All about Online Learning or eLearning - By Shailesh H. Mehta

eLearning is a canopy term that encompasses all kinds of learning undertaken via a computer or a mobile device, i.e. referred to as mLearning, usually connected to a network. Other terms, frequently interchanged with eLearning include, online learning, online education, technology enabled learning, web based learning or computer based learning (usually associated with learning from CD-ROM). It has been now widely accepted that eLearning can be as rich and valuable as any learning or even better. Instructional Design for eLearning has evolved and has now achieved new heights of perfection using established teaching principles, with many benefits to students. As a result, universities, businesses and organisations worldwide now offer their students fully accredited online degrees, vocational programs and continuance educational Program in abundance.

There are various types of eLearning mechanisms, which are often a combination of the following:

·         Self-Paced Learning: Means learning at your own space. Lessons can be delivered through HTML pages. PDF pages or Web Based Training (WBT), which is explained in detail here in below.

·         Synchronous: Means live or learning at the same time, e.g. a Live Virtual Classroom
(defined below) or a live Chat.

·         Asynchronous: Means not live or offline learning for e.g. a Discussion Board.

·         Simulation: Means digital reproduction of essential features / case study of any subject for the purpose of training and understanding.

E-Learning is accompanied with various benefits like:

·         Convenience, portability and reach: eLearning makes learning possible anytime and anywhere. It avoids physical travel and enables learning at your own speed, not too slow or fast. It just requires a computer and internet connection, making it a truly anytime, anywhere learning. In addition, mobile learning increases reach and portability as well.

·         Cost-effective: Prices in digital world are falling; however, quality and availability are improving. Typically, online programs can be cheaper by 25-30%, whilst offering comparable or even better quality education.

·         Promotes collaborative learning: eLearning provides multiple tools for collaboration, these include Discussion Board, Chat, Live Virtual Classroom (LVC) and Breakout Sessions that can be conducted via the LVC. Thus, it promotes collaboration amongst students as well as between students and teachers.

·         Wide array of programs: It is possible to access a wide array of programs: certificate, diploma, degree. Continuing education or vocational programs are all delivered through the internet.

·         Learn from the best faculties: eLearning enables learning from the best of faculties, who might be available to only a privileged few due to their presence in certain cities only. eLearning can help in these best faculties being available to the not so privileged students and benefit from their immense knowledge and exposure. I short, while classroom learning is facing acute shortage of faculties, it is possible to provide high quality education to masses with a few faculties, using video or archived classes.

·         Higher Retention: Studies show that eLearning results in higher retention due to various benefits that students enjoy in eLearning viz., truly collaborative learning, learning from the best of faculties, archived classes, facility to study at one’s own convenience and for as many times as one wishes, good feedback and getting queries answered by peers and other faculties etc.

·         Provides level playing field to disempowered sections of the society:  It is now possible that best education be provided to the remote parts of the country.  Besides, even if any section is challenged due to geography, sex, caste or any kind of backwardness, can attend the classes and raise questions without any hesitation as there is no possibility of ridicule by other students as they are separated by geography.

·         Replicating Work-shop environment virtually -Breakout Sessions for group discussions- The LVC is a great tool for live discussion or providing workshop like situation over the web.   This can take shape of any case study assigned to a group.   Like in a workshop, the faculty, splits the group into sub groups, the Breakout room in Live Virtual Class can create sub-rooms for a smaller meeting or discussion rooms, virtually.  This way it is possible to split a large group into smaller groups that can talk or collaborate e.g. for project and then submit finding of the project.

For example, if you have 20 people in a session, you could create 4 breakout rooms and move 5 attendees to each room. In the breakout rooms, the attendees can speak to each other (depending on the audio configuration), use the Chat pod, collaborate on a whiteboard, and share their screens. The host can visit all of the breakout rooms to assist and answer questions. When work in the breakout rooms is complete, the host can end the breakout session and return attendees to the main room. Hosts are able to share what happened in the breakout rooms with everyone. If necessary, the host can return attendees to their same breakout rooms. If you use the room again, you can also reuse the breakout room layout and content.

