How education was taught around two decades ago is completely different, it’s an ever-evolving process. There will always be advancements in the way education can be taught. From classroom training to online training, the shift has been very rapid because of the pandemic.
But, most of the organizations are yet to find their feet in the online learning space and still aren’t sure how to go about it. To help you better with this, we have listed down all the pros and cons of eLearning.
Pros of Online Learning:
1. Flexibility:
Your employees often have tight schedules. Sometimes they need to juggle between their work and training. In such cases, online learning comes in handy as you can learn anytime.
In conventional classroom training, there is a good chance that your employees might miss the class due to certain obligations but in online learning, they can learn according to their schedule. This time flexibility allows them to balance their work and learning well which will bring the best results.
2. Accessibility:
The other big advantage of online learning is that it’s highly accessible. No matter the location of your online learners, they can access the online training content. They can access the online training content even on holidays and Sundays.
Your employees can learn at their homes, libraries, or even when they are traveling. You can access the online learning content from anywhere and anytime, practice quizzes, review assessments, and do much more in the comfort of your home.
3. Personalized Learning:
Not everyone learns and understands the concepts in the same format, you need to offer personalized learning to engage your Corporate learners. Online learning allows you to do that. Your corporate learners can watch the video content, run through text content, practice quizzes and do much more.
All these different formats of learning keep your corporate learners engaged. Your online training course can consist of high-quality diagrams, podcasts, animations, Youtube clips, and much more. All you need is a top LMS software to manage all that content effectively.
4. Individual Attention:
Some people hesitate to ask questions to their tutors if it’s classroom learning but when it’s online learning, your corporate learners can just put an email to the online instructor to get their doubts cleared. Your corporate learners have the option of raising a question from anywhere and anytime you want.
5. Knowledge Retention:
In online learning, your corporate learners can rewatch the online training content as many times as they want. This helps them to register a concept permanently in their mind.
Then watch the videos or refer to the concepts while referring to all the other topics. The online training course is available forever so that your corporate learners can come back to it again and again when they need it.
6. Cost-effective:
Online courses are financially viable as it cuts down travel and physical space costs. Because there is no traveling involved, your corporate learners can stay afresh and learn whenever they want.
Cons of Online Learning:
1. Needs More Time to Complete:
Classroom training requires all the corporate learners to be present at the class at a certain time and place. But in online training, there is no system in place.
Because the corporate learners can learn at their own pace, it might lead to laziness and thereby delay in course completion. In classroom training, you listen to a train but you need to read and go through the online training content in an online learning course. Listening is much easier than reading.
2. Needs Proper Time Management:
You need proper time management skills to juggle between your work and training. In a face-to-face class, your corporate learners feel accountable to show up which would make them consistent to learning.
For instance, if they have a class on Monday morning, they finish all the other tasks and attend the class. The scheduled meetings and classes keep your corporate learners more organized.
To counter this issue, organizations can make online training more organized. You can send mobile notifications or email reminders to notify your corporate learners to finish their tasks on time. A timely reminder would make your corporate learners more accountable to learning.
3. Lack of Motivation:
As humans, we need a constant push to do things and complete tasks on time. If there are deadlines in completing tasks and assignments, you tend to work much quicker.
In online training, this is a major drawback compared to classroom training where there will be a tutor in-person who guides the corporate employees. Not everyone needs external motivation to complete tasks and assignments, but the majority of us do.
4. Less Scope for Social Learning:
Humans are social animals who want to talk and interact with other humans. The same principle applies to learning also. Though there are many online discussions available, it doesn’t give the same effect as in-person interaction.
In classroom training, your corporate learners form a personal relationship with their peers and instructors which promotes collaborative learning. After every classroom session, everyone can catch up and clear their doubts.
Through in-person learning, there will also be moral support. Your peers can detect if you are struggling with anything and help you out if needed. But in online learning, it’s hard to understand one’s state of mind. A person who feels isolated will remain isolated till the end.
The emotional connection is missing in online learning which is hard to counter with whatever interactive features and elements come up in the future. To counter this issue, most of the organizations make use of communication channels like Microsoft Teams and Slack, etc, or even create social media channels to keep their corporate learners engaged.
Conclusion
Online learning has its benefits and drawbacks, but depending on your needs, you need to weigh the pros and cons and then make more informed decisions. At the end of the day, no matter which form of train you opt for, it should fit in your budget and organization needs. We hope this article helps you to understand the various pros and cons of online courses.
