E learning

Introduction:

Within a few years, the way we learn will not look the same as it does today. Schools at all levels, the government, and private enterprise are all recognizing the benefits of online learning. Online learning, e-learning, web-based learning, mobile learning, or distance learning, all refer to instructional environments supported by the Internet. It comprises a wide variety of programs that use the Internet within and beyond school walls to provide access to instructional materials as well as facilitate the interaction

among teachers and students. Most colleges and universities offer online classes in order to provide options for students with differing needs and interests. So that instead of sitting in a traditional classroom, students participate in online classes using a computer, Smartphone, or tablet with an Internet connection to interact with instructors and classmates around the world. Students may take online courses in addition to traditional courses or complete an entire course of study online leading to a degree. Even though online education requires more time than campus class and creates a sense of isolation at the level of the student, it is beneficial at the level of bringing education right to the home and makes it more convenient and flexible to learn, interact with people,  and at the level of financial situation.

Online Education:

1. Flexibility

"Distance learning opportunity has become available from anywhere in this new digital age of society". Students get adapted to such a new kind of learning due to its flexibility. It brings education right to the home. Geographically, students are able to take courses, study, and attend classes from their homes. They can study at the time they want, with whomever they want, and wearing whatever they want. This kind of education teaches students to be self-dependent and be able to control their education at the level of completing assignments at work, home, or anywhere they can carry their laptops. Moreover, another group of non-traditional learners benefiting from this kind of education are older adults who need to get a flexible schedule that suits with the  kind

of job they do especially those who work full-time, or for those who have additional family responsibilities and childcare . For another group of students, work, travel, and distance from campus, make it impossible for them to attend a traditional classroom, or possible but more convenient and easy to have the course online. This anytime-anywhere flexibility of the online course enhance both the student attitude about the delivery medium and their learning too.

On the other hand, there exists another point of view opposing the flexibility provided by the online learning. Those people think that learning online requires more time than on-campus classes, and better time-management skills. Because of the nature of online courses, a student needs more reading requirements and time management to success in the course. The traditional courses are not harder than online courses but only have different format and requires less time and less extensive reading. Moreover, online study need complete access to the Internet. So many students do not have connection to the Internet at their homes. It would be hard for them to take online courses. Or even some of them have low abilities to surf the Internet. Also, some people prefer to be t aught in a classroom and feel more comfortable to share ideas in such an environment.

2. Interaction:

In the history, no technological invention of man has connected the people all over the world like the Internet. If a person participates in a global learning day or other online events, you may even meet and make friends with someone in another country. It is a small world, after all. With its strong potential and ability to connect people, online learning, or e-learning, improved the learning outcomes and replace the lecture time by group work connecting students and increasing their motivation and their love to learn. The group activities may include online discussions or some computer labs. So many studies have been done to determine the relation between the student's performance and their interaction in the course. The result show that the students offered by online interaction and virtual presence. In comparison to traditional courses, online courses provide a social closeness not only among students but also between the instructor and the student. It provides the opportunity to get to know other students via bulletin boards, chat rooms and mailing tests. E-learning also enables the reactivity between instructors, assistants, and students on the other hard by giving students the freedom to discuss any topic and exchange ideas.

Many students aren't comfortable asking questions in class for fear of feeling stupid. Internet eliminates that fear. The opportunity to learn is enhanced since a student is able to send an e-mail to the instructor or even watch a video online which do not differ from watching the instructor live at the class room.

 In 2010, Bill Gates was quoted, stating, "We should focus on having at least one great course online for each subject rather than lots of mediocre courses". This refers to the isolation online classes would create. Since in online course, no one can hear your scream! An online course may let the student isolated from the outdoor society and be closer to online friends than to family members, and spend much more time on the computer than with people. Furthermore, online teachers are not likely able to meet their students physically. This decreases the interaction among them, because it seems reactive-less to share ideas through the Internet and not face-to-face

3. Financial situation:

Law enforcement and other government agencies recognize the importance and benefits of using online training. Online training is immediate, cost effective, and easily affordable. It minimize the costs, both money and time are saved. There are many types of costs depending on the online system needs. Some are personal costs like the time of teachers, assistants, developers, administrators and who ever involved in running this system. Other type is the facilities cost including buildings, class rooms, offices, furniture, labs, and even the fuel or gas of vehicles. Compared with traditional education, online learning can reduce the need for physical space. Physical space costs are important. Online instruction would replace the class room instructor so that the physical space is reduced. Another type is the equipment costs like the resources needed for technology, operations, and infrastructure in working order. Also there are material costs like text books, printing, and copying.

 And finally, we cannot forget the reduction of salary costs. In traditional learning, each member included in the field of education has a salary. Online learning reduce these salaries by transforming of some educational activities to computer, increasing teacher-students ratios, or by otherwise creating a new design for a more effective use of the teacher time. It is important to note that determining whether online learning is more or less cost -effective is not a simple question. It is much more complicated due to the presence of lots of costs and thus only mathematical equation could help to compare these costs between traditional and online training. All in all, it is needed to have a scale in the study of educational productivity in online learning. Online learning develops new programs and perhaps develops curriculum and digital resources that are expensive to develop.

But on the other hand, when created, it would have a great potential to be distributed to a large number of students all over the world.  research shoes that, the cost of providing online education with equal quality as campus education is much more expensive . In comparison to traditional education, online education has higher costs especially in the domain of technology that needs to be updated all the time. In addition to the costs of this hardware, software, and developed programs, equitable access to the hardware and software must be ensured, which means more costs and no saving of money. Also, it seems to be a problem that the number of enrollments has increased and thus a higher turnover appears. This leads to dropping out courses and appears to be one of the main causes why online learners drop out courses 

Conclusion:

Huge changes in the recent years have resulted from the development of modern technologies and communication and work organizations.  The Internet now occupy an important role in our daily life, we must  benefit  from its presence and use it for education in particular. With all its facilities, it provides the most relaxing causes for us to study and create the new! Online studies will grow in popularity, and this network of virtual faculties will spread more and more in the future. Soon, Internet education, or e-learning, will become the dominant form of education worldwide.  And although some people believe that e-learning will show a decline  in its importance in the years to come, but it appears to be the opposite since there is an acceptation  for

this kind of study among lots of people as shown in the figures be low, and the number of those people is going to increase within the few coming years. All what we hope now, is to use such an important style of studying for serving humanity and creation of better things helping the society and not to forgot to work hard for peace, in all

countries, worldwide..