Is Online Learning for Me

The year may be coming to an end for schools and universities but to many of us in the education game that means very little thanks to online learning. What it does mean is that we have more time to prepare and that goes for students too. The SATs will soon be a distant memory while school books will find their way into the bottom of wardrobes and drawers: lost, forgotten and in some extreme cases destroyed in a fit of ecstasy. But what if you had done the majority of your study and note taking online? Go you, those notes have remained safe and intact.   While your classmates or colleagues search frantically for their scrunched up notes, you’re conducting a simple login and click and voila, everything is right where you left it. This is the current situation for many students and teachers across America. Paperbacks and pencils are being replaced by tablets and keyboards. If you are one of those then hello, if not, let us show you how you can benefit from online learning. It doesn’t matter if you are studying for the SAT, the ACT or a graduate exam. Heck, we even have professionals using online platforms for their continuous assessment. But it’s not all about just learning; it’s also about collaborating, sharing, creating and inspiring. As I mentioned, the summer time has traditionally been known as a time when books get closed and the brain switches off. However, people are without a doubt becoming more driven and competitive. Many want to get a head start on their upcoming semester or work year. They may have employment plans or opportunities. There may be ideas afoot to go travelling or, worst case scenario, there may be test repeats. Either way, each of these scenarios share something in common: the need to learn over the summer months. While some schools, tutors and other sources of learning shut up shop, online learning remains open 24 hours   a day seven days a week 365 days a year. In the next 5 points, I am going to show you how online learning can benefit you. By the end, if you think it’s something that is for you, your next stop should be Magoosh for exam experts and ExamTime for the free learning tools. Happy studying folks: 1. As we mentioned, online learning allows people to study almost anywhere and at any time. Gone are the days when websites were poorly optimized and took an age to load. Now, as test day approaches you can be flicking through flashcards as you sit on the bus, you can be chatting with tutors in a safe online environment. The walls of limitation have been pulled down and you can learn around the clock. 2. Collaboration has multiple benefits. While tomorrows workforce are still at school and university, who said they can’t be engaging in activities that will make them great team players? Online learning once again provides that opportunity in the form of sharing and collaboration. Study groups, tutorial rooms and forum discussions allow students to voice their opinion on a subject, ask for assistance, and exchange notes. Traditionally if someone needed assistance with something after hours, they would have to wait till the following day for that help. Now, thanks to the likes of Magoosh and ExamTime, those answers can be obtained online through groups and hangouts. 3. Bar a power outage or your mobile/ table battery running flat, access to your notes, results, questions, tutors, peers and study aids is readily available. A weekend away or an unforeseen event shouldn’t mean that your material is not at hand. We are all guilty at some point in life of forgetfulness but with internet access being so readily available—you guessed it—so too are your notes. Just get online, log in, and your notes are ready to go. 4. While students may think they are simply going through the motions of a teacher’s request, they are in fact learning key skills that are equipping them for a future in our workforce. The simple act of using a keyboard, surfing the internet, creating and saving files, creating study plans and seeing that they are executed on time are all activities that are representative of what will be required of them in later life. Developing teamwork skills through project collaboration and allowing creativity to take over are abilities that traditional methods of learning did not always provide. 5. Finally, the trust factor. Our students are always maturing but even the simple process of allowing them to engage in online learning enhances that progression.   They are presented with the opportunity to display real accountability and trust. However, thanks to cutting edge tracking and monitoring tools that the likes of ExamTime offer, tutors and teachers are always on hand to make sure everything is running safe and smoothly. If you engage in online learning please let us know how it benefits you. If you don’t currently use online platforms for learning, would you consider it and what are your reasons for not using it? Below is a simple slideshare that we encourage you all to share and embed if you are promoting online learning. 5 good reasons for online learning and then some from pm1e Author Bio: Philip is an online specialist with ExamTime who enjoys a healthy mix between the great outdoors and the tech world. Connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.