The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how everyone leads their daily lives, and one such example is how people learn. Traditional methods involve students attending educational establishments like schools and colleges, but online learning has increased in popularity.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, an astonishing 75% of all undergraduates in fall 2020 enrolled in at least one e-learning course – a rise of 97% compared with fall 2019!
Online learning is a flexible way to educate oneself on a new topic and work towards certification, like a diploma or degree.
You’re likely reading this today because you’d like to progress your education, but you’re still determining whether online learning is for you or not. Take a look at the following ten reasons to convince you why it makes perfect sense to learn over the Internet:
1. Learning Online Is Highly Flexible
A disadvantage of traditional learning methods is that you must attend a specific venue on set days and times as part of your learning journey.
You may have to attend lectures, read study materials from a library, and collaborate with other students on group projects.
Fortunately, those aren’t issues when you learn online. That’s because you could set a schedule that fits around your work and home life, and you don’t have to worry about rushing to any lectures or meetings.
2. It Can Be Cheaper Than Traditional Methods
As you might appreciate, enrolling in a conventional higher education course where you attend a campus can often be expensive. That’s because the course fees include many provider overheads where the costs get passed onto students.
What’s great about learning online is that there are fewer overheads for providers. For example, they can pay teachers or professors less because your learning material is online, and there isn’t a continual need for face-to-face interaction.
Moreover, your learning materials are accessible online, so you don’t need to pay for physical books.
3. Broader Choice Of Courses
Have you ever noticed how there are few course choices when browsing the website or a prospectus of a local educational establishment? The reason is simple: they will always have few options due to limited resources.
In comparison, you can access a broad range of learning options online. That’s because you can access limitless providers on the Internet – even in other countries. With traditional offline learning, physical distances limit where you can study.
For example, you could enroll in a Python programming certification course online from a U.S. provider, even though you live in Europe!
4. Tailored Training
Another of the many benefits of learning online is how your courses get customized to your needs. While it’s true that providers of traditional offline courses can offer some concessions for medical reasons, there are typically few options compared with online courses.
You can include provision for one-on-one learning sessions via video calls or shared desktops and even access course material translated into different languages. The latter is perfect if English isn’t your first language, for instance.
5. Learn At Your Own Pace
Students who enroll in further education courses experience lots of anxiety due to needing to stick to a rigid learning timetable. For example, course modules must get completed by set milestones, which can hamper your progress if you find it challenging.
Many online courses let you learn at your own pace. There is often no deadline to complete each course module, and you can decide when you’d like to take the tests required to complete the course.
As you can imagine, that’s welcome news – especially for those with plenty of home and career commitments that absorb much of their time.
6. Ease Of Access
For most people, all that’s needed to access course materials and complete each module is an Internet-connected computer.
Learning management systems, such as ones like Learningbank.io used by companies for training employees, also get used in the mainstream education sector for online diploma, degree, and industry certification courses.
The low cost of Chromebooks, for instance, makes online courses accessible to everyone. What’s more, completing a course to boost your career prospects means your computer purchase will technically pay for itself when you land your dream job!
7. You Improve Your Tech Skills
As you might expect, completing online courses requires students to have some basic IT skills, including some knowledge of computer components. What you may not realize is how enrolling in an online course can help you further develop those basic IT skills!
During your online studies, you will learn more about different technologies, such as cloud computing, and how various equipment works together to provide you with the learning solution you want.
Some students decide they might want to learn more than the fundamentals of computing and even enroll in online computer science degree courses!
8. More Likely To Remain Focused
It’s a well-known fact that people enjoy learning new skills in different ways. For example, some people prefer face-to-face education, while others are content with reading information in books or from computer screens.
Online courses offer plenty of engagement for students to help keep them motivated. Examples include interactive and multimedia segments in the course material, quizzes, and even gamification in some cases.
9. You’ll Learn Time Management Skills
Students new to online learning will discover that this method of education will improve their time management skills. As a student, you will learn how to discipline yourself by selecting the best times and environments for learning where you won’t get distracted.
Moreover, you’ll also learn how to stick to self-prescribed learning times – a skill that will come in handy throughout your life, such as with your career.
10. Improved Career Prospects
One final reason online learning makes sense – especially if you seldom have time to participate in conventional campus-based education – is that it’ll improve your career prospects.
If you’re busy juggling your job with lifestyle commitments but can squeeze in some spare time for online learning, you’ll soon complete your courses and make yourself a more viable prospect to employers offering well-paid roles.