The Rise of Online Learning During the Pandemic

Posted September 15, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought us to the state where we must do most of our work and school tasks remotely. The pandemic has changed education forever. Although it has forced us to social distance , I think it has provided learners with a sense of connection and commitment to the community and society similar to the way social media platforms do. The sense of community that we are all connected through “social” platforms is just amazing as it sounds. Technology has transformed the world by making life easier for some people who are able to access it.

According to the World Economic Forum, three main points have been raised:

“COVID-19 has resulted in schools being shut all across the world. Globally, over 1.2 billion children are out of the classroom.“
“As a result, education has changed dramatically, with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms.“
“Research suggests that online learning has been shown to increase retention of information, and take less time, meaning the changes coronavirus have caused might be here to stay.“

The change is drastic, even though I have adapted to this new style of learning.

Here are some pros and cons to online learning.

Benefits:

Education is more flexible, which in turn makes education more inclusive
Students with disabilities benefit significantly from the availability of online learning
The use of technology appeals to newer generations of students
Large amounts of information can be provided digitally
Online learning is a great way to develop skills as well.

Challenges:

Obligatory transition to online classes may cause lower enrollment rates in universities and colleges
Less attention is given to people on screens than those in a face-to-face setting
Technical difficulties can be a barrier to accessing and proper functioning of courses
Accessibility is limited

There are so many organizations, companies out there, that provide online learning in the form of Courses.

One of the best organizations out there is New Heights Educational Group

New Heights Educational Group, Inc., promotes literacy for children and adults by offering a range of educational support services. Such services include the following: assisting families in the selection of schools; organization of educational activities; and acquisition of materials. We promote a healthy learning environment and various enrichment programs for families of preschool and school-age children, including children with special needs.

NHEG Mission

We believe that a child’s high-quality school experience includes exposure to diverse people, topics and learning adventures. Therefore, our goal is to provide a social/informational framework where parents and students can share educational resources, group activities, field trips, magazines, comic book, meetings, and email/chatroom discussions or where students of any age can receive tutoring.

A few other notable companies

Coursera

“Coursera is a world-wide online learning platform founded in 2012 by Stanford University’s computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller that offers massive open online courses, specializations, degrees, professional and master track courses.”

Udemy

“Udemy, founded in May 2010, is an online learning platform aimed at professional adults and students. As of Jan 2020, the platform has more than 50 million students and 57,000 instructors teaching courses in over 65 languages. There have been over 295 million course enrollments.”

Future Learn

“FutureLearn is a digital educational platform founded in December 2012. The company is jointly owned by The Open University and SEEK Ltd. It is a Massive Open Online Course learning platform, and as of June 2020 included 175 UK and International partners, including non- university partners. FutureLearn connects people and ideas through the best free online best courses in the world.”

Lynda

“Lynda is a leading online learning platform that helps anyone learn business, software, technology and creative skills to achieve personal and professional goals. Through individuAL, corporate, academic and governmental subscriptions, members have access to individual, corporate, academic and governmental subscriptions, members have access to the Lynda.com video library of engaging, top quality, top- quality courses taught by recognized industry experts. For 20 years, Lynda has helped students, leaders, IT and design pros, project managers- anyone in any role- develop software, creative, and business skills. Now part of Linkedin, Lynda serves more than 10,000 organizations. With tutorials in five languages, Lynda is a global platform for success.”

Skillshare

“Skillshare is an American online learning community for people who want to learn from educational videos. The courses, which are not accredited, are available through subscription. The majority of courses focus on interaction rather than lecturing, with the primary goal of learning by completing a project.”

Udacity

“Advance your career with online courses in programming, data science, artificial intelligence, digital marketing, and more. Built with industry leaders.”

edX

“edX is a massive open online course provider created by Harvard and MIT. It hosts online university-level courses in a wide range of disciplines to a worldwide student body, including some courses at no charge. It also conducts research into learning based on how people use its platform.”

LinkedIn Learning

“LinkedIn Learning is an American website offering video courses taught by industry experts in software, creative, and business skills. It is a subsidiary of LinkedIn. It was founded in 1995 by Lynda Weinman as Lynda.com before being acquired by LinkedIn in 2015. Microsoft acquired LinkedIn in December 2016.”

Shaw Academy

“Shaw Academy is a privately owned online education organisation based in Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 2013, Shaw Academy provides online courses which are audio/video recorded and deliver them to students through scheduled webinar times. Hone your skills & get certified in photography, design, nutrition, business & much more.”

Alison

“ALISON is a free online education platform that mostly focuses on workplace-based skills. It was founded in Galway, Ireland by Irish social entrepreneur Mike Feerick on 21 April 2007. It has 14 million registered learners, 2 million graduates and 1,500 courses available for free access in March 2020.

Free online courses with certificates. Join 2 million graduates and empower your career. Study, learn, certify, upskill with free online learning and training.”

Online learning is a great way to develop skills as well. Below are some of the types of courses you can take.

Learn a New Skill- Communication, Leadership, Confidence, Interview
IT/Coding/Games/Design
Learn a Language- French, Spanish, Latin, English, and more…
Creative/Art/Design/Media
Literature/Media/Writing
Music.
Sport/Fitness/Dance

As mentioned before, online learning has its own advantages and disadvantages, But, for me, it’s a lot harder to concentrate when I am around a lot of people. So it’s beneficial for me to learn in a quiet place. Although I have access to the internet and technology, I am aware that there are millions of people who don’t. I feel bad about that, and I hope I can do something for them.

Small things I am planning to do:

provide helpful study resources for free to people in need
Give free access to internet connections
Help educate by tutoring for free of charge
Post helpful and inspirational videos on Youtube channels
Write a lot of educational articles

Well, by starting accomplishing these small steps, I hope that I am able to create a workspace that will have a positive impact on people, not just around my community, but around the world.

American Author Brian Herbert, has a famous saying: “The capacity to learn is a GIFT; the ability to learn is a SKILL; the willingness to learn is a CHOICE”. This proves that learning never stops, as we are capable of attaining a tremendous amount of knowledge.

Highly Recommended Links: