Information about the growing trend of online education

Since e-learning has become a booming industry, various trends have started to emerge in the market. From simple mergers of e-learning and mobile technology to companies training outsourced employees through online training, several compelling trends can be seen.

Mobile Learning

Companies such as Microsoft have internally adopted online training and lectures to be delivered via podcasts. To cut costs the “Academy Mobile”, an internal product, is used by Microsoft to for content development and delivery. Known as veritable trendsetters, this has pushed mobile as the latest online teaching device in the corporate world.

Building Online Interactive Networks

At the pace the global market works, it becomes a hard task to keep your employees updated about the latest development in their fields. To stay on top of the game, you must constantly be in touch with fresh, expert content. The best way to do that without wasting time and travelling costs, is through integrating e-learning into your company’s infrastructure. Internal employee blogs, sharing content, using social networking sites create a two way street where the employee can be the trainee in one area and the trainer in another!

E-learning on Lease

As research and development augment and streamline the processes of e-learning, not every company or organization needs to set up an online learning system from scratch. Companies like Moodle or Knowledge Anywhere can provide standardised or customised e-learning packages at low costs and will implement and trouble shoot for you! High-end providers of e-learning solutions include Articulate and Adobe.

Modular Learning at Your Desk

Many companies now see the e-light. Instead of wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on training seminars, workshops and learning retreats, your company can now train you while you sit at your desk via online learning. More companies than ever use e-learning to keep their employees updated and engaged through modular online courses that are short enough to easily be accommodated in a daily schedule without overburdening you.

Virtual Learning and Gaming

For many high risk jobs, such as those in the health and industrial worlds, learning through simulation reduces hazards and costs associated with real life training. E-learning now incorporates virtual realities for such industries.

Similarly, companies now have realised the higher cognitive value of online, virtual games. The “gaming” interface keeps you engrossed while you use a higher order of cognition to navigate through the real world simulations.

E-learning Outreach

E-learning is a cost-effective and accessible method of education. Niche companies no longer need to send you half way across the world to benefit from some rare experts in the field. The bridge between rural and urban has been crossed by the internet and allows a crossover of specialised skills and knowledge.

Governments also benefit from the same bridge: if you live in a rural area or hard to access neighbourhood, you can benefit from the same services as the rest of the country through e-learning. The government can limit the tax-payers’ burden by imparting much needed skills to teachers, nurses, engineers through online education.

Now countries can face less of a brain drain if their students can learn the same special skills from their computer rather than traipsing across the national border!