Cyberia

Online education will become more prominent in the future; and Virtual University of Pakistan looking forward for its share in the pie, urging people to continue their educational growth by providing several methods of learning and up-to-date curriculum of latest education trends for example MBA. However, it won’t replace traditional learning but enhance it.

Live training is becomingmore and more of a luxury these days. Many businesses and schools are turning to online learning for training and education because it is very cost effective, especially when you consider travel costs, and loss of work time. There are many reasons why online education will become more popular in the future. A positive aspect to online education is that one does not have to be in the physical space of a classroom. It allows people to take classes from anywhere they can access the Internet. “Life-long learning is becoming the norm, yet those seeking further education do not always have the time, flexibility, or mobility to attend traditional courses.”

Breaking the time/space barrier is a big reason why online learning is so revolutionary. More businesses will most likely take advantage of the online education in the Future. “Large Fortune-500 companies have all embarked on some form of online initiative, with a few setting up full-fledged virtual universities to impart training to their employees, partners and distributors”. (Krishnan) I think that these programs once designed will be a great way for companies to not only educate their employees with little man hours but also a great way to monitor their progress.

The potential of growth in the E-learning area is enormous. “E-learning has the potential to be the next killer application of the Net and in the words of John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, “the scale of network traffic generated by e-learning, will make today’s exchange of e-mail messages look like a rounding error”. With the increasing computer literacy around the world it will be seen as a great way to educate people because of the convenience and cost.

“Online education will grow because it meets the needs of new audience nontraditional students–and because it offers new approaches to old content-delivery issues. It won’t, however, replace educators, save tons of money, and eliminate the need for well maintained campus infrastructures (Reed).” The fact that online education will provide interactive and exciting new ways to deliver information is great.

“This is true of all the segments: K-12, graduate education, corporate training and continuing education. As we move to a connected and networked world, the Internet will become the primary tool for learning, suitably supported by the classroom and faculty (Krishnan).” It is necessary to accept the fact that Online Education is going to be around and a primary way of learning for a lot of people but only as a supplement for others.”

Ruth Clark said, sees these major trends in online learning: a return to the basics, and more interest in knowledge recycling and collaborative learning…and there is a trend away from high-end, custom-developed CD-ROM multimedia instruction.” I think that because you can do similar interactive pieces online they are moving away from CD-ROM’s. In online education, pictures, graphs, music and all of the interactive aspects make it very valuable and good way to learn for visual learners. Just having the Internet at your fingertips for searching is a huge resource.

In the future online learning will move towards simplicity and ease of use. “The next wave of online learning will provide freedom and guidance…online learners will receive customized help in muddling through rich options (Abernathy).” We are also moving towards a time of total integration. The learning support resources will be included and utilized in the applications.

Online Learning is a very exciting and growing field that will continue to grow and succeed in the future. Although it won’t replace traditional learning, it will become more prominent and useful.