The power of distance learning
For a very long time, traditional methods of learning have dominated the educational space of our society. They have been able to do so because the traditional forms of learning have been tried and tested and proven they not only effective but sustainable while being used for teaching billions of students over the years.
However, as is the case with all other forms of societal structures- technology always catches up to them in order to make their flaws and limitations apparent that aren’t always obvious immediately- we are in the internet age and a paradigm shift is being observed right now from a present dominated by traditional teaching towards a future of distance learning.
The advent of the internet age made it clear that information flow among the world’s population would rapidly increase- as a matter of fact, we have a specialized term for too much information being dumped for consumption now “infobesity”. While this seems like a negative influence as our already limited attention span is now flooded with heaps of information that is relatively unfiltered but the reality is quite different and perhaps one that gives us a little more hope for a better future.
Distance learning came up as a solution to make learning, or rather the right to knowledge and education globally available, getting people a means to educate themselves in places where setting up a classroom even- yes, not a school, just a classroom by itself is difficult. But soon, we realized that distance learning can solve a lot more problems than just bringing education to the table for the far-out places.
Distance learning courses grew more intricate and detailed with time and over the years what was just a bunch of universities offering Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) to encourage education and learning, turned into an entire bachelor’s and master’s degree courses that can be completed in their entirety online legitimately.
Distance learning saves the day in a global pandemic
A future of distance learning seems obvious- and one of the reasons for this was how it became a way out for getting the academic year back on track towards completion. The effect of COVID-19 has been really varying amongst the universities and schools- a variety of challenges such as the unavailability of the required technical equipment for distance learning for some of the underprivileged students across the globe, the untrained faculty that aren’t used to teaching over an online medium and most importantly the courses that aren’t natively designed to be distance learning courses and involve activities and course work that is mostly physical in nature has seen a hard time adapting to the new medium.
Despite all these setbacks, distance learning has managed to come out on top and cement its position as a solution that can manage the progression of studies without the risk of just maintaining social distancing. While it has recently through new statistical research it has come to light that asymptomatic people can’t transmit the virus as previously thought, it would be unwise to just open the flood gates and let loose- distance learning is the modus operandi in the meanwhile.
Distance learning as the new norm in education
There are obstructions in education still, such as uninterested students exploiting the flawed proctoring resources available in these online classrooms and distance learning’s limited ability to deliver practical experience from laboratory sessions and workshops- webinars and online workshops can cover for it to some extent yet there is this disparity in the results from both of these sources and they are remarkable enough to mention.
Yet the pandemic has flooded the Ed-Tech industry with a large audience with all these eyes peeled at the screens and equally large cash flow- a large amount of investment is being made towards R&D in the distance learning courses, the structure of these courses and the platforms used to convey the information.
It is safe to say that within the next decade the majority of the “flaws” of distance learning will be overcome and even earlier than a decade’s time- we’ll see distance learning replace the traditional forms of education and gain traction as the mode of choice- that will lead into distance learning becoming the new norm in education.
