The beginning of the 2020s brought with it a wave of a paradigm shift in the education sector. A significant change was observed in how education was parted and how students and learners chose online courses over the traditional way of learning. A large part of this shift in the education sector is credited to the pandemic as well.
Since more individuals wanted to partake in online courses, we at Coursenator took it as our responsibility to help our audience know about online classes and their importance a bit better. Here in this article, we will discuss if it is worth taking online courses and how they can prove beneficial for any learner fitting any demographic segment.
Online courses are courses or topics centric to a specific field, including online recorded lectures, videos, images, and texts compiled by professors. Each course has a forum for students to clear their doubts and queries. These courses are organized topic-wise, ensuring a proper understanding of concepts and algorithms before moving onto new topics. Most of the Massive Open Online Courses (or MOOCs) are self-paced for learners and provide them with enough space to gain knowledge according to their understanding and retention capabilities.
WHY SHOULD YOU DO IT?
There are plenty of online courses present on the internet, so how should an individual decide which method to opt for or even why they should do it first. In a nutshell, in today's digitalized era, everyone is trying to stand apart from the competition and is enabling themselves to become an asset to reap the benefits of their skills. The competition in any given field is at an all-time high, be it a field such as Engineering or Arts. The industry's demand for labour is growing at a slower rate than the supply for the work; this indicates that not every individual can secure a place for themselves in the market. This realization makes it essential for
learners to upskill and learn various skills that might be fruitful for their career growth and development.
The variety of courses offered by various E-learning platforms can cater to the specific needs of every student, ranging from an actual Bachelors or a Master's degree to a diploma to a skill-specific course.
All that a student or a learner needs to be cautious about is the accreditation of the platform and the value of the platform's degree upon completion of the courses. A certificate from Harvard University holds more weight than a certificate from an uncertified university. Some of the most renowned and reliable MOOCs are Coursera, Edx and Khan Academy, etc.
BENEFITS OF ONLINE COURSES
Before uncovering the benefits of Online Courses, it is essential to establish the two types of online courses predominant in the market. The types of Online classes are as follows:
● ASYNCHRONOUS ONLINE COURSES
These online courses are primarily time-bound and designed for learners with tight, busy schedules. There is no real-time interaction between the students and the professors, but all the coursework, assignments and exam dates are handed priorly to the students. All the doubts, queries related to the course are discussed on the classroom dashboard, blogs.
● SYNCHRONOUS ONLINE COURSES
These online courses are more interactive since they require students and teachers to interact simultaneously on the same platform. It is a replica of traditional classroom teaching. This type, of course, has more chances of getting across the intended message to the students since they are interacting
in real-time through audio or video chats.
Coursenator recommends learners opt for suitable online courses according to their needs. In contrast, most of these courses are synchronous; they have proved to be
more effective for learners since the time boundedness of the system maintains their active participation in the class.
A few ways in which Online Courses are advantageous are:
1. COST EFFICIENCY
The right to education is one of the primary rights everybody should be able to exercise, and the cost incurred on education should not be a deterring factor for any individual. Online Courses provide impetus to learners in this regard. A secure, stable internet connection and a device are all it takes to obtain the education they deserve.
2. FLEXIBILITY
Since there are no fixed timings for the students, they can balance out their careers and education simultaneously according to their schedule. There are a lot of individuals who use online courses to add on skills to their existing skillset. This flexibility within online courses allows such learners to devote their time to them at their own pace.
3. EXPOSURE TO THE REAL WORLD
Online courses attract students/learners from all over the world, meaning the demographic of a single classroom is diverse. This diversity allows students to get exposure to different schools of thinking prevalent worldwide, expanding the way students view and analyze the situations they face.
4. ACCESS TO FACULTY
Online courses are structured in an organized manner, and it allows students to reach the faculty regarding their doubts in a more straightforward and hassle-free way. A specialized degree also helps learners access faculty with expertise in that given field, ensuring premium education to all the enrolled students.
5. VALID CERTIFICATION
Online Courses with valid accreditation are highly regarded and are given the same value as any other degree. These degrees can help people switch
their career paths as well as establish themselves in new fields. Online courses with a legitimate certificate enable learners to show the authenticity of the skills they have procured.
6. CONVENIENCE AND COMFORT
Since there is no four-walled classroom for the online courses, learners have the option to attend these classes from anywhere. The comfort of one's home makes it more convenient for students to learn since it is an environment they are already used to.
7. ONE-ON-ONE ATTENTION
This feature of online classes makes it a more appealing option since there may be concepts that students don't understand in real-time classes. The professors help students with doubt classes; these classes are aimed at assisting them in clarifying doubts of students while ensuring they do not follow rote-learning.
