Online Education
Abstract
Online education has become a vital part of learning in the modern age of computers. This study, therefore, looks to discuss the various forms of online learning, the stakeholders involved, the expected results, legislation, supporters, and critics of online education. This paper further seeks to address the role of the stakeholders involved and how their participation can influence significantly on its delivery and the quality of education. Legislation has also been discussed in this study. It is an important aspect to consider as it affects the quality of education on offer to the students online. The problem of legislation is also discussed, which is mainly associated with the issue of jurisdiction. This paper also highlights the supporters of online education as well as the critics and their concerns.
Introduction
Online education, also known as e-learning, can be described as a type of education where instruction is delivered to the student through the use of a computer. Learning materials are therefore provided online to aid the learners as they embark on various learning activities. Due to the rapid advancement in technology, this type of education has been embraced by students as well as education institutions all across the world. Unlike in the past, where students mainly relyed on libraries are written papers, the internet world has provided them with the ease of accessibility of instant knowledge and learning. It can be a search online through the use of a phone or computer or even enrolling for an online course.
There are different types of online education available. Students interested in a specific field can make use of the wide variety of materials online, for example, articles, videos, and images. However, great caution should be taken by the learner as not all of the materials online can be relied on. Self-education is a type of online education for students who are self-motivated, whereby these students search the internet in a bid to look up for a variety of material available to meet their specific educational needs. Online college courses are another type of online learning whereby Massive Open Online Courses are offered to the students on a large scale. Some students can, therefore, receive certification through these courses depending on their choice of the provider of these courses.
Supplementary online education is the third type of online education whereby students can use the available online resources to supplement their education. This helps the students concerned with a greater expansion to their knowledge by comprehensive research of the materials available online beyond what they get at their institutions of learning. Online private or public-k12 schools are another type of learning whereby students at elementary, middle, and also high school have access to a variety of learning options available. Educational programs and application is a type of online education whereby there are many programs and applications available online which provide a supplementary online learning platform. These systems have mobility that allow adaptability for individual students’ lifestyle since he/she can make their use anywhere.
Stakeholders involved
For the e-learning type of education to be helpful to the students, quality has to be guaranteed. This, therefore, calls for the different stakeholders that are involved in coming up with policies and strategies that regulate online education. This thus provides the students undertaking this type of learning with the full benefits that are associated with online education. The primary and most essential stakeholders in online education are the learners. Learners have to be satisfied with their learning experience online and whose satisfaction depends on several factors. One is that the programs for e-learning must be readily available inorder to facilitate learning for the students.
The demand for e-learning has grown over time in recent years due to the growing internet connectivity in most developing countries. Quality online education has to be therefore guaranteed to the millions of students undertaking various courses online. One element of quality online education is student support. The students should value the importance of prior experience when it comes to the use of computers, moderating discussions online, and the ability to use the conferencing system. Quality online education can be guaranteed by responding effectively to the needs of the learner’s issues and should be considered a quality e-learning course and program principle. Students’ satisfaction also entails the addition of services such as career counseling, technical assistance, mental health counseling, and social services. Online education offers several advantages to the learner, such as the access to global resources, consistent instructions, and constant and accessibility of an instructor.
Learning design experts are also stakeholders in the online education sector. These are experts with the ability to work with a variety of assets. These experts must possess a thorough understanding of principles related to instructional design and adult learning. Another type of stakeholders is the technology experts. They are an essential player in the goal of ensuring the success of online education. They have the ability to host the designed and created courses onto the learning platform in the required format.
Expected results
Online education outcomes describe the skill, understanding, and the simultaneous application of the expertise and understanding a person has assimilated and is able to demonstrate from the learning. Online education outcomes should position along with the main course components of the curriculum content, teaching and learning activities, and also assessment. Online education is also expected to bring the flexibility of learning. This is possible because a learner is not restricted to time and place since they can learn online anytime and anywhere. It also allows the students and the instructors to work together incorporation around the clock.
Attached legislation
Legislation can be used to mean regulation, which is mostly done for the good of the majority. Regulation in the context of online education has many forms, which include regulation at an institutional level and also at the level of a content provider who is a different entity altogether. One way to understand legislation is by familiarizing with who in specific the regulation seeks to protect, which is, in most cases, the students. If left unregulated, the sector of online education could be left out for gluttonous developers doing it for profit while at the same time compromising on the quality of education available for the students.
The question of ‘who should regulate’ often comes up where online education is concerned. It is hard to define the regulator due to the overlap of the regulating bodies and also because of competition. The jurisdiction of online learning is becoming less clear, unlike in the past, where the institutions of learning had a physical address and, therefore, well-defined jurisdiction. The question of whether students taking online classes are citizens or non-citizens, part-time or full-time take centre stage while trying to address the issue of regulation.
In the process of legislation, there exist a need to address the question of quality versus financial returns. For financial returns, entities face the desire to cut corners in the competitive market, thus affecting quality negatively. Different programs offered online vary significantly, and there is no relation between the prestige of the education provider and the quality. Online learning across the globe has been fueled by a great extent because of the growing and insatiable demand associated with it. It helps the learners access a wide variety of education and learning materials that are tailor-made to meet their needs in the specific field of interest.
Supporters and Critics
Online education has people who think it’s an excellent form of accessing education as well as others who think it does not bring equal opportunities in accessing education to all. People who do not support it have a believe that its inferior to the traditional type of face to face learning often seeing it as a second alternative to the traditional method. Nevertheless people who support the online education believe that students who take on online education benefit more from the online learning experience and are equivalent to those under the traditional method intellectually.
Due to the ever growing population, online education should be encouraged in order to ease the growing congestion being experienced in the learning institutions. There are courses that are not really demanding in terms of their demand for practical activities. These type of courses therefore can be offered online while leaving those with demanding practical activities such as Engineering to the traditional type of education.
Conclusion
It can be noted that online education is becoming part of our daily lives with the development of technology and the wide access of internet services across the globe. This therefore indicates that this type of learning should be embraced by students as well as education instructors as the need for this type of education grows. The stakeholders in this sector play an important role and therefore each one of them should play their role to ensure efficient delivery of learning material.
Accessibility has become great concern for all the stakeholders because of the importance of online education. Places where there is no internet connectivity c provide no opportunities for students living in those areas to access online education. Electricity connectivity is another concern by the stake holders. In most remote areas, there is no electricity connectivity which denies these student constant access to online education. This therefre brngs the issue of eqity in accessing this education
References
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