The Education Sector’s Rising Star: E-Learning!

Those whose paths have crossed with the education sector before the pandemic more or less had an idea as to what the term “e-learning” meant, and after the pandemic, people started to use it more consciously. This model, which stands for “electronic learning”, basically indicates the use of electronic resources in order to retrieve information. Children learning numbers through cartoons on television, gaining knowledge about any subject by watching a video on video platforms, or listening to a podcast about a subject that we are interested in… All of them are basically a part of e-learning. To put it more academically, we can say that e-learning is a type of learning used to access the curriculum outside traditional classrooms through electronic technologies. ^[1]

• E-learning has gained so much importance especially during the pandemic period, and we can list the advantages and conveniences it provides throughout our learning journey as follows: ^[2][3][4]
• E-learning is learner-centered. Individuals can receive any training, at any speed and in any format. This is an advantage of e-learning’s customizable structure.
• Thanks to its location independent feature, it allows people to access information quickly and easily from their home.
• As opposed to physical learning, the user has the right to take a training several times.
• Since e-learning contents are presented on digital platforms, it enables access to constantly updated information. As for the content creators, the update of these materials are easier and cheaper compared to the update of the traditional contents.
• According to various studies, distance learning consumed 90% less energy and produced 85% fewer carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions compared to traditional face-to-face learning. This situation also indicates the extent of the contribution of e-learning to nature.
• On the other hand, as people do not need to go to a place to receive a training; any expense (transportation, trainer, accommodation, printed training materials etc.) is eliminated. This financial advantage also allows institutions and organizations that consider training their employees, to save a great amount of money.
• Contents being enriched with visual contents and interactive objects offer an experience that makes learning easy and increases memorability.
• As e-learning contents are public, all segments of society have access to these trainings, accordingly equality of educational opportunity is ensured.
• It contributes to a more efficient learning by providing trainers and trainees individual progress and performance data with the help of various e-learning tools.

In addition to the afore-mentioned advantages, also with many more benefits it offers, e-learning has been gaining significant popularity recently and it continues to change our learning behavior.

– Fatma Ekşioğlu

Kızılay Academy E-Learning Products and Systems Specialist

References:

1. Tamm, S. (2021, April 11). What is the Definition of E-Learning? E-Student. https://e-student.org/what-is-e-learning/ (↑ References 1)
2. Gupta, S. (2020, April 22). 9 Benefits Of eLearning For Students. eLearning Industry. https://elearningindustry.com/9-benefits-of-elearning-for-students (↑ References 2)
3. Dashe & Thomson, I. (n.d.). Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About eLearning. https://www.dashe.com/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-elearning (↑ References 3)
4. Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, March 10). E-öğrenme. Wikipedia. https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-%C3%B6%C4%9Frenme(↑ References 4)