Online education is defined as a flexible instructional delivery system that encompasses any kind of learning that takes place via the Internet. Online learning gives educators an opportunity to reach students who may not be able to enroll in a traditional classroom course and supports students who need to work on their own schedule and at their own pace.
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Online education is not really that new and famous, and it is much wider than just the formal educational courses.
Distance learning, is a method of learning remotely without being in regular face-to-face contact with a teacher in the classroom, established in 1858, offered by the University of London. In fact, the beginnings of the distance learning are in the early 1840’s when students were receiving-studying-courses-and-materials-via-mail. In 1921, University of Chicago was the first-ever university that offered live radio shows for studying where many students can join and listen to various lectures. Finally, in 1993 Jones International University became the first online university.
Nowadays, young people have many opportunities for studying online. There is range of choice of different types of online courses and seminars that student can choose from. The benefits from the online education are that it provides easy contact between the students themselves and between the mentors and the students; it is accessible to all giving fast access to a lot of information and literature that you may not have in the regular education system, information that can be used in projects making and learning activities.
Online education creates flexible space with different methods and creative approaches that can fit almost every young person’ needs. One can find youth – friendly contents, using the guided education methods, many free opportunities for non-formal and informal learning. Online education is overall more productive and cost-efficient, it develops the soft skills too, and young people can improve their skills in many areas – from learning a new language, coding, to how to make pie using YouTube tutorials.
As everything else, online education has its disadvantages too. Besides the security and privacy issues that we face in the everyday life while using the internet, here are some other challenges of online education. The internet gives huge access to information, and many of that information may not be true, giving the student a wrong perception of the studied subject. Many of the online courses may not be accredited, and in some cases exams and homework are graded by the “machines”. Online education often lacks of human face-to-face contact, lack of direct interaction with the teachers and other students. Despite all that, everything suggests that the internet will be the primary source of information for the great majority of people in the near future.
By increasing digital literacy level people acquire knowledge and skills on how