Thus Live Case studies assigned to students can be discussed and then the students can reconvene in the LVC and present their case to the whole group including the faculty who can then give feedback to them.

eLearning v/s Classroom Learning

	#	PARAMETER					ELEARNING		CLASSROOM LEARNING
	1.	Learning from best faculties					Since the classroom is conducted online, it is possible to organise good quality faculty from anywhere in the world. In addition, it is possible to provide recorded Video Based Training (VBT™) to students, thus, students learn from the best faculties always. So, the not so privileged students can learn from the best faculties at all time, despite diverse geographies.		Today, faculty shortage is a primary problem faced by classroom learning. Even the elite institutions like IITs and IIMs are facing shortage of faculties, not to mention about the other not so well known schools and colleges.
	2.	Student centric v/s Administrator centric					Classroom learning assumes students to be 100% present, 100% alert in the classroom and all students to have equal grasping power. That unfortunately, does not give second chance to the students. eLearning provides tools like Video Based Training (VBT), archived LVC classes which not just provides a second chance, but many more chances. In addition, Live Virtual Classroom (LVC), Discussion Board and Chat facility enable students to solve their queries during the classroom and even afterwards. Thus, providing a truly ‘student centric’ learning. Archived classes make missed classes a history. It is observed that students, irrespective of sex, religion, caste, raise questions in the LVC because there is no body to watch them around physically, (with eye contact) and judge them.		Classes are scheduled by the administrator or dictated by the convenience of a teacher. Once a student misses a class, his progress may lag due to missing link. No second chance is available. Besides, for personal or personality reasons (fear of being judged by co-students), most students don’t raise questions in the class.
3.		Tracking, Assessment, multimedia experience and resources during self learning					A typical Learning Management System (LMS) will deliver tracking and Assessment during self learning. This helps to spot at an early stage, bright students as well students who require additional help. In addition, with development in multimedia, it is possible to provide lively, enriching and easy to understand learning experience to students. Besides, it is possible to leverage internet, by providing huge repository of resources.		Whilst studying books, it is difficult to track what has been studied and what has been understood. In addition, providing additional resources is difficult.
4.		Experience during Live Classroom					eLearning provides Live Virtual Classroom (LVC) which mimics a physical classroom, but provides much more than that. It is possible to provide and use hand raise, yes and no button, Labs, Assessment during Live Class, Virtual tour on a website, archived classes, etc.		Although it is possible to provide Assessment (but not instant results) and virtual tour of a website (through a projector). However, it becomes difficult and expensive, hence, is generally not provided. Besides, providing archived classes is cumbersome.
5.		Experience during Live Classroom - Efficient usage of faculty time					In a virtual classroom with stored whiteboard, the teacher can draw on different white boards from time to time as a result gets more time to interact with the students. Besides, a video can be shown during a live class easily (needs to be downloaded by students before the class begins). Thus, aiding learning and enhancing learning experience for the students.		Faculty tends to spend a lot time writing, drawing on the blackboard/whiteboard as a result, time available for interaction is less, Besides, it is not generally possible (or requires expensive equipments) to show videos to aid learning.
6.		Experience during Live Classroom - How free the students are to raise questions in class					It is observed that students raise questions easily even if it’s being seen silly by others. Besides, a Live virtual classroom helps bury difference in various social categories more easily. There are tools that exist to convey anonymously to the teachers as to the pace and complexity of lessons being taught.		It is observed that most students feel shy of raising question in the class. Besides, physical presence brings into sharp focus the social divide that exists between religions, sexes, castes and regions.
7.			Experience during Live Classroom-Time to get feedback on how effective is teaching				It is easy to test knowledge of the students on the subjects being taught whether during the lecture or immediately thereafter. This quick feedback helps to either to organise repeat lectures or changes required in the faculty/method of teaching.	One of the biggest drawbacks in the Classroom based training is that there is no measure to test how much students have grasped at the end of the lecture. This is generally known only after a significant time gap when results of the tests/exams are out.
8.			Experience during Live Classroom- Value addition by teacher beyond completion of normal syllabus				Since, multimedia lessons/video lectures/recorded lectures generally can take care of syllabus completion, the teacher can offer customised learning to different students taking into account the learning need of different students.	In the physical class, the teacher is under compulsion to complete the syllabus, which generally stretc.hes right up to end of the term. There is no time left for the teacher to give individual attention and offer a customised learning path for different students.
