Putting E-learning and Online Education into Perspective

Category: Techtoday

Large companies such as Thomson Reuters, Dell, and outsourcing companies such as Convergys provide e-learning to their employees regularly not only to add or enhance employee skill set but also as a value-add for those intending to move up the ladder. Most of these companies use a mixed approach of instructor-led and Captivate interactive lessons either developed in-house or acquired through subscription from companies such as Skillsoft. Fresh graduates, serious students, or undergraduates, on the other hand, have found online universities such as iTunes U, MIT OpenCourseWare, and Khan Academy a great way to take up courses they've never had the chance to take. All these online resources add to the reality that the Internet is the great equalizer as even learners from developing or third-world countries are allowed access to education normally available for those who are privileged. Of course, there are plenty of paid certifications and training courses as well, such as popular IT offerings from MCSE, Oracle, Novell, and Red Hat.

The Efficacy of Online Learning

It's easy to scoff at e-learning. Most programmers and systems administrators learn not through Computer Science courses or certification programs but by actually working in an IT department, server farm, or manning a help desk where they experience real-world scenarios rather than studying rapidly obsolete networking theories. Hundreds of employees forced to take e-learning courses zone out in front of running slides and "interactive" courses filled with photos, audio, and Flash effects. Even the most hard-working students/employees struggle with hundreds of pages of text, screencasts, or PDFs that may or may not be related to their job or future career.
I've went through sleep inducing e-learning courses for a variety of fields including health insurance, economics, marketing, and of course, IT. Unlike the majority of my fellow learners, I wasn't totally averse to it, though I myself had trouble remembering or even understanding some of the content. One of the first online courses I took eleven years ago (provided for free by my employer) involved setting up a Linux web mail server and basic Red Hat Linux administration. I was fascinated and took copious notes, though I freely admit today that I learned more running Knoppix and installing openSUSE than I did watching Terminal commands being displayed on a screencast. However, that's just me - and only for that particular course for that particular time in my life. Online courses aren't for everyone but mileage varies. I'm pretty sure there are plenty of people out there learning quantum mechanics, physics, and economics using online courses. It's wrong to generalize that e-learning doesn't work. Each course, each field, and each approach in online education deserves its own assessment.

The Luxury of DIY and Hands-on experience

If you're a regular visitor to IT forums and tech web sites, you would often hear comments from an IT professional boasting about how useless online courses are (but he's certified for a half dozen) and how much hands-on time he's had. Normally, he would tack the number of years he has spent working on x or y company with z hardware and b software. Worst, you would also read contributors who claim they set up their own network, web server, or IT service for their company, basement, or home office without any "training". That's all well and good if you have the money to purchase enterprise level machines, workstations, serverboards, and iMacs to practice and learn on your own, but what about those who don't have the luxury to get original software and hardware to get "hands-on" experience? These IT experts may be exceptional in their field but I wonder if they realize that there are still millions of people out there who can't even afford a smartphone, much less an iPhone. For a lot of people out there, free online learning is a godsend and a luxury that would have been unthinkable ten years ago.
I personally experienced some e-learning programs that are tortuously long and poorly written, but I've also taken up some free courses that were short but rewarding. As I get older, I realize that the amount of free education online is amazing and praiseworthy. Although online learning may not work for most students who learn "by doing", every little bit does help. There are would-be students out there who are grateful just to be able to learn a few terms and get acquainted with concepts they might not have even be aware about. They may not know what Hyper-V is or how it works but looking at the animation and listening to the voiceover telling them how the system manages storage and memory can get them started in basic virtualization concepts. To that end, it's unfair for so many professionals and "experts" to criticize free online and e-learning programs and look down on people who have taken them.

Continuous Education

Technology and computer science is extremely broad, as is the majority of other disciplines. Archaeology, like medicine, has dozens of sub-branches and fields. E-learning exposes these fields and makes a portion of it available to students all over the world. Online learning may be flawed, but a good student knows that learning resources come from many directions.
As for me, I don't get free online training at my current employment (it's available but in Chinese), but I'm once again on the look out for a really good online course to beef up on some of my other non-IT related interests such as history and science. I'm careful about choosing which course to take. It needs to be a topic I'm extremely interested in and in a medium that I can go through regularly without falling asleep on my keyboard. And in the end, that's the secret to e-learning. You have to choose carefully if it will or what will work for you. Moreover, your subject of study should be something you really want to devote time to and learn properly.