While there are numerous advantages of opting for Online courses such as financial benefits, exposure to the global village and networking, etc., it also has its downfalls. Some of these disadvantages majorly include the legitimacy of the certificates provided by the MOOCs, so Coursenator advises its learners to inspect all these factors beforehand and not fall prey to fake courses.
One of the ways to ensure this is to enroll in courses promoted by trusted platforms or following Coursenator's dedicated database, which has been carefully designed for the students, keeping their concerns in mind.
WHERE TO GET THE PERFECT ONLINE COURSE FROM?
Once an individual has decided that online courses are the right option for them and have decided on the particular field they wish to pursue, the next step is choosing where to obtain the course from. Selecting a platform might seem like a minute decision considering the course itself holds more importance, it still should not be neglected. This is an essential task since this platform will issue your
certificate. If your certificate doesn't contain any value, you would not be able to add it to your CV, thus nullifying the main objective behind doing the course.
Coursenator has compiled a list of the trusted sites offering online courses for its learners.
1. COURSERA
Coursera is a free online learning site that offers its students top courses from all renowned universities. They have a large vault of courses in different fields. The programs they offer are structured in association with the universities, enabling students to obtain a specialized degree or even a master's degree. They have pre-recorded lectures by the faculty that teach in the university, so learners should not worry about the quality of education imparted.
2. UDEMY
Udemy has already established itself as a global leader in the online education sector. It is one of the top MOOCs present at the time. Since they have a standing in the market, not all of their courses are free of cost. However, the paid methods are inexpensive as compared to other sites. The cost of the classes is highly dependent on the subject and the professors that are teaching the course.
One of the unique selling points for Udemy is that they are widely accredited, and many companies recognize the brand name.
3. EDX
One of the most organized sites for e-learning, Edx provides its students with video tutorials and a dedicated discussion forum for its enrolled students where they can discuss doubts and other queries related to their course. The USP for Edx stands at them, providing all free online courses with certificates.
Edx provides university-level education to its students in subjects like Social Sciences, Artificial Intelligence, etc.
4. LINKEDIN LEARNING
LinkedIn has always stood at the forefront for jobseekers. LinkedIn Learning was created as a platform for individuals who wish to upskill themselves and spearhead into the job market. While most of their courses are free of cost, they tend to consume more students' time than their competitors. Courses from LinkedIn Learning have the upper hand since recruiters value it more than other e-learning sites. It helps in making an individual's resume stand out brighter than the rest of the lot.
5. SKILLSHARE
Skillshare offers its students courses that hold importance in real life. Their courses consist of topics ranging from engineering to arts, films, etc. Skillshare's database consists of numerous free-of-cost courses and hundreds of premium courses for its learners.
Apart from the standard model of pre-recorded lessons, this e-learning site also offers students in-person workshops in multiple cities.
6. UDACITY
Udacity primarily focuses on courses about technology, be it data science, AWS cloud computing or engineering. Though they do not have an enormous panel of classes to choose from, the options they provide are sufficient enough for students willing to get into this field and grow a career out of it.
The website offers mini-programs or nano degrees to individuals willing to master a skill and obtain a job in that particular field. Udacity has interesting courses on Artificial Intelligence as well.
7. ALISON
Alison aims to capture its target audience by offering them various courses in food technology, artisanal pottery, health, business and technology. They have, free of cost, comprehensive classes which are carefully structured for managers, students and even teachers themselves.
Alison enables learners to learn and certify themselves in various fields. They are highly regarded for offering courses in multiple languages.
8. ADOBE
Adobe is a stalwart to educate beginners in creative arts, starting from image processing to colour grading to editing.
Adobe provides its learners with step-by-step guides in its various applications such as Lightroom, Photoshop and InDesign.
INTERPRETATION
Online learning has always been present in the market, but the onset of the pandemic helped the market boom in the year 2020. The market grew exorbitantly in the first two quarters last year, and it is expected to grow continually. When Coursenator started to gather all the statistics related to the e-learning market, we realized that the online education market is expected to be valued at $325 billion by 2025.
This growth will be majorly due to the technological interventions, which will allow universities to offer technical courses to their students at the comfort of their houses. Based on the data procured in 2020, there has been significant growth in the income of US-based organizations. Around 42% of organizations have seen a higher growth rate of their companies and are still observing unprecedented growth.
The change in the market has proved beneficial to universities and huge conglomerates and companies such as Google, IBM. Such companies have saved over $100 million since they switched to e-learning software models. This, in turn, enabled companies to increase their hiring capacities.
A survey of 2,500 companies indicated that the companies offering "comprehensive training programs" have experienced a rise of 24% in their profit margins. The learners have benefitted grossly from online courses. While there have been no surveys in this regard, it is expected that the return of Investment for the learners will gradually amount to higher average pay in most fields, with a particular emphasis on AI and technology-related areas.
