e-Learning your key to unlocking earnings | Personal finance - Independent Online

SITES TO EXPLORE

• Coursera (www.coursera.org)
• Degreed (https://degreed.com)
• iLearn (www.ilearn.co.za)
• Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org)
• TED talks (www.ted.com)
• Udemy (www.udemy.com)

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"Your current and future earnings are your greatest asset, and online learning, which provides easy, low-cost access to education wherever you may be, is a surefire way to boost earning power and improve your standard of living" says Martin Hesse - Content Editor: Personal Finance.

Photo: Personal finance

Online learning has been around for almost as long as the internet, but its potential to open up education to those who have not been able to afford or access traditional forms of learning, has been slow in being realised.

But things are starting to move quickly, as they are in other fields of disruption. Companies and governments are waking up to the power of online learning, which takes myriad forms, from watching a TED lecture to mastering a new set of skills by means of a structured course, to completing a university degree online.

In the workplace, online learning is becoming an essential tool, not only for upskilling workers, but for improving their general life skills, such as fostering financial literacy. In South Africa, companies are incentivised to upskill employees as part of their black economic empowerment programmes. 

Photo: Richard Rayne

Richard Rayne, the chief executive of corporate learning solutions provider iLearn, says South Africa is “absolutely” ready for digital transformation in learning. “It’s a reality the world over and we need to get on board. If we delay, we will get left behind.”...

Self-directed learning

Photo: Karina De Bruin

Dr Karina de Bruin, a counselling psychologist and managing director of the JvR Academy, a training and skills development provider, says the workplace mirrors the world we live in. “People need to adapt and learn faster to accommodate change. They must be self-directed and learning-agile to survive,” she says...

Online vs traditional teaching

Photo: Daphne Koller

In a TED talk dating from 2012, “What we’re learning from online education”, educationist Daphne Koller, co-founder of online education platform Coursera, outlined advantages online education offers but also challenges it faces:

• You can break up the material into short, modular units, which “allows us to break away from the one-size-fits-all model of education, and allows students to follow a much more personalised curriculum”...

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Source: Independent Online