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ELEARNING IS THE FACE OF ‘MODERN LEARNING’
Published on June 05, 2020
In the 21st century, learning through virtual classroom has become a blessing for both the education and corporate sectors. From April to June, Singapore went through the Circuit Breaker which required everyone to work and study at home. Elearning allows teachers/trainers and content providers to connect with students across the world through online platforms while delivering to them high engaging quality content. Even as Singapore enters into Phase 1 under its phased reopening, eLearning remains a big part of the students’ lives. Students in primary and secondary school take turns to head back to schools for classroom-based learning, while students in the higher education continues to have home-based learning (Chang, 2020).
One of the most important contributions of eLearning is that a student, professional, or individual can learn any topic of interest anywhere, anytime, with minimal restrictions. One simply needs two things – internet connection and a device to go online. ELearning coupled with the use of Learning Management System (LMS) allows the teachers/trainers to track the progress that the learners have made, assign materials/courses to the learners and most importantly, enable them to learn in a pleasant online environment (Your Training Edge, 2019).
Having undergo weeks of eLearning, the advantages of a virtual classroom are clear.
Virtual Classrooms allow the sharing of data in various formats – from basic documentation to learning courses to advanced audio/video presentations. Learning online used to passive, as learners simply listen to a pre-recorded lesson, and complete a mini quiz to gauge their understanding of the lesson. In fact, learners will use discussion boards to post their questions and wait for the teacher / other students to reply. With Virtual Classroom, learners are engaged in active learning whereby they can ask questions and receive answers in real time. This solves the issue of “If they cannot ask a question immediately, they may never get the chance” again (Pappas, 2019, para. 6).
Virtual Classrooms allow integration of up-to-date teleconferencing applications (e.g. Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Skype, etc.) that allows learners to see their instructors on their devices into LMS. These applications are external to the LMS, and without the integration, learners would need to toggle between tabs to access their lesson materials in the LMS and to pay attention to the lesson. Additionally, bandwidth is also another concern, as almost everyone is working or studying from home. Any issues with their internet connection is major, as it disrupts their lessons or work. Thus, it would be easier to manage when the interface exists within the LMS as it uses lesser bandwidth in comparison (Pappas, 2019).
ELearning used to “good-to-have”. Back in 2014, Singapore Polytechnic students go through one day of eLearning as many of the students were involved in helping out with the Open House. What started out as a one day of eLearning has now become weeks of eLearning for the students. Today, they have just completed their 7th week of home-based learning (Singapore Polytechnic, 2020). ELearning is the face of ‘modern learning’.
About LOOP Learning Management System
LOOP which means “Learners Online, Online Producers” is newly launched to play a role in this new digital market. It is a simple to use learning management system that can be easily adopted by all entities at a small investment cost. We do have ready content (courses) that can be loaded onto our learning management system for any entity to commence virtual training for their stakeholders immediately. Thus, LOOP has been created to meet the needs of the entities!
To find out more about LOOP: https://www.loop.asia/
References
Chang, A. (2020). Streets and schools come alive again as Singapore reopens. Retrieved from Straits Times: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/streets-and-schools-come-alive-again-as-singapore-reopens.
Pappas, C. (2019). 7 Tips To Choose The Best Virtual Classroom LMS For Your Organization. Retrieved from eLearning Industry: https://elearningindustry.com/tips-choose-best-virtual-classroom-lms-learning-management-system-organization.
Singapore Polytechnic. (2020). Academic Calendar. Retrieved from Singapore Polytechnic: https://www.sp.edu.sg/sp/student-services/academic-calendar.
Your Training Edge. (2019). Is E-Learning Possible Without Learning Management System?. Retrieved from Your Training Edge: https://www.yourtrainingedge.com/is-e-learning-possible-without-learning-management-system/.