Over the last few years, we have seen a change in climatic conditions across the world. This year, we were probably hit the worst. The Arctic blast brought record cold temperatures to Canada and the U.S.A; the Niagara Falls froze over; cities across US experienced extreme cold that had not been witnessed in decades. In the UK, the South-West of England was hit by severe storms; Australia experienced extreme heat and dry weather conditions.You are probably wondering why I am going on about the climatic conditions on an eLearning blog post. I’m coming to that. Given the fact that the climatic conditions are changing for the worse – and this is an ever-increasing trend, we will probably see a marked increase in the number of snow days, heat-waves- and-therefore-no-school days, towns-shut-down-due-to-storm days, etc., on the rise.The result: No school and therefore no learning; no work and therefore no training. And this is exactly the point of this article. All of us in the eLearning field have at some time or the other talked about the benefits of eLearning – we have tweeted, blogged, written eBooks, conducted surveys – we have done everything we can to promote eLearning. The climatic conditions that we experience today calls for all of us to turn to eLearning in a big way and gain all the eLearning benefits that we have been proclaiming thus far.
Top 6 eLearning Benefits for Weathering the Storm
As basic as it may seem, lets revisit some of the big benefits of eLearning that will soon be our ‘only’ hope when severe weather conditions cripple our lives and force us to stay indoors.
- Learn At Your Convenience
Anytime-anywhere learning – is a synonym used with eLearning that will allow us to continue learning even when we are stuck at home on ‘snow days’ or ‘hot days’. A recent and very interesting article published in USA Today stated that at least 5 states in the US are allowing ‘eLearning days’ (A new antidote for snow days: 'e-learning days') As the article states, this enables children to enjoy their complete summer vacation instead of having to be called into school in summer to make up for lost school days. - Learn On Your Device
The BYOD policy has in the recent years gained popularity not only in the classroom but in the corporate sector as well. With companies promoting the BYOD policy, employees can now catch up on their training needs on their own devices, not having to rely on ILT (instructor-led training). Training can take place right from the onboarding stage for new employees; skills can be learned; managers can devote time to their eLearning courses and ready themselves to climb the corporate ladder; and administrators can keep track of their learners’ learning from the comfort of their own homes. - Size Does Not Matter
HTML5 compliancy will allow learners to access learning on any type of device without having to worry about operating systems or screen sizes. Learning can be accessed on just about any device – PC, laptop, smartphone, tablets, etc. - Let’s Play
Game-based Learning - for the bored learner will provide hours of engaging, interactive fun and learning, while tucked under a warm quilt with a cup of hot cocoa! - No Connectivity?
Online/offline learning will come in handy when extreme climatic conditions disrupt wireless and internet services for days together. While our social lives come to a halt, learning will still continue. Offline course players will make sure that internet connectivity and low bandwidth do not hamper learning. - Floating On A Cloud
And for those who are worried about how to access all their learning with the meager storage capacity of their outdated PC, cloud computing will save the day.
The world has woken up to the efficacy of eLearning. Until now, eLearning has been an option – just one of the ways of learning. It won’t be long before it becomes the ‘only’ way to successful, uninterrupted learning.
