Advantages and Disadvantages of Digital Learning

ADVANTAGES

Personalized learning: Digital Learning provides the opportunity to tailor teaching to the needs of individual learners. Not everyone learns the same. Some people prefer particular methods over others. For example, students can be directed to courses at a level suited to the stage of learning they are at. Or bespoke courses can be conceived for each individual learner, omitting those of no interest.

Anytime: Learners can learn when it best suits them. Digital Learning can be ideal for those who might have other life commitments, including a family or work. Learning can be scheduled around these competing time pressures. Also learners can learn at their own pace and when they are most receptive to learning. Some individuals prefer late night learning, others early mornings.

Anywhere: As long as there is an Internet or WiFi connection learners can log on, access resources, and continue learning. Learning is not restricted to a specific location. A webinar can be given to participants worldwide.

Leveling up: Digital Learning offers the chance to increase standards across the board. Previously the best teaching was available at a few select locations, accessible to only a few. Or a good teaching idea was found only in a single local location. There was no way to easily disseminate ideas elsewhere. Today ideas can be shared widely, with more people being able to access these, thus resulting in a rise in standards.

Reach: The number of people it is possible to fit into a lecture hall is limited, thus restricting the number of people able to hear a lecture. A book in a library can only be accessed by those near to the library and holding a library card. But material available online can be potentially accessed by everyone. An online lecture could be downloaded by millions of people, from all over the globe.

Time and money savings: Once produced online material can be updated more easily. There is no need to completely develop new material from scratch. Developing an online course costs the same whether 20 people access it, or 2000. The more people who access it, the cheaper it becomes to provide per learner, and economies of scale begin to kick in.

Progress tracking: It can be easier for individual learners to track their own progress, or course administrators to follow the progression of course participants. For example, records relating to the completion of modules can be set up automatically made, making studying course metrics easier for administrators.

Collaborative learning: Digital Learning can facilitate learning with others. It opens up new communication channels, such as online video, email, or messaging. Despite learners being separated physically, they can still remain in contact. Increased consistency: Once chosen, Digital Learning means it is easier to continue with a consistent format for material or teaching. Teaching material which is uniform in appearance and structure can be produced.

DISADVANTAGES

Lack of access: Not everyone has the same availability to technology or the same competence at using it. This could limit some people's ability to use Digital Learning resources. Socioeconomic differences in access exist. Remote learning is fine for those with a personal space to study in peace and quiet. For those lacking a personal quiet space, participating in remote learning can be a problem.

Initial cost: Developing Digital Learning resources can be expensive both in terms of time and money. Those tasked with developing digitally based courses might lack the required skills or background knowledge. They may have to rely on others with such knowledge.

Financial barriers: Accessing some online resources requires the payment of fees. This can be a barrier to some. When you purchase a book, you end up with a physical book you own forever. But if you subscribe to an online course, once it is over and completed you might not have anything to show and might lose access to the material you could once access.

​Certificate inflation, learning devaluation: Go online and it is easy to subscribe to a course, and within a few 'lessons' obtain a certificate of completion. It is easy to collect a portfolio of these quickly. But are these courses of actual value? Do they show ability in anything? What do certificates mean? It is also increasingly possible to enroll to online programs offered by top universities. But how valid is it to graduate from such a university, if you have never actually been on campus, or even the city or country where it is located? Often learning is far more than the content learned; it is a social experience where you meet new people, make new experiences and are present in a new and novel location.

Maintaining motivation: Learners can quickly become fed up, bored and demotivated with online courses. This can be because material is not challenging enough, or conversely too challenging, or does not meet the requirements of the learner. Some people simply do not like learning online or digitally.

Time: Whose time is it anyway? For employees involved with Continued Professional Development does time spent dedicated to online training count towards the working week? How is this measured? Are employees expected to learn in their own free time? Why?

Replacing face-to-face teaching: Is online teaching used to supplement traditional teaching, or replace it? If online teaching replaces face-to-face teaching is this reflected through lower fees for courses that are now cheaper for providers to offer online?

Lack of pacing: In face-to-face 'chalk and talk' teaching everyone learns at once, and the time dedicated to the lecture is limited. The advantage of this is that there is a set predetermined end to the lecture, and efficiency is enforced. In Digital Learning learners may learn at their own pace, with some needing much longer to complete tasks than others. Where is the pressure to learn quickly and promptly? Sometimes the ability to learn quickly and absorb information at pace is an important skills and ability in itself, one that Digital Learning does not promote or measure.

Discipline: Even the most motivated of us, learning something we are interested in and love, can have problems staying disciplined. This is especially the case when the task at hand is not interesting to us, we are tired, or we are distracted. Some people are not self-sufficient learners; they do better when they have someone leading them, directing them, and even coercing them! A risk of Digital Learning is that such learners get left behind. For example, in flipped learning if learners attend physical lectures having not done the required work at home beforehand the entire class can be held back.

Echo chambers: The online world is massive and it is easy to get lost there. It is so large that it is easy to concentrate on specific aspects, and not to see the whole picture. The system of 'following' preferred sources, and algorithms which select what they believe you are most interested in, can lead to you living in an echo-chamber; you are only exposed to ideas you are favorable to and are not challenged by others.

Distractions and multitasking: Going to a specialized dedicated location with the specific purpose of studying for an hour can help you focus on the task of learning; the phone can be turned off, friends ignored, magazines left at home. But if you are studying at home it can be difficult to keep distractions at bay. New emails constantly appear requiring urgent attention. It is easy to wander onto Social Media for a break from learning for a minute, which then turns into hours. There can also be a fallacy of multitasking; with the belief that it is possible to complete multiple tasks at once, with learning slotted around other tasks, but in a piecemeal and ineffective fashion.