Impact of Online Education as per Growing Demands

The impact of online education has reached its heights with the growing demands of the educational apps that is made available in the market. Rather than classroom studies, students can reach a large pool of learning apps in their mobile, tablets and smartphone that have made the learning process much easier. As the demand of the social networking sites have increased, the demand for these apps featured in these sites have also increased.

Online study Can Boost a Career Transition from Makena Conteh

Benefits of Online Education on the basis of Education Technology

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Education technology has improved a lot on the basis of its growing demands of the apps that it launched. Educators as well as the learners are getting benefited by a large pool of information sources on their smartphones and tablets. There are more than 3900 maths and reading apps by which the school are getting themselves assessed along with managing these tools. The market share for education technology has been high since decades reaching billions as per reports of CB insights.

Growth of Online Education

The growth of online education in the sense education technology is huge as per the industry

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standards. The industry has always been a booming one in relation to its investments and equity. However there have been challenges that these business face in terms of competition, while a large pool of young companies have come up with unique apps for school use. Though competitiveness exists in the market of education technology, it has been unique as always since it also keep a track on the internal systems of the organisation such as sexual harassment besides conducting sexual harassment training etc.

Future of Education Technology as Online Education

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With the introduction of the new management programme, Canvas, the Education Technology is on the path of improvement. A little more needs to be done in order to make it reach its heights. A lot of large companies and business ventures have started to invest on long term corporate studies. The start-up in Education technology has proved to be handy for the school districts to access and manage tools. Earlier the students had only only depend on traditional classroom face to face learning that had its own limitations. However, now things have changed and ready to face mordernisation with the new advent of online studies.

Inference drawn

The growth of technicalities in the field of education has been booming since few years. Renowned players have participated in order to sustain in the market and to stay consistent in the same. The increase in availability of technical services in education sectors increased the boost for learning apps with the growing demand of online education. More and more investors have spent in the venture along with participating in making the school districts access and manage technical tools more effectively. Mr. Kapor, the creator of the software Lotus 1-2-3 once said in a meeting that the field of online education hopes to see success in future, however many companies might fail to achieve the objectives and hence might give up ending in dis satisfactory results.

How far do you agree with us? Share your views.

Study Online MBA While Working a Full Time Job

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So you are planning to go for an online MBA programme while working on a full time job? This is certainly a great idea for your future career but you should be prepared for facing some serious challenges in accomplishing your goals. Although initially you may feel that the load of an online course for a higher education programme will be rather light and easily manageable; however as your classes progress you will realise how daunting it is to balance your full time job and the online course.

But along with these challenges, you will also receive excellent opportunities for your personal and professional growth. Thus it is necessary that you learn to balance your work life and your education in order to succeed at your mission with comprising on either one. The knowledge and skills that you will gain in your online MBA course will improve your efficiency at work. Moreover, your experience from your full time job will enable you to perform better in your management studies. Thus you need to develop some effective strategies that will help you to prepare for unexpected difficulties and potential challenges and overcome them successfully in order to achieve your educational and professional goals.

These following tips will help you to balance your studies and your job in a simple and efficient manner.

Manage Your Time Effectively

As you have to balance your studies and your current job, you need to properly divide your time to make sure that you perform excellently in both areas. If you tend to procrastinate, then it will create serious problems for you in the future. Plan and organise your meetings and deadlines from your work and tests and assignments from your MBA course so that you can keep track of important deadlines. You must schedule specific times for your study which you will follow regularly and diligently. Pursuing an online MBA can be great only if you manage to maintain your efficiency in both your work and studies.

Be Prepared for Unexpected Problems

It is important that you foresee all potential problems that might crop up once you begin attending your online classes. Predict all the small things that might create a major obstacle in your studies. Planning for probable difficulties will help you to figure out the respective solutions to each problem. Prepare back up plans in case your schedules go awry which can create inconvenience in your work or studies. Once you have planned ahead for unforeseen challenges then it will become much easier for you to balance your work and your education.

