In 2019, long before the global pandemic took us back to our caves, close to 2.7 million students from different colleges and universities enrolled in online classes and sat through their lectures with minimal supervision.
That number has gone high post Covid-19, and it’s a clear indication that online classes are as significant as brick and mortar education.
Online learning has done more than pulling together individuals from different backgrounds into the same learning space. It has also given rise to hundreds of E-learning courses, giving prospecting students different options to consider.
Given the variations in structure, timeline, limitations, and deliveries, it’s important to choose an online course that gives you the flexibility you need to pursue an education while focusing on your personal schedule.
In the following section, we’ll give you some useful tips to pick an E-learning course that’s suitable for you.
How to Choose the Best Online Course
The right way to choose an online course is to consider four significant factors, which are scheduled vs self-paced learning, peer interaction, cost, and reviews.
1. Scheduled vs Self-Paced Learning
Hundreds of students choose to study online instead of going for in-person learning because they need more flexibility.
Unfortunately, taking your classes from the comfort of your home, far away from an instructor who monitors your every move during regular sessions and exams, isn’t quite as rosy as we’d like to assume.
First, understand that online classes either allow self-paced learning or require you to stick to a tight schedule. That means you have to decide what works best for you and stick with it.
Learning at your own pace is the best option if you have a busy family schedule or irregular working hours. In this case, it helps to develop good study habits so that you don’t procrastinate your classes unnecessarily.
The advantage of self-paced learning is that you can fix your study hours into a time you’re less tied at work or busy with family issues.
With scheduled learning, which is a good option to consider if you aren’t so busy or if your work schedule is flexible, you have to sit through your online lectures a certain number of hours every week.
Such online classes tend to be regular in structure and therefore not so different from in-person learning. Be diligent enough to reserve these hours and ready to handle the workload otherwise your coursework can add up really quickly.
2. Peer Interaction
An online class can get boring fast if there are no other students to talk to and ask questions. That’s why it’s important to consider peer interaction when choosing an e-learning course.
Enroll in an online course that not only encourages peer interaction but also provide the necessary tools to engage students in lively discussions.
Online courses that encourage peer interaction feature discussion boards where a student can post questions or concerns and invite other students to participate. Instructors can also join the discussion and provide solid advice on issues so students taking online classes can benefit.
Interestingly, some course, especially those that focus on acting and language, can offer live classes through vide conference rooms.
Check the course description to learn if it allows peer interaction. You may want to look for an alternative learning institution that encourages students and teachers interaction in online classes.
3. Cost
With the introduction of online learning tools such as Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, Masterclass, and Coursera, it’s possible to learn just about anything right from the comfort of your home.
Whether you want to enroll in a programming course or you need to take your marketing skills to the next level, there are free and premium online courses you can take to meet your goals.
While free courses provide valuable information that explores a certain topic in-depth, they lack graded assignments and you don’t get a certificate of completion. So if you just want to gain more insights into a field of study, a free course may be a good option to consider.
On the other hand, paid online courses offered by prestigious and established universities. Such courses include assessment test and accreditation. Therefore, they’re suitable for students who want to graduate with Certificates, Diplomas, or Masters’ Degrees.
A paid online course is also relevant if you intend to pursue a career that requires you to have a certification as part of the qualification.
Depending on the institution of higher learning, you’ll spend thousands to tens of thousands of dollars in tuition fee every year. The advantage to a paid online program is that the quality of the course and the method of content delivery tend to be higher. Also, you get similar privileges as in-person learners.
4. Reviews
People are always skeptical about buying products and service online for many genuine reasons. Primarily, they want to be sure they can get the best return on their investment and won’t settle for anything else.
To get this assurance, they first read online reviews on trusted platforms such a Trust Pilot and Site Jabber and use the views they collect on a product or service to make their purchase decision.
That’s the exact approach you should take to choose the right e-learning course. In other words, you should look beyond the course description to avoid disappointments and not waste your precious time on an online course that won’t give you the value that you’re looking for.
If you’ve already found an interesting online course that you would like to pursue, read online reviews about it to determine if it would be a good fit.
These reviews will give you the information you need to make informed decision as they’re based on other people’s experiences.
You also have to be very careful about where you read your reviews. From what we understand, course reviews can easily be manipulated to make a course look credible when it’s not. So make sure you read reviews only from the most credible sources on the internet.