Insights (GMI), a global market research firm, global eLearning market size was valued at USD 165 billion in 2015 and is expected to exceed USD 240 billion by 2023. These numbers unravel the demand for online learning in the years to come. Today, universities are reinventing themselves with the incorporation of sophisticated technology and expertise to develop and provide high quality online courses to prospective students across the globe.
[Source:-The Pioneer]
