E-learning is a little more than ten years old, but it has grown significantly in this short period. The international online learning market is expected to reach $325 billion by 2025.
The reason for this growth in popularity is the convenience and minimal costs associated with online education. It allows students or professionals to take courses that easily fit into their schedule. It is flexible and easily accessible. In addition, you can access lectures or study materials at any time to refresh your memory.
But what are the biggest problems with online learning? With numerous advantages, online learning comes with some difficulties. Fortunately, these challenges are not insurmountable. Let’s see how you will cope with the 5 most difficult tasks.
Digital literacy
Although attending online lectures or listening to informative audio materials is a simple task, a certain degree of technical training is still required.
You need to log in to your account, participate in classes (submitting assignments or participating in discussion boards), communicate with teachers. If a person does not have basic digital literacy, it will be difficult for him to get the most out of this course.
Decision:
Teachers or institutes, as a rule, provide detailed introductory information and instructions on lectures and educational materials used in the course. Listening to and following these instructions is very important.
Choose a course that provides technical support. Most online courses provide a full range of support services, including technical support via email, live chat and by phone.
You can contact the teacher in case of having any issues. In addition, a person can avoid many problems by paying special attention to how the teacher advised him to navigate the course.
Time management
Flexibility and convenience are the two main reasons why a student chooses an online course. However, this positive aspect can quickly become a disadvantage.
Knowing that lectures can be listened to at any time can lead to a delay in learning. You can start wasting time on useless websites.
Decision:
Learn how to manage your workload with the help of an electronic training schedule. Make a class schedule and stick to it. If you have allocated two hours for online training, make sure that you spend them watching the course content or completing assignments. To make things easier, you can always use the services offered by https://collegepaper.net/ to get writing assistance and make sure your assignments are completed within the allocated time.
If social networks or the Internet continue to distract you, either go offline during training, or use tools to block these sites.
Avoid multitasking. For online learning, you need to devote special time. You can’t fit it into other tasks, such as meals or time spent with family. This will lead to nothing but disappointment. Focus on one task and then move on to the next. This will not only give you a sense of satisfaction, but also help with productivity.
Monotony
Online learning can be boring. You don’t have any classmates or teachers to talk to. All you have are long texts and video lectures that you need to go through.
Even if the online format implies interesting content, such as infographics and videos, everything can still become monotonous. Eventually, students may lose interest and drop out.
Decision:
Find a dynamic, interactive and exciting course (for example, Magic at Oxford-online at St. Clare’s School). Teachers and institutes are improving in creating more interactive courses and teaching methods. These courses have a suitable number of tasks, videos and simulators.
All this can make it easier to continue learning. Also, choose courses with a certificate, so that you will have a motivating reason to take the course.
Sedentary lifestyle
The Internet has made it possible to study, work or shop from home, but it is also associated with a sedentary lifestyle, which can be as dangerous as smoking. Sedentary lifestyle is associated with serious health problems such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and even some types of cancer.
Online learning is convenient, but it also means that a person does not need to physically study at a college or educational institution. This increases the time of the sedentary phase of life, which harms both physical and mental health.
Decision:
Don’t spend hours in front of the screen. Simple exercises or activities such as running can help you offset the risk of sitting for long hours. Take regular breaks and move away from the screen every 30 minutes.
It is also important to have an appropriate comfortable table and chair, as well as a study area. Don’t sit on the bed or sofa with your laptop.
Technical problems
Depending on where you are, you may encounter issues such as internet connection, hardware or software requirements, browser compatibility, and so on.
These situations can be extremely frustrating and time-consuming. It is for this reason that online learning is not fully used in developing countries or third world countries (where it may be most profitable).
Decision:
Some courses require downloading certain applications or printing out a document. Make sure you don’t need a specific program or hardware that you can’t find or configure. Do not hesitate to ask for technical assistance if you have any problems.
E-learning has many advantages, but there are also some limitations. However, the advantages easily outweigh the disadvantages. All you need is a good internet connection and you can start a course or an educational program that will help you in your career growth.
