Analysis
E-learning: Technical advantage
By Sadia Jabeen
Unfortunately, throughout the last decade, most attempts to use technology to facilitate higher education all over the world and Pakistan have been very haphazard due to the lack of proper implementation. Today, however, technology is creating a new educational platform and is reconfiguring the way a student learns. Learning through information technology is evolving a new era of education all over the world.
Open and distance e-learning is one of the most rapidly growing fields of education, and its potentials impact on all education delivery systems has been greatly accentuated through the development of internet-based information technology. This is nothing short of a blessing as for students distance e-learning means increased access; it may also mean a more learner-centered approach, enrichment, higher quality and new ways of interaction.
In this regard, the Virtual University of Pakistan is generating new patterns of teaching and learning through information technology. Along with this the Allama Iqbal Open University is also contributing a lot towards the development of e-learning.
Learning through information technology leads to innovation in mainstream education and may even have effects beyond the realm of education itself in Pakistan. For instance, this form of teaching and learning has the key advantage of reaching many geographically distant people at a single instance thus playing a significant role in the creation of a global knowledge-based society.
The fee structure in case of e-learning is quite different from conventional fee structures. It is widely assumed that students involved in e-learning programmes should pay a higher proportion of the costs than conventional students since they are provided with world class education at the door steps at a very low cost. However, the virtual university of Pakistan has set a good example against this assumption by providing fairly inexpensive and quality education to even the remote areas.
To the students, e-learning offers freedom of access and thereby a wider range of opportunities for learning. Besides, e-learning is also provides equal learning opportunities irrespective of financial and personal constraints, cultural and social barriers and lack of educational infrastructure. Above all, it is a cheaper alternative to the conventional educational setup.
Since many people who are employed cannot afford to leave their work in order to study, therefore, it is important that e-learning should be made work friendly. In this case it will lead to professional development in the workplace and will allow upgrading of skills, increased productivity and development of a new learning culture.
Unlike the concept of virtual university, where teachers educate a large number of varying individuals, conventional universities still believe that learning is dependent on a single informed person imparting information by word of mouth to a small group of listeners in a classroom.
It is due to these numerous benefits that e-learning has been gaining acceptance within the mainstream education and in this modern age, it is an important form of future education and training systems.
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