Apply Your Knowledge

It is imperative that you apply your knowledge from your online MBA course into your workplace while you continue your education. This will help you to understand the topics and become a better manager and team leader. Furthermore you will know how to apply your skills and knowledge successfully when it is required. Apart from this, you also need to apply your work experience into your studies. While you are working on case studies for your online course, your own personal experience at the workplace will help you to understand the topics and subjects easily and solve the problems provided to you.

As a result you will be able to hone your managerial and leadership abilities. Moreover, the valuable lessons you will learn from your mentors, teachers and fellow students will improve your leadership skills which can be beneficial for your career.

Improve Excellent Presentation Skills

Strong and excellent public speaking skills is necessary for a successful manager and team leader. Hence you need to develop and customize the content and quality of your presentations according to the requirements and interests of your clients and teachers. Having good presentation skills will enable you to grab the attention of your viewers and create an impact. You need to practice beforehand to know about the timing and delivery of the presentation. You must remain confident and enthusiastic so that you can deliver your message perfectly.

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Improve Your Networking Skills

Throughout your MBA course and your professional career, you will meet several other professionals whose support and advice can help you to achieve further success. Prepare a list of those people, whether seniors from work, colleagues, peers or fellow students with whom you would like to associate and network better. Find out more information about them and contact them proactively. Increasing and building your professional network will open up great new opportunities for you in the future.

Improve Your Self Confidence

It is very important that you have sufficient self confidence in order to struggle with the several challenges of balancing full time work and online education. You will need to stay focused on your final goal as it can be easy to get distracted after some time.

Instead of concentrating on the negative aspects and challenges, focus on the advantages of pursuing an online MBA and its benefits your career and personal life. Your attitude will have a great impact on the success of your education and work. 

What’s In Store For E-learning In The Near Future?

 

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Have you ever seen that how your Facebook profile page and your Yahoo and Gmail accounts show you advertisements of what you have been searching for on the web most of the time? This is how they have tailor made their services in order to attract most of their customers. The same way, even technology is now trying to promote the field of education by making everything easier for the learners. Learners, the major chunk of customers for the universities worldwide, are the ones who should be at ease while getting the degree. Hence, online learning will become all the more mainstream and advanced in the coming days.

Personal digitised profiles

It is being predicted that all the learners in future will have their own online profiles which will mark their every single skills, credentials and will help to update their knowledge. This digitised profile will be with them all through and they will be able to carry it along with them through school, college, university as well as at their workplaces. This will help them to keep an eye on their own development and this will also led them make necessary changes on their personal profiles.

Learning with sophistication

Online study will become the most sophisticated way of getting educated. The digitised learning profiles will make for much more accurate assessments of the learners. The profiles will have a much more accurate digitalised representation of the learners and this will make assessments easier for the various employers in recruiting them. This way, the learners will not have to keep a huge file for all the certificates, results, etc and they will not even have to worry about the documents getting missing or spoil in the long run.

MOOCs will be in schools

I am just guessing this but who knows, this might be true as well. These days, a lot of schools have already incorporated the concept of BYODS (Bring Your Own Device), where the learners need to bring their own electronic gadgets in the classroom for studying. Remember the days when our teachers wouldn’t even allow us to bring a calculator? But times have now changed and it will change even further. In the coming days, the Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs might take over the schools as well. Our grandchildren might not even have to visit schools at all. Everything might happen on the web. Who knows, the brick and mortar learning institutions might not even be constructed only.

University developments

There will be several developments at the university level. Smart Science Initiative, which is a kind of collaboration between the Smart Sparrow, high school teachers and the Australian universities in order to develop interactive and rich study contents, will bring online education in the school classrooms in the coming days. Also, the University of Melbourne will launch an all new personalised learning initiative for the medical education. Likewise, there will be many other developments which will take over the learning institutions.

All these above predictions are all guesses by me. However, with the ongoing changes in the education industry, it is but obvious that the learning industry will develop more with time. But we need to wait and watch. Online mode of study has a long way to go and there is no denying of the fact that it will become much more conventional in the coming days.

