11 Benefits of Online Learning for Malaysian Primary and Secondary Students!
How much do you know about online learning and it’s benefits?
Did you know that it is now as widely available for primary and secondary school students as it is for those in higher education?
What is Online Learning?
Online Learning takes you out of the conventional classroom to enable learning anytime and anywhere. All you need is a computer or laptop, tablet or a smartphone, and an Internet connection.
Apps like i-LEARN Ace by Sasbadi in fact enables a student to study notes and do revisions offline.
Basically, armed with the right equipment and online learning tool, a student will have at his or her fingertips an entire learning system.
Everything they need from notes, objective practices, subjective practices, oral test practices, test papers, dictionary, and progress reports to mindmaps and games are all just a click a way.
With a unique user name and password, a student will unlock a one stop center of educational materials, including even avenues to have virtual classes with teachers on the same online platform.
Benefits of Online Learning
1. Accessibility
Children can study anytime, anywhere, based on a time that best fits their own needs and schedule.
For example, with the current COVID-19 outbreak, students in China can still study and learn online safely and comfortably from home.
With the Malaysian government effecting restricted movement from 18th to 31st March 2020, our children can still can learn safely at home during the school closure.
2. Students learn at their own pace
Every child’s learning curve is different because every one learns at a difference pace. Some learn faster while some might need more time to digest and understand what was taught.
Online learning allows students to study at their own pace.
They can choose to quickly go through topics they understand, or they can spend more time on topics they find more challenging. Students can be more actively engaged because they can make their own choices.
Programs like i-LEARN Ace even allows the students to select the level of difficulty. This is important to build up their foundation and confidence level for those weak topics before challenging the harder questions.
3. Flexibility
With online learning, students can access the content an unlimited number of times. This is useful for exam preparation revisions e.g. UPSR, PT3 and SPM where they don’t have to go back and search previous year books.
Students also don’t have to bring a lot of books when they travel and this helps reduce the weight of their bags!
4. Parent Involvement and engagement
Studies show that students do better when their parents are involved in their education.
With the help of an online learning platform, parents can coach and ensure assignments are completed on time. This creates more opportunity for parents to engage, encourage and support their children.
5. Better monitoring and progress tracking
Some programs also give real-time progress analysis reports to parents. For example, an email notification each time their children completes their online homework.
Parents can easily monitor their child’s progress even when they are working or traveling overseas. They can also easily identify strengths and weaknesses.
6. Interactive, fun and attractive
Online learning is more interactive and fun when compared with traditional learning!
Students can add images, audio and videos in their notes, to make studying more interesting. Short educational videos are also more efficient to retain attention and help processing and memory recall.
Some online programs also provide rewards e.g. virtual coins for doing objective practices. Students can use these virtual coins to play games in the program during their down time.
7. Updated high quality resources
Content in an online learning program is always updated automatically according to the latest syllabus.
This is especially helpful each time the MOE changes a new syllabus. E.g. in Jan 2020 Std 4 has changed to KSSR Semakan and Form 4 to KSSM.
New content is easily and quickly updated, while books might take months for the full update, printing and delivery to bookshops.
Parents, teachers and students don’t have to worry about hunting for the latest reference and exercise books.
8. Save time
Objective practices are auto-marked with answers provided. This saves time manually marking the questions.
Children can save time in study by searching for the topics or notes they want using search functions. They don’t have to go through a pile of books to look for a specific topic, especially those taking UPSR, PT3 and SPM exams where they also have to revise all the previous years material too.
9. Save cost
Now there are many affordable and even FREE materials and courses available online.
Parents, teachers and students can save the cost of buying too many books.
10. Online education supports a range of learning styles
Every child has a unique learning style.
Some children learn better by hearing (aural), some by reading (visual), while some prefer kinesthetic, or a combination of both.
Online learning can accommodate a wide range of learning styles. E.g. Mindmap is great for children that prefer visual learning while videos are great for other children.
11. Develop 21st Century Skills
The way our children are learning is changing!
With the new technology and everything going digital, it is part of a growing international movement that focuses on the skills required for students to master in preparation for success in a rapidly changing digital society.
The 21st century demands for education transformation to mould critical skill sets in our future human capital – students.
Our children will be required to possess exceptional skills in problem solving, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, innovation and creativity to meet the challenges ahead.
These skills have been identified as a requirement for success in 21st century society, where a lot of jobs might cease to exist or be replaced by AI (Artificial Intelligent) in next 5 – 10 years.
Choosing a good online learning platform
1. High quality content
Sources of material should be from an established and reputable publisher.
2. Wide spectrum of materials and functions
An effective online learning platform should contain a wide spectrum of materials and functions. This cuts down the need to sign up for multiple programs.
3. Continuous Updates
There should be continuous updates to ensure material is relevant.
4. User Friendly
The program should be user friendly and easy to use, especially for primary students
5. Affordability
Pick one that suits your budget and check that it does not have too many add-on prices to for different materials or functions.
6. Technical support
There should be readily available and responsive after sales and technical support. A stable program also means there’s less likelihood for lagging.
Interested to explore online learning? i-LEARN Ace by Sasbadi is worth trying. Click button below to get 7 Days Free trial!