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The Common Misconceptions of Online Learning

The Common Misconceptions of Online Learning

With the evolution of the internet, and the societal adoption of online culture, it was only a matter of time before the educational realm decided to start incorporating the online world into everyday teaching methods. But the adverse seems to have occurred, where traditional learning and teaching is being abandoned by students in favor of a more autonomous educational form – online learning.

Although there is a biased shift towards online learning trends as a means of receiving quick certification, there are still a lot of unresolved myths surrounding the online medium. Here a few misconceptions commonly made about seeking qualifications online:

Online learning is easier because it is quicker

A lot of students who seek online certification do so without properly doing their course research based on the assumption that because online courses present themselves expressly, with no face-to-face element coupled with the obvious availability of internet search engines at their alacritous fingertips, the courses will be much easier. The fact is, online courses, in particular the express online courses are far more demanding of the individual. Before you partake in an online course or degree that you have paid for, be prepared to cover a vast amount of information requiring a high retention rate. After all, they are tests… Designed to test you!

The quality of online classes is lower than traditionally taught courses

This is another assumption about online training that is simply untrue. Why? Well, as mentioned above, a majority of online courses require you to cover a lot of content within a short period of time, thus demanding a higher retention rate. Genuine online institutions and distance learning programs will normally have entire departments allocated to the regulation of course content, the design and the structure of academic criteria.

The only time online training courses will be of a poor quality will be if they are scams, and there are a number of indicators that give this type of thing away. Do your research before enrolling; check their affiliation with certified educational bodies, the accreditation of the institution and even some of their customer testimonials. If any of this seems bogus, the answer is simple – look elsewhere.

Take a look at this example: etrainu.com is an online training website with national accreditation in Australia. Take note of the references to the nationally recognised accreditation of their courses, as well some of the customer testimonials included throughout the site pages.

No help in cyberspace!

It’s a fair assumption that online education involves a high degree, if not a complete level, of autonomous learning. But again, this is another misconception preconceived by many students sitting on the fence with their decision to seek certification via an online institution. A lot of online institutions will provide you with study guides and comprehensive tech support both via the web and over the phone. Need to go higher than just a general enquiry? That’s ok; a lot of educational institutions will give you advisory contacts who can directly address your course specific enquiries.

Online education is only for people in remote areas?

Not necessarily. While online education is designed to reach people in the most remote regions nationally, you’ll find that most courses have been designed for students seeking industry certifications and course abridgments. A lot of online courses are specifically designed to meet industry needs, and should therefore be seen as career building, more so than remote schooling.

I need to know a lot about computers to do an online course?

No, you don’t. Online institutions understand that some of their users may only have basic web-based knowledge, therefore online course modules have been constructed to make life as easy as possible for users. Navigation is made relatively easy, and instructions are always specific to the point and highly lucid.

Thanks for reading, I hope you found this helpful in your decision making!

 

 

 

If Web 2.0 were that easy, we would have done it already

Let's get straight into it, shall we? The internet is a powerful, impressionable and highly malleable corporate playground that will forever change shape to fit the culture of those who use it. The internet, althought young, is a shape-shifter. A prime example of such shape-shifting is highly prevalent in the existing Web 2.0 aesthetic. For the oblivious readers, Web 2.0 is essentially just a colloquial term to describe a movement from first generation internet to the second (obviously), but this little transformation entails a different emphasis on the way the web conducts itself. Web 2.0 emphasises usability, and usability means simple designs and heightened functionality. In summation, a lot of good has come out of it but there has also been a lot of garbage as well.

I'm sick of reading articles and blogs emphasising how easy it is to achieve absurd levels of success through web 2.0...  If web 2.0 were that easy, we would have all made millions and would have done it already. It is in this simple, yet astute observation that we can siphon through the Web 2.0 dumping ground to uncover a couple of simple truths.

Firstly, from a technical point of view, Web 2.0 is a complete paradox of itself. How? Well, people want simple designs but with heightened functionality. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Not really... Programmers (not so much designers) and their innovative ability are being pushed to their limit in putting together the cogs that power such 'simple' designs. This is unquestionably great for the development of the internet, but yeah, it's a tiresome effort!

Secondly, 'making money' on the internet involves the sheep-like following of highly ambiguous 'success' formulas that seem to do nothing more than contribute to the mass of cyber-pollution that seems to be building a larger ball of garbage that is perpetually hurling faster and faster down the slopes of the Web 2.0 mountain. I'll tell you the truth about these formulas, as they all have a hidden, underlying message that many people seem to surpass in their absorption of regurgitated content. When someone on the internet says "Buy my book, it will teach you how to build a following on twitter" what they actually mean is "hey, I'm making money off of the folly of of uneductaed users buying their way into Web 2.0, you should too by publishing your own crappy e-book and baiting it to the flock." I guess you could say that the most notorious offenders in this category of Web 2.0 fall under 'social media', but they are the users abusing it incorrectly. Social Media is the best thing that happened to the internet, however like all existing media avenues, there are ways to abuse it to your own advantage. Companies and individuals are more than entitled to use social media to advertise, because they actually offer a service or product on the internet - hell, I'm even going to link back to one of my clients at the end of this post. The thing is, though, offering a genuine product or service isn't preying on your average Joe Blow of Web 2.0, who doesn't know their left foot from their right foot by saying that making money on the web is easy - cos it's not.

Making money involves hard work, and ingenuity. Not every person possesses the same level of innovation as others out there. I for one, am sick of seeing certain bloggers and designers, mass marketing the simplicity of innovation to hordes of readers entranced by the success of other people. Tell it like it is. Look at it this way, if you want to know how a car runs - Do you analyse the body or the engine? Bloggers need to be more informative about the gearing of Web 2.0, rather than coaxing people to buy into the deception of its 'simplicity'. Omitting the mechanics of your online success only makes the garbage ball bigger.

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