E-learning can provide more obvious advantages for using in this present-day. However, there are some disadvantages occur when we consider e-learning in the opposite side.
Advantages of e-learning
1. Flexibility and convenience: students can access an e-learning course anywhere, anytime and learn as much as they need.
2. Travel costs and savings: there are no travel costs for bringing remote students to a centralized place.
3. Ease of updating information: it is very easy to change the information, because the changes are made on the servers storing the program or courseware.
4. Inexpensive worldwide distribution: there is no need for a separate distribution mechanism and internet is widely available to use for e-learning nowadays.
5. Increase of number of students without demands on extension of teaching capacities: students are able to proceed through a program at their own places and instructors are not held by geographic boundaries.
6. A possibility of exploitation of new forms of communication: an e-learning course gives students to have opportunities to share experiences among students as well as between students and instructors.
Disadvantages of e-learning
1. Bandwidth limitations: long waits for download that can affect the ease of the learning process.
2. Loss of human contact: students only move towards more computer usage for an e-learning course.
3. Too static: the level of interactivity in the e-learning course is often too limited.
4. Not all courses are delivered well by computer: some learning topics are not best served by computer based learning and require a more personal touch.
5. Progress of e-learnong quality: the quality of many e-learning courses are still not better than many years ago. Because focus is often on how to develop a lot of courses and not on how to improve the quality of learning.
6. Confusion about technology: as e-learning is delivered to students via a computer using internet technologies, some students who lack of ICT skills may have the problems in this type of learning.
I don't think bandwidth is going to be a problem much longer, access to high speed internet is usually part of a phone package or a cable setup, and if a person has neither of these its usually because they have some form of alternative. I will admit there is a lost of person to person contact through e-learning, but I feel that is part of the current culture and online society and not strictly with e-learning.
ReplyDeleteNattee.. Thanks for these lists of advantages and disavantages. I agree with most of the advantages but some points in the disavatages list are not main problems, according to me. E-learning may be limited in interaction with others but I don't think it's too limited. However, the points you mention here are very useful for development of e-learning!
ReplyDeleteTravel costs and savings must be biggest advantage and quality big disadvantage
ReplyDeletein the link you gave it said
ReplyDeleteLoss of human contact. There is a general concern that as we move towards more computer
usage,
This is my concern as well
Aiabramo!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I agree with you that bandwidth is not more affected e-learning, especially e-learning in the future.
Brother Thinnakorn!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I agree with you that the disadvantages of e-learning are not very serious and the advantages of e-learning are still more dominant.
Sirinuch!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I agree with you that using more computer is made us loss human contact.