Benefits and Drawbacks of e-learning

The reduced overall cost is one of the main advantages of e-learning. These can include the salary for instructors, transportation, boarding and lodging for the students, etc. Also if you are a working professional you can learn a new technology right at your desk without spending too much time away from your job. Also the e-learning courses are available on demand. You can take them at flexible hours or even at home. Sounds good, doesn’t, it?

The other major advantage is that you can take up the courses at your own pace. So if you are an expert you can skip few sections and get ahead, a novice can take the course at his own time to avoid any frustration. I don’t think that is possible in the traditional classroom method.

E-learning courses are a lot more interactive, thanks to technology. So the learners are now more engaged rather than getting bored over loads and loads of text. Most e-learning course provide a quick assessment or evaluation at the end. This would give a satisfaction to the learner that he has indeed retained some learning.

Now let us see the disadvantages of e-learning. The magical classroom bond between teacher and student, and among the students themselves, cannot be replicated through communications technology. Also some technology issues during learning can prove a bane in e-learning. The existing technical infrastructure may not be able to achieve the training goal. It can be as simple as a slow net connection or non compatible software.

Also the reduced social interaction can be a big drawback. There is no peer-to-peer communication or learning that is happening. Though there are few drawbacks e-learning is here to stay, and is rapidly growing as an efficient form of delivering learning content.