Over the past two decades we have seen a significant shift towards eLearning – especially in areas where the focus is on vocational training and the acquiring of job-related skills. Many of these skills have a large computer-oriented component, so that makes eLearning especially appropriate for this type of training.

ELearning is not just about teaching people how to use computers. Rather, it is about using computers to teach people virtually anything. But of course the most important question is “Why?” Why use computers to teach things when for centuries it was assumed the best way to learn was at the feet of a learned instructor? This really gets to the heart of the eLearning question. And as we will see, the question is not so much “Why?” as it is “Why Not?”

The first and most obvious advantage of eLearning is that for the most part it eliminates the need for the physical presence of a teacher in the learning process. Recorded media such as audio or video take the place of the teacher as the driving force that keeps the learning process going. This opens up all kinds of possibilities.

For instance in a typical classroom situation an instructor can effectively address only 25 or 30 individual students at any one time. It is true that in university settings this is often expanded to large groups of people where hundreds of students may be addressed by a single instructor. But this is hardly an optimal learning environment.

The same instructor can turn the same material into an eLearning course of study and simultaneously address thousands of learners. And of course that’s not the end of the story. These students are able to participate in the course of study at their own pace, and from their own locations – completely eliminating the need for classrooms, complex scheduling, or time and cost to travel back and forth to physical classrooms.

Web-based eLearning is also available to a much broader range of people from literally around the world. In many cases it also eliminates the need for the production and distribution of expensive text books or printed manuals.

ELearning can also be a richer, more versatile way to serve the needs of students with varying levels of skill, resources, and physical capabilities. Each individual learner can go at his or her own pace, skip material they consider irrelevant or less important, or take more time for things they find more difficult. This can go a long way towards eliminating frustration with themselves and their fellow learners.

One common criticism of eLearning programs is that they depersonalize the learning process. This happens first by removing the personal interaction between instructor and student, and second by eliminating the collaboration and social interaction that often goes on in a classroom environment between different students.

Technology that allows and encourages group participation and interaction is already widely used on websites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. And it is common practice for tele-conferences and seminars to include live audio and chat windows that give participants the opportunity to interact in real time. All of these are inexpensive techniques that make it possible to add interactivity and collaboration to virtually any eLearning program that requires it.

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