Evolution of Online Learning in the 21st Century

The 21st century educational sector has seen some major evolution. Traditional classroom-based teaching has slowly been overtaken by a more collaborative, highly interactive online learning system. Attending regular classes has given way to students deciding their own study time at their convenience. Teaching, learning, and collaboration have become the buzzwords of today's educational setting.

Online learning has evolved to best address the need of today's students' and teachers' demands. Students and teachers are demanding an easy access to information and communication in real-time. They are against attending and taking classes on a daily and timely basis, since they feel it leads to a sheer wastage of time and resources. Both the students and faculty community were actually looking for a more engaging and highly efficient learning system that could save time as well as impart education in a much quicker period of time. In this 21st century, educators and corporate organizations thus want to make a smarter and long-term investment and get more with less.

The conventional learning technology is entirely dependent on infrastructure, such as buildings and classrooms with tables and chairs and so on. Online learning includes such stuff like networks, phoning, and video-conferencing equipment to enable basic communication and knowledge transfer. Traditional classroom-styled learning was mostly on campus or within corporate boundaries compared to Cloud-based learning that goes beyond any geographical boundary and has a global presence.

According to industry experts, online learning has increased class attendance and, in turn, led to higher revenue generation like never before! Such a reality has happened mainly because of the wider scope that online learning provides in terms of registration and enhanced communication.

Some of the benefits of online learning are:

• Easy access to classes and courses
• Easy access to class catalogs and study materials
• Easy access to one or more class registrations
• Select your own study time
• Choose your examination date and time

Educational technology such as audio-visual elements and web conferencing (whiteboards, sharing and publication tools, breakout rooms, and more) has made communication easier and a lot quicker. Students can easily connect and chat with their teachers as long as they want. Teachers can set up online forums or communities to encourage live debates and discussions about any lesson topic or project. Recording and publishing of discussions can also be done in case of online learning. It enables people to later review the debates that occurred on a specific day.

Of late, a new form of learning has come up; it is called blended learning. Blended learning is a mix of both traditional classroom-based learning and modern internet-based teaching. Many educational and corporate organizations are using this form to suit individual learning styles. Mobile learning is also becoming highly popular nowadays to allow access to class-related information while traveling.

Jonathan is a professional trainer. He employs latest technology for online class registration and online training registration that results in more attendance and ROI.