Leonardo da Vinci, master artisan and unparalleled inventor, appreciated the fact that “learning never exhausts the mind.” One of history’s most creative personalities acknowledged the liberty, freedom, and benefit that learning not only grants the learners, but also their communities. Considering his fantastic forethought, it is not unlikely that da Vinci envisioned an educational paradigm as powerful as e-Learning.
Students from the Renaissance to as recently as the 1980s shared a very similar experience. They were forced to travel from near and far to live and study at the universities of their choosing. Such restrictive conditions made it impossible for many potential students, without the luxury of placing their lives’ responsibilities on hold, to follow their dreams.
Fortunately, the inventive human spirit designed a much more encompassing educational model in e-Learning, offering a wealth of benefits to all of today’s motivated students. The advantages of e-Learning over the traditional model are quite encouraging for contemporary learners, especially in the healthcare field:
- Tuition for e-Learning is very cost effective. Dow Chemical was accustomed to spending up to $95 per learner/per course when paying for the traditional classroom setting. When the corporation switched to the e-Learning standard, however, they discovered that they were only paying $11 per learner/per course. By moving their studies into the virtual world, the company saved $34 million annually. Ernst and Young experienced similar savings when they condensed 2,900 hours of classroom training down to 500 hours with the support of 700 hours of web-based learning and 200 hours of distance learning. While the training costs were cut 35 percent, Ernst and Young discovered that employee consistency and scalability actually increased. Individual learners will not only find a relative savings on a virtual campus, but they too will benefit from the quality instruction received.
- In addition to being cost effective, e-Learning demonstrates an efficiency in time. e-Learners are better able to work at their own pace, so there is never a need to slow down for lagging students. Social interaction, a common delay in any classroom environment, is not a factor in the web-based classroom. Plus, learners do not have to waste time traveling to and from another venue since the virtual classroom is readily available at their fingertips.
- The American Psychological Society commissioned a nine-year study of e-Learning to determine its effectiveness. The research concluded that “learners learn more using computer-based instruction than they do with conventional ways of teaching, as measured by higher post -treatment test scores.” The types of learning that have been found to be particularly successful in the virtual classroom are those that focus on information and knowledge, and processes and procedures. Indeed, e-Learning students typically demonstrate increased gains in test/certification scores and in the level of mastery displayed on the job.
- Lastly, e-Learning is advantageous to the environment. Web-based students do not increase Carbon Dioxide emissions when traveling to and from campuses. The e-Classroom also boasts paper free communications, instead relying on such tools as email, PDF manuals, and synchronous classrooms. While such environmental factors are perhaps not the main rationale that most students use to select their higher educational institutions, it is just another layer of the exceptional efficiency offered by the virtual classroom.
The healthcare field is fortunate to be at the forefront of the e-Learning revolution. Like da Vinci’s innate desire to seek out the deepest level of understanding, Avidity Medical Design possesses an unparalleled enthusiasm to equip future healthcare workers with the extensive knowledge they need to be successful in the field’s highly competitive market. Please contact us today to uncover the power of e-Learning.
