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E-learning vs. Face to Face
The Great Debate
E-learning versus traditional learning (face-to-face) has become a great debate in the digital age. Many are divided over such a debate and some choose one over the other. Perhaps there is no clear answer here, so neither and both are viable options.
When it comes to aged care, e-learning has gained popularity as it is perceived as a cost-effective strategy to ensure all staff have access to standardised current material without requiring replacement of staff on shift work. On the other hand, face to face enables staff to contextualise the information and challenge their own practice therefore increasing the likelihood of changing behaviour.
8 Principles of Adult Learning
According to research, andragogy (engaging adults in the learning experience by Malcolm Knowles), face-to-face learning enables the 8 principles of adult learning:
1. Self-directing
– Adults are autonomous and self-governed; they need to know the purpose and benefits and to be actively involved in the learning giving them control of how and how much they learn.
2. Learn by doing – Adults learn through direct experience; therefore, learning must include active and practical participation to immediately improve them.
3. Relevance – Adult engagement relates to how clearly and immediately useful the learning is to their lives and business. How will this help me do my job better, faster, lead to a promotion?
4. Experience – Adult learners need to be able to draw upon their past experiences to aid their learning. Training needs to be contextualised in a language they are familiar with. Discussing scenarios and their own experiences assists with the effective absorption of new material.
5. All of the senses– Adult learners need multi-sensory learning and teaching methodologies. A combination of auditory, visual and kinesthetic enables individual learning preferences.
2. Learn by doing – Adults learn through direct experience; therefore, learning must include active and practical participation to immediately improve them.
3. Relevance – Adult engagement relates to how clearly and immediately useful the learning is to their lives and business. How will this help me do my job better, faster, lead to a promotion?
4. Experience – Adult learners need to be able to draw upon their past experiences to aid their learning. Training needs to be contextualised in a language they are familiar with. Discussing scenarios and their own experiences assists with the effective absorption of new material.
5. All of the senses– Adult learners need multi-sensory learning and teaching methodologies. A combination of auditory, visual and kinesthetic enables individual learning preferences.
6. Practice
– Adult learners often engage in learning as a problem must be solved. Practicing skills in a controlled environment allows them to develop competency in new tasks that prepare them to act autonomously outside of the learning environment.
7. Personal development– The personal quest for improvement impacts on the engagement of learning. For some it may lead for promotions, for others just the pleasure of learning something new.
8. Involvement–
Adults need to feel as though they have a sense of responsibility, control and decision-making over their learning by being involved in the planning and evaluation. In terms of education, this requires flexibility of the learning situation, the learning program and most importantly, the educator to directly involve the participant in a way that allows them to have a degree of control over what they do, or, in fact, how much they learn.
Advantages and Disadvantages of E-learning
Like with so many things in life you will find there are always advantages and disadvantages. Below we have listed the important ones for E-learning:
Advantages of E- learning
Research conducted seems to suggest that the advantages are the following: These consist of the following:
- Access to current and diverse information
- Information is accessible at multiple locations
- Potential for reduced staff costs
- Learners undergo contemplation
- Remoteness and lack of interaction requires strong inspiration
- Overall new skillset developed in time
Disadvantages of E-learning
According to academic research carried out by Dowling et al. (2003), Mayers (2002), (Young, 1997; Burdman, 1998) and Almosa (2002) it was found that the disadvantages are:
- Learning is improved only for specific forms of collective assessment
- Lack of personal interaction (induces isolation and loneliness)
- Less room for clarification of explanations and interpretations
- Lack of communication as educators might not translate it well digitally
- Cheating will be hard to control due to use of proxy
- Piracy and plagiarism is a big risk
- Ease of copy and paste
- Teamwork is generally eroded
- Socialisation is eroded between instructors, mentors and students
- Practical skills are harder to attain as in the case of medical science and pharmacy