9.			Experience during Live Classroom - Additional resources for students				It is easy via tools like web safari to take entire class to a particular website which may provide additional reference material with comments by the teacher which will certainly help students in further study.	Students do look forward to resources for additional studies. Excepting giving book reference or giving website reference it is difficult to show the resources during live class. Or may require expensive equipments.
10.			Time to introduce the latest Courses				Since distribution of knowledge is instant over the Web, new Courses/ technologies can be taught in shortest possible time, so that students enjoy the crucial early bird advantage in the job market.	Need to set up faculty at various locations increases time to transfer knowledge.
11.			Minimum batch size for class				Since the class is conducted over the Web, the universe of students is much larger than that in a traditional classroom. This does away with the limitation of a minimum batch size requirement since students are physically based at diverse locations.	There is severe limitation on minimum batch size. It is difficult to visualise a class of 2 or 3 students wanting to study out of a single place.
12.			Quality of faculty - certainty of timely completion of Courseware				Since a large number of faculties are not required, the selected faculty can be paid higher, thus ensuring that students enjoy the advantages of prior decided superior teachers. Besides, Video Based Training (VBT) allows capture and archive of classes for future use. This ensures that students can benefit from high quality teaching anytime in the future, even if the individual faculty members are not on board.	Attracting good faculties has always been the biggest problem. Besides, retaining them is another challenge. A faculty leaving midway is quite prevalent, thus creating uncertainty in timely completion of Courses. The students also get unsettled due to discontinuity in teaching and/ or uncertainty in frequent change in the faculties.
	13.			Pricing of Courses - overall cost of operation		It is true that eLearning requires significant investment in developing content and initial setup. However, that can spread over large no. of Courses/ students, thus deriving economies of scale. Besides, prices of computers, memories, storage devices, printers and bandwidth are falling, and their quality is improving, thus ensuring stability in the overall cost of operation. As a result, Courses offered via eLearning are about 25-30% cheaper than Courses offered under classroom learning.		There is a huge initial cost in terms of acquiring land, constructing building, library, and provision of facilities. There is no scalability or economies of scale. The fact is, that the cost of all inputs in a classroom learning are going up; be it land, building, rent, salaries of staff and faculties, utilities like power and water. As a result, operation costs in providing classroom learning are also rising. It is shocking but true that some of the campuses costs anywhere between ` 50 Crore to ` 800 Crore and they charge fees between ` 2.5 Lakhs to even ` 10 Lakhs for 2-4 years Course. Even then the faculties are hard to find. In addition, after paying such fees, placement remains difficult. If such state of affair continues, salary expectations may go up and this may hurt the country’s competitiveness.
	14.			Availability of quality education to all – inclusiveness of education		eLearning makes provision of quality education to masses at affordable costs possible. Thus, eLearning makes inclusive education possible irrespective of caste, creed, religion, geography or sex.		Due to the above stated factors, classroom learning becomes expensive and not scalable. Classroom learning provides islands of excellence which is only available to a few. For e.g. based on merit, leaving out a vast majority who are good, want to study but cannot get good quality education. At the same time, in many cases, quality education is available, but becomes expensive which only the rich can afford.
	15.			Viability in remote location		Given the widespread availability of Internet connection and power back-ups in small towns, students in remote areas can access scores of degree, diplomas and certification Courses.		Due to lack of availability of teachers and small size of students opting for a particular type of Courses, this model is unviable in remote locations.
	16.			Library facilities		With online libraries, it is possible to provide large number of books to any number of students inexpensively. In addition, with development of multimedia books it is possible to provide, meanings, animation, hyperlink, additional examples in the books. Thus, making learning interesting and enriching.		Due to costs and space limitations, typically, only a few copies are available. Many a time, this is cornered by a few students who renew it as many times as possible, leaving out a large number of students who cannot access these books or have to spend significant amount to buy such books.
