Because of the availability of the Internet and the increasing availability of e-learning training, people today often wonder whether online learning is becoming a much better substitute for traditional class room training in the area of IT. In this article, you will discover which of these learning options delivers the most benefit to the modern learner.

The Difference

Before we go deeper into the competition, it is most appropriate to differentiate between elearning and classroom training. To start with, online education and learning or more commonly known as e-learning, is the term for any kind of learning process that utilizes electronic media. This kind of media typically refers to the Internet, but it can also encompass the use of stored education content in the form of instructional videos, e-books, as well as graphics, as long as it's computer-based or digital-based.

Class room teaching or training is definitely known to almost everyone. When compared to on line education, it takes the employment of teachers, classrooms, training laboratories, etcetera. Typically, a person has to join a specific course and follow the rules of the school with this type of environment. Also, the student is required to pay for tuition and other school fees before he or she can start going to the classroom.

Effectiveness

Schools these days quite often lack trained trainers who can genuinely teach students on a variety of IT subjects, such as programming, networking, web development, and so on. The content of each lesson typically varies depending on the instructor and the program made available from the school. That is why, this sort of setting can often be lacking in numerous important aspects of IT education. On the other hand, each student can easily collaborate with the trainer and the other students anytime during classes. This makes the class room more suited to the social needs of enrollees.

Online IT training, on the flip side, provides a more robust foundation for the trainees since the content of the lessons usually originates from genuine experts in various fields of IT. The content used in e-learning is also quite consistent as well as pretty-much up-to-date. Having said that, elearning can be isolating for the student. Even so, there are online alternatives to the social isolation including the employment of social networks, discussion boards, video conferencing, chat, and so on.

Cost

When considering classroom education, there are various things that the students need to pay for. For starters, they have to pay their instructors (as part of the school fees), institution fees, books, uniforms, daily drive to the university, possibly housing, and so forth. If you add together the cost of attending a traditional classroom, the expenses can really add up.

In e-learning, you can utilize re-usable course content again and again. In case you forgot a vital part of a specific lesson, you can simply go over it again. Online training doesn't require you to ride a school bus or drive a car daily. You don't have to invest in textbooks or uniforms. In fact, you can wear your pj's and still receive the training you need. All you have to pay for are the e-learning materials, your computer or laptop, and access to the internet. You may literally spend thousands of dollars in the typical classroom setting, but you undoubtedly save thousands if you choose online IT courses instead.

Motivation

In a typical classroom setting, all students are considered equal. The learning pace in the classroom relies upon the entire group and not on one student. Everything has to be established through the group. The choices made by the group have to be followed, even if you, as part of the group, do not like the choices made. The entire learning discipline will be impacted by the group as well.

In an e-learning environment, you set the pace for learning. There is no need to advance to a more advanced lesson until you have mastered the prior lessons and the choice of topics to master is always yours. On the other hand, you need to set the learning discipline by yourself, which may be challenging, given that there are quite a few temptations which may distract you from studying.

Final result

Online training or e-learning clearly has far better advantages over classroom learning. E-learning is cost-efficient, flexible, and very dependent on the learner and his or her motivation to learn. Even though the student may usually have to learn in isolation, e-learning does have more pros that over-shadow the cons significantly.