eLearning

eLearning has many benefits and advantages. Below are five:   Cost effective: Cost is one of the most important factors in learning and education. eLearning can help instructors and academic institutions to adapt with very limited budgets and resources.  This is very valid, especially for third world countries. Initial cost can be high, but over time it will become much cheaper for learners, learning institutions, companies, and governments. Global reach: eLearning has a global reach, thanks to the recent advances in technology. Smartphones, the Internet, laptops, computers are available everywhere and can be used in elearning. As an example, Khan Academy has millions of students all over the world. The content and website are provided mainly in English but are also available in other languages like Spanish, Portuguese ,  Italian ,  Russian ,  Turkish ,  French ,  Bengali  and  Hindi . Individualized learning/Self-paced: People are different and differ in their learn

In this post, I will list some of the best elearning websites. In my first post, I mentioned Khan Academy and Coursera. Below are some other interesting websites. edX: EdX is a non-profit organization founded in May 2012 by scientists from Harvard and MIT. Gerry Sussman, Anant Agarwal, Chris Terman, and Piotr Mitros taught the first edX course on circuits and electronics from MIT, drawing 155,000 students from 162 countries. In 2013, they partnered with Stanford and in June 2013 they reached 1 million students ! What is so special with edX is that they developed their own platform as an open source and made it free and available to other institutions of higher learning that want to make similar offerings. Click HERE for more info. MIT OCW: MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW)  is an initiative of the  Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to put all of the educational materials from its  undergraduate  – and  graduate-level  courses  online ,  freely  and  op

Types of e-Learning: There are different terminologies and types for elearning. Defining these terminologies will help us understand elearning in a better way. Below are the main ones. -           Synchronous vs asynchronous elearning: Synchronous elearning is real-time learning, in other words, learning happens at the same time regardless of geographical location/s. There are different tools for synchronous elearning, like video conferencing, phone calls, chatting, VoIP tools, the Internet, etc. There are many advantages of synchronous elearning, i.e. learners can discuss and get immediate feedback (which means more personalized learning experiences). This provides a socialized way of learning as people can interact, see, and listen to each other. However, some learners might face disadvantages like the quality of communication channels, different time zones (2PM in US = 2AM in China!), time and availability restrictions and so on. On the other side, asynchronous el

What is elearning? There is no one agreed upon definition of elearning. Different definitions are and will be introduced as technologies evolve rapidly day after day. Let’s start with a dictionary definition [i] : e-learn·ing ˈ ē ˌ l ə rniNG/ noun : learning conducted via electronic media, typically on the Internet. Historically, the use of computers, laptops, and projectors inside a classroom to facilitate the learning was considered elearning . Typically, slides, photos, videos, or a combination of them are used in classroom environments (physical classrooms). However, the instructor plays a more important role in the process of elearning . During the last two decades, we have witnessed huge technological advances, i.e. graphical operating systems, the internet, smart devices, etc. These highly sophisticated and advanced technologies changed every aspect of our lives, thanks to Apple, Microsoft, Google, Intel, and other high-tech companies all over the world