It’s not that distance learning is a completely new idea. 442AEQASWPUG It was there even in the early 18th century. An advertisement published in the Boston Gazette in 1728 shows that short hand used to be taught by post during those days. Distance learning has changed a lot over the past few decades and introduction of internet as a learning tool has pushed further the growth and development. Online learning or e-learning has become the new black and interactive learning has replaced instructed distance learning, which is a phenomenal change. At present, top USA colleges and universities are emphasizing on interactive learning, which is a good sign.
Whilst traditional classrooms follow a labor-intensive model where the teacher/mentor is a worker and students are his consumers, the methods followed in online education and quite different, and futuristic. An online classroom encourages productivity and creates enough scope for hand-on learning. This way, learners feel more attached to their classes, or the whole learning community. The unwholesome practice of accrediting ‘successful’ students and stamping down not-so-successful ones is over. New-age learning is all about nurturing possibilities. This way, instructions have faded away and interaction has become more prominent than ever before.
Online degrees help the students, or the aspirants, to bypass their classrooms. Well, there are three points that advocates of conventional learning would like to raise for countering the change. A traditional classroom provides means for learning, is supervised by teachers/mentors and the degrees/certificates received here are the keys to enter the professional field or pursue other materialistic dreams. The three components or attributes are very much present in online learning as well. Students who take up online courses are facilitated with a range of software programs and other tools as well as they gain access to online libraries and all. So the first condition is met. E-mentors are there and this time, one-to-one interaction has become even more feasible. And last but not the least, degrees and diplomas of accredited colleges are accepted, if not preferred, by most of the employers.
From instructive to interactive, distance learning has come a long way. Teachers and students are now both a part of a cognitive and reciprocal learning process and learning is all fun in this changed world. Experience e-learning if you want to become a true 21st century citizen of this planet.