Life Can Be Easy And Flexible With Mobile Learning

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With the rapid growth in technology, new and innovative learning devices are getting introduced to the academia, and as a result, students as well as teachers are now able to adopt unconventional learning techniques. It’s been quite some time that tablets and smartphones have made their presence felt among digital learners, instructors and even employers. Now, it’s the trend of mobile learning that is making people of all ages study with absolute convenience and that too without getting compelled to attend classrooms.

Mobile learning has reached millions already

Well, it is news that mobile learning has now reached millions all over the world, and experts have predicted that it will continue to grow in the coming years. Smart devices like kindles and e-readers have already brought major changes in our communication processes. Now, they are moving ahead to bring new e-learning experiences for students who would be able to upgrade themselves unconventionally unlike the classroom learners.

E-learners should now kick off with their lessons not with desktop or a laptop but with a mobile device. In fact, this would help them pursue their mobile learning sessions with ease and convenience. However, it’s a new concept in the world of education and a lot of people are still unaware of it. So, if you are new to mobile learning, here are a few steps you should keep in mind that would let you to pursue a mobile learning course with ease:

• Look for good smartphones – Today, such smartphones have hit the market that can help students learning easy and fun.

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pursue any course from any corner of the world. These phones come with special apps that are designed to ease the learning experiences of students as well as those who work. So, look for smartphones that come with a wide array of features that can make

• Use a device inclining towards mobile ‘delivery’ – Make sure that you are using such a learning device that involves both learning and leisure. Whether it’s a tablet or a smartphone, it must be effective enough to let you study anywhere and anytime you wish. You might prefer going through your lessons during your lunch yours at work. So, your phone should have those supportive features that can let you learn with unlimited flexibility.

• Keep your content compressed – What the majority of today’s online learning providers are doing is that they are making study materials available for students who are able to collect them easily through various resources whenever they want. What’s in fact best about this process is that one can make use of his/her smartphone and access a certain amount of the study material and not the entire thing he/she wants.

• Try using ‘touch’ devices – To be honest, there is no time for people to wait till the laptop is switched on so that they can connect to the web and access their course lessons. Rather, digital touch devices are proving to be more useful and faster for new age learners and working professionals. In this respect, using a smartphone can indeed be a superb strategy for all those who want to pursue a mobile learning course without hassles.

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So, you see how e-learning today can be conducted through smartphones. Rather, using such smart devices can let you work and study at the same time and that too with more interest and pleasure. Even accredited universities today have started considering smartphones for their online learners and this shows how digital education is gradually achieving importance on a global scale.

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Distance Education Opening Fresh Avenues Toward Knowledge

Millions of people these days think Distance Learning or Education is the most viable process to earn knowledge. To encourage simplicity and integrity in learning experience, a large section of learners and teachers are opting for an education system that promises to convey knowledge through interactive discussions beyond foursquare constructions and fat text books. On the contrary, it chooses to discuss knowledge through Internet, electronic conferencing, software programs, and new supplementary electronic resources that offer fresh zeal to the age old system.

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ICDE’s Fresh Attempts: Education to Pace up Development

