The Benefits Of eLearning Overshadow The Drawbacks
The eLearning industry has been growing quickly and commendably mainly because it allows all the businesses to share their capabilities through internet. eLearning facilitates the designing of trainings for fulfilling the specific learning and development needs of organizations. Nowadays businesses rely highly on customized eLearning to design eLearning courses that can meet their needs and top management get the right direction as to which areas they need to address their teams. Through eLearning solutions companies can give relevant knowledge, exposure, skills and techniques to their employees which help them excel in their job roles. Self-pace is one of the important aspects of eLearning solutions. Self-pacing increases skill retention in learners and ensures that learners can move at their compatible speed along with their busy schedules. E-learning comprehends a range of learning solutions such as, videos, info graphics, and quizzes that engage the learner. These are designed to be amazingly user-friendly, and make it easy for learners to track their learning.
Some of the most important benefits of eLearning solutions are:
Reduced Cost- eLearning reduces the cost of instructor, room rentals, equipment, travel, meals etc. It just needs a device capable of carrying out the training. Companies with more than thousands of employees can reduce the cost per head for trainings.
Flexibility- eLearning can be done in slots as and when it is convenient within the busy schedule of learners. It is not necessary to spare an entire day to attend the training.
Mobility- eLearning courses can be accessed on laptops, mobiles and tablets so learning can be done even while on move.
Global- Organizations can be assured that their employees will get the same content regardless of their location. eLearning solutions can be delivered with reduced cost to the people located globally.
Engagement- eLearning increases engagement through social and collaborative tools which pushes learners towards training and also help learners retain what they have learnt.
Expert Knowledge- Good eLearning solutions and LMS ensures expert knowledge is communicated to learners.
As it is universal that everything has its pros and cons, let us look at the flip side of eLearning courses and see what are the most common disadvantages it carries along with it.
Lack of Control- Though self-paced learning is an advantage but learners with low motivation might lag behind the others if there are no deadlines to complete the eLearning courses. So it totally depends on different people at different stages of learning.
Learning Approach – eLearning might not be a good experience for some learners specially activists and pragmatists as they will not enjoy it. Different learners have different preferences like images, words, text, videos etc. So it is difficult to make learning enjoyable for every learner.
Technology Issues – eLearning is totally dependable on compatible device like laptop, tablet or desktop. And this brings some sort of risk for both learners and organizations. So, all requirements need to be fulfilled beforehand to support eLearning in order to avoid technical issues.
Though eLearning has both benefits and drawbacks, in order to have a long term positive learning strategy disadvantages of eLearning needs to be ignored.