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As a facilitator of education, I always have time constraints in getting the lessons out to each one of my students. Teaching is definitely a high pressure job. At the end of class, students are always left with questions. Feeling stretched is not something I feel alone, plenty of my colleagues feel the same way.

Call me opinionated, but as a student, a mother of three high school teens, and an instructor, I have come to believe that there are three types of teachers:

• Those who hate their job and are holding out for their pension
• Those who could think of worse things to do and are generally satisfied
• And then there are the rest of us who love teaching. We actually love it when the students learn. We love that “aha moment”, when the student goes from confusion to understanding.

I personally love intertwining examples that pertain to the students’ lives, and the concepts we are covering in class.

Like many education facilitators, I have an ulterior motive while I am teaching. I want to push the students past just listening. I like to answer the age-old question, “When will I ever use this in real life?” Like sneaking nutrient-packed shredded veggies into spaghetti sauce, I get a kick out of students stretching their brains to win a competitive game in class that is designed solely around lesson content.

So, why elearning?

When teaching the same course successively, I spend a lot of time repeating  information and answering the same questions from different angles. Sometimes a particular class needs more time on a unit, and other times we could skip a unit. Adults ask for sources of more information so they can study at home. Elearning, when done well, solves these problems all at once. Elearning:

• Provides engaging learning experiences
• Students have a direct interaction with the lessons
• There is real time application of the materials learned
• Students can repeat the learning at their own pace
• More time for me to interact with students on an individual basis.

In addition to all of the above, elearning caters particularly to things that adults value. Many adults would rather not have moments when they feel that they do not know anything. Calling on adult students in class to answer questions they don’t know puts them on the spot and may cause embarrassment. Elearning resolves this issue.

Elearning saves adults a lot of travel time. Our current real estate prices have pushed families further away from schools than before. Taking night classes often leave adults out of the house and away from their families until late at night, so that all they can do when they get home is sleep. Adults taking courses on top of their full-time jobs only see their kids on the weekends.

Elearning keeps materials audio visual. Instead of always hearing the same instructor’s voice, elearning provides variety, gives the lessons more engaging graphics, and allows students to participate in games and simulations.

What does tech say?

The state of technology today is a global phenomenon that will change our culture forever. The According to GSMA Intelligence in their report “The Mobile Economy 2015” (http://www.gsmamobileeconomy.com/GSMA_Global_Mobile_Economy_Report_2015.pdf):

“The mobile industry continues to scale rapidly, with a total of 3.6 billion unique mobile subscribers at the end of 2014. Half of the world’s population now has a mobile subscription—up from just one in five 10 years ago. An additional one billion subscribers are predicted by 2020, taking the global penetration rate to approximately 60%.”

This means more people will have potential connection to the internet than won’t. With all of this in mind, I want to learn the best practices of elearning to leverage this culture shift to the student’s advantage.

Of course, as with everything in life, balance is of utmost concern. There must be a balance of time I have with students, financial resources, time for elearning projects, and the amount of content in a course.

I am going to leverage the latest technology to make the most of each of these.

If you are interested in studying  elearning design, creation and management join our  free Learning Basics Video series, we will teach you how to use eLearning technology to make your own eLearning solutions.

Follow me on eLearning Squared on LinkedIn or Twitter@alpineblossom,@elearningfeed to be notified when a new video is published. Or view the training online on our website at www.eLearningSquared.com.