• The Standing Committee of Presidents (SCOP) of the members of (ICDE) the International Council of Distance Education has been offering an exclusive forum for presidents, rectors, and senior policy makers to exchange their views and opinions on open and distance education with a focus on the latest trends.
• SCOP since its initiation has witnessed major changes in the educational sphere. And they think that the increasing popularity of the alternative ways indicates a tendency of distance education through online becoming a mainstream practice very soon. This year in their conference organized by Universidade Aberta do Portugal (UAb) in Lisbon, they focused on the host of new challenges and chances of connecting distance or online learning with the top universities of the world.
• Pierre Mairesse, The Director, European Commission, who is dealing with the issues regarding European strategies to encourage distance education and lifelong learning, opened the conference. Besides talking about the advantages of distance learning his speech also presented the details of EC’s recent initiatives to help education reach a larger audience residing in the different parts of the world. According to the speaker, the prime intension of the initiatives is to facilitate the education system utilizing the advantages of digital revolution.
• ICDE, The International Council for Open and Distance Education in the world conference held in Tianjin, China emphasized the issue of post-secondary education with full integrity as demand for quality education and higher learning is increasing among the young population across the world.
• More than seven hundred participants across forty countries listened to Paulina Gonzalez-Pose, Chief of Section for Higher Education at UNESCO as she highlighted the necessity of online and distance learning for better opportunity and access. But not only online, according to her a combination of online and campus learning will be rational approach toward the success. “Blended learning is a new form for higher education”, she said. She also added that “At no time in history has it been more important to invest in higher education – towards an inclusive and diverse knowledge society, to advance research, innovation and creativity.”
• Yang Zhijian, President of the Open University of China, currently boasting more than 3 million pupils in distance education, explained their efforts regarding online offerings to augment affordability, accessibility, and quality.

Nations Playing a Vital Role in the Movement are:

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The US

The United States of America is highly appreciated around the world for its undisputed leadership in online education. Hundreds of colleges and universities with online curriculum offering numerous online courses to the students worldwide have gained considerable attention from the nations far and wide. According to a study in the year 2011 conducted by the Sloan Consortium, over five million students in the country have signed up for minimum one online course. The country is not only leading in terms of enrollment but also presenting some outstanding delivery model for rest of the countries interested in digital learning.

The UK 

 The United Kingdom is one more name that has been successfully providing online or distance education to thousands of people around the world for a long time. The nation observed a significant rise in interest regarding the new education system over the last few years. An investment of around £100 million was recommended by the government’s Online Learning Task Force to help the nation develop a better online learning platform for the students worldwide. To avoid the increasing educational expenses and loan debts, a huge amount of students are showing interest toward learning through internet or distance education.

The Australia

Earning degree at home and at leisure time has attracted the Australian students to a great extent. After the economic turbulence during the years 2008-09, the decision of earning degrees putting careers on hold seemed quite impractical to them, so the new age learning system very obviously appeared to be a rational choice for the most. The interest regarding online education has grown impressively in Australia over the last few years by almost 20%.

Developing Countries like India, China, South Korea and Malaysia have also shown some significant progress in online and distance education. Affordable education, enhancing knowledge and working simultaneously, earning degrees from the prestigious universities from the world, and a network around the globe are the major drivers helping distance education to reach a higher level popularity in the countries from developing region. As the top universities around the world come forward with unique facilities, more people from all parts plan to boost academic qualification with the advantages of new age learning. 

Online programmes by the end of this decade hope to make a profit of US$1 billion in revenue, which shows the rising demand for distance education in India. China, at present is home to around seventy different online colleges. South Korea with high-tech industry and an impressive high-speed internet access calls distance education a ‘smart learning’ option for the Gen-i. Distance education in last few years has turned out to be a phenomenon with a flock of energetic learners around the world. The convenience and ease it added through making course materials available through internet and offering degrees at home have successfully broadened the appeal of learning and teaching.

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Teachers Following Education Through Popular Online Tools

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Distance education, practically, arrived to remove the geographical differences in between learner and institution witnessed a billowing surge in popularity as internet services added new dimension to the existing form. And now, the participation of the learners in the new age education system turns euphoric as social networking sites join the force to enhance the experience.Social media has the potential to facilitate communication, sharing, and collaboration; and therefore, amplify the endeavors to educate. So, the educators and employers find it useful for providing information, knowledge enhancement and execution of devised strategies to manage a larger workforce in a global arena. 

Education professionals think it’s effective    

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The rising popularity of social networking sites and universal interest in student-centered trainings have successfully attracted the attention toward applying popular online tools to enrich distance education. Today, it’s a hi-tech component of virtual classroom that contributing remarkably to higher education. According to a study regarding social media adoption conducted in 2011-12 by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth found that using social media was a common trend among for the four-year accredited institutions and all the colleges and universities were using it in the U.S. The study even confirmed that a lot of higher-education specialists using social networking sites for marketing and communication. More and more educators are intending to adopt it in the training and learning process.

