Why Online Courses are More Effective than Traditional

Online learning or e-learning has been on a steady rise in recent years, thanks to the convenience and flexibility it provides to the learners. Students can fit themselves in an online course while still managing their responsibilities elsewhere.

Multimedia content and learning materials are available anytime and learners can access them from anywhere. They don’t need to travel as well, making e-learning all the more convenient. Students can simply log on to their computers from the comfort of their homes and start learning.

Online courses come with one more advantage and that is they are generally much less costly than traditional ones. So you save time, money, energy, and get a degree as well with e-learning.

These are the factors that cater to the growing popularity of online learning. But is it effective as well? Are you going to learn effectively if you enroll in an online course? The answer is Yes, you will.

Several studies and statistics have shown that e-learning is as effective, sometimes even more, as traditional learning.

So, if you wish to go for an online course you will be making a wise choice. Here are the top five factors that make e-learning effective.

Students Learn More

Recent studies have shown that students learn more in terms of content in an online course than a traditional one. The use of multimedia material like in this ATHE Level 5 course, helps students to grasp concepts faster. One more reason may be that with e-learning, students can learn at their own pace. Every learner has his/her approach to studying. Some may take lesser time on a topic than others. So, he/she learns that faster and move on to the next topic. The result is that the overall material learned is more.

Retention Rates are Higher

Student retention rates in online courses are higher than in traditional courses. Many traditional courses find it tough to retain their students throughout the duration of the course. But with online courses, the retention rates have grown anything from 25% to 60%.

The possible reason for this can be the use of multimedia content that is more engaging. Also, with online learning, students have more control over how they are learning, when they are consuming content. All these factors lead to a situation where it is less likely that the classes will clash with other responsibilities that a learner has and thus students generally keep going with their online courses till the end.

Online Learning Requires Less Time

Traditional face to face classes requires a lot of time investment. It includes the time taken for traveling, the time for waiting for the tutors, and the time between classes.

Online courses have no such thing. You can learn at your own time and convenience. You can even split your time that you are investing in a course according to what best suits you. You do not need to dedicate a particular chunk of time in a day.

For instance, if you are going for this ATHE Level 7 Extended Diploma in Strategic Management course, you’ll be able to use your time according to your convenience, and thus learning will be easier and thus more effective.

Frequent Assessments Enhances Engagement

Most online courses are designed such that they offer frequent assessments on what learned. These short tests when combined with multimedia content and materials can enhance student engagement to a great degree.

A study by Harvard shows that regular assessments resulted in halving the distraction, tripling the note-taking, and the overall knowledge retention of the student improved.

Also, frequent assessments mean that the teachers will be aware and keep track of their students’ progress. And as such, teachers will know whenever the help will be needed and will be able to do that at the earliest.

E-Learning is Eco-Friendly

With e-Learning, there is no question of paperwork and thus apart from being effective to students, it is also a much greener option. No paperwork means no cutting of trees and in fact as studies show, CO2 emissions per student also decreases to a great extent with online learning.

This fact makes e-learning a much more effective model of education overall. Promoting e-learning thus will help individuals and organizations to do what they want with their education and also help protect the environment at the same time.

Conclusion

E-learning is a great mode of education both for teachers and learners. It works effectively in imparting education to students and has several edges over traditional face to face learning. Apart from making savings on time and money, you’ll also get a load of other benefits if you choose to go for an online course. The learning will be easier, you’ll retain more of what you learn, and will also be eco-friendly. So, being far more effective than traditional classes, we can safely say that e-learning is the future of education.