	17.			Simulations / Breakout sessions for practical lessons / presentations / case study discussion		It is possible to provide Lab experience via Simulation in the digital world. Simulation is the digital reproduction of a product or process or machine for the purpose of training or demo. Everyone is aware about aircraft simulation. These days even surgery training is provided through simulation. Simulation helps training in the following ways- ·         Show me-how it is done ·         Let me-do on my own ·         Allow me to make mistake, because we learn from mistakes Breakout sessions make them interact with each other in groups and make presentation on case studies and moreover the best faculty can judge them. Except the podium presentation, all other things are the same.		It is true that in certain cases like Science labs, public speaking, training on machines classroom learning may be required; in which case theoretical lessons can be taken online and practical lessons can be taken by classroom learning. Here again, Simulation, can play an important role in imparting high quality education. This blended learning will provide cost effective education to a large number of students not restricted by physical facilities.
	18.			Green learning		eLearning does require electrical energy to run computers and servers. However, day by day hardware is becoming more powerful (and thereby can service more students) and also highly energy efficient. On balance, it requires much less energy, no travelling. Hence, it can be termed as ‘green learning’.		On an average, students have to travel at least 10 Kms to and fro to attend schools. This consumes huge amount of hydro carbons by millions of students and professionals who have to travel to colleges/schools regularly. In addition, buildings and facilities consume substantial amount of energy again raising carbon level significantly.
	19.			Human emotions, like eye contact, handshake, clapping, a pat on the back		Although, there is no eye contact, it is possible to provide human emotions like clapping, a pat-on-the-back, and handshake virtually through appropriate emoticons.		Classroom learning provides eye contact and expression of emotions.
	20.			Networking		The virtual world networking sites have achieved a huge critical mass. It is now common that people of all ages are logged onto Orkut, facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Virtual networking is convenient, flexible and avoids unnecessary consumption of time i.e. required in travelling. They have already become a good alternative to developing friendship and bonding in a very short time. eLearning portals also help promote collaborative learning and friendship among students.		Classroom learning is a good source of social networking and bonding.
	21.			Relevance of coaching classes and tuitions	Since it is possible to provide best faculties to all the students at the same time (due to VBT™/ ABT™), the need for coaching classes or tuitions will diminish significantly. Besides, students can go through the lectures as many times as necessary. In addition, a large number of solved examples with hints/explanatory notes can be provided. It is easy to provide mock test, solved question papers very easily. As for checking lessons/home work, it is possible to provide through computer keys or through digital slate and pen which can be uploaded and checked by the faculties. In addition, it is possible to provide attendance, assessment and regular progress report of their wards instantly to the parents, so that timely action can be taken. It is of interest to know that more than 500,000 students in USA, in the primary and secondary education do not go to school and only study online. With the benefits of elearning as listed above and limitations faced by classroom learning, this figure will grow rapidly in times to come; not only in the USA, but in India and rest of the world too.			It is a fact that a majority of students who go to school or college also attend coaching classes or tuitions. The exact reason is hard to fathom, which may be due to herd mentality or lack of good faculties in schools/colleges. Either way, both parents and students are losers. Parents spend extra money in tuition and students are forced to repeat same or similar lessons in tuitions/coaching classes in other words. A large amount of time spent either in college/School or tuition/coaching classes is duplicated and hence wasted. Students can spend such extra time to pursue extracurricular activities like sports; cultural activities etc. which will contribute to their psychological/emotional and physical development and make them complete individuals.
	22.			Use of ICT in Classroom	With increasing use of ICT and online learning in colleges and schools and thus increased costs, parents and students will start wondering if they are going to learn online in colleges and pay hefty sums, so then why not learn online and save a tidy sum. Moreover, students can spend the extra time in pursuing sports and cultural activities and become complete individuals.			This is a healthy practice. This will help in classroom learning to counter faculty shortage and monitor students’ performance. However, unlike elearning, provision of more IT is seen at increasing costs in classroom learning as students have to buy laptops and college has to spend substantial sum towards hardware, networking, LCD monitors, projectors and other high tech equipments.

- Shailesh H. Mehta

eLearning & Vocational Education Evangelist, Founder CEO | GOLS