Twitter tops the list of best destinations gaining huge attention   

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Twitter is definitely one of the important names that are gaining huge popularity among the academic professionals to make education even more exciting. The reason behind this popular tool getting attention from teachers could be varied like its simple interface, brief and quickly grabbing messages, trendy and easy to use platform for students and learners across the world. Moreover, it’s a common space for like-minded people who are able to meet, talk and discuss with each other in a very compact and straight-forward way. More precisely,

• The smartest way of informal learning is celebrating the freedom to teach and learn briefly in 120 characters through Twitter.
• A collaborative classroom is enhancing expertise of the employees around the world by updating the latest information regarding the technology and industry.
• It’s not anymore about teachers delivering lectures alone, learning through Twitter is about active participation of the students and educationalists in a discussion panel engaging reaction across the world.
• It’s more about developing a professional learning community where almost everybody can successfully contribute to the enlightenment.
• And most important this new way of receiving and providing knowledge is opening fresh avenues for developing countries to seize the educational opportunities the global industry is offering right now. Like educators in the Caribbean region, who have been trying hard to grapple with the new age learning system are engaging social networking tools like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube for delivering more effective instructions to their students.
• Through making it available and accessible for everybody Twitter is promoting independent and critical thinking all over the world.

Educators, worldwide, are trying to bring the power of Twitter’s live communication into a learning space to make education more interactive and engaging. In addition to that, Twitter is even helping teachers to a great extent to enhance their mentoring skills and understand their pupils better. In fact, collaborating, sharing and discussing education through Twitter have made teaching profession sensational more than ever. 

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Online Education vs. Traditional Education: The Unresolved Debate

Recent surveys show that there are many people who support online education while some still think that they are not up to the mark or at level with traditional college education. Many believe that the quality of the courses taught in online colleges is not good.

Many people all around the world like the fact that online education provides many advantages to students who cannot attend traditional colleges, like affordability and flexibility. They think that it is the best way to receive higher education. This being said, many also believe that the value of online education is equal to that of traditional classroom education and some still think that online education is not a good option and the quality of education offered is not at par with traditional education.

Also, a few concerns about online education can be seen in the job market. Some employees said in a survey that few employers think that online degrees are valuable and some also believe that they are equal to a traditional degree but some employers still believe that online degrees are not good enough.

Despite all the support that online education gets, many think that the testing methods are not strict and grading is rather casual. They also believe that people who grade online test paper are less qualified than teachers in traditional schools and therefore don’t grade properly. According to some reports, the response is equal but is slightly inclined towards the negative side.

“If leaders in the field want online learning to have equal status with campus-based programs, they need to do more to demonstrate high standards for instruction, testing, and grading.” - A Gallup Survey Report

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A new survey at Gallup reveals a new statistic which suggests, in terms of quality, people consider internet based study programmes as ‘only fair’ in comparison with two years and four years college courses. Another survey conducted by Public Agenda suggests that many employers want to hire candidates who have a traditional degree from a mediocre college to candidates who have earned a college degree from top universities through the online mode. Employers even admit that online education requires greater discipline thus the quality of candidates might be better but they would still prefer students who have earned a traditional degree.

However, questions have also been raised on the quality of education in traditional colleges. The strategic initiatives manager of The Free Education Initiative at the Saylor Foundation says that people have this sort of mindset because they are not familiar with online education and lack awareness.

“I don’t think there’s any weight to the belief that quality suffers in online education any more so than with a lot of brick-and-mortars. We know brick-and-mortar degrees vary in quality, and that’s the same with online. Are there diploma mills online? Absolutely. But there are brick-and-mortars doing that as well.” - Jeff Davidson, strategic initiatives manager, The Free Education Initiative, Saylor Foundation (Source: goo.gl/raEfz0)

Therefore, the debate is still inconclusive as to whether or not online education is equal to traditional education if not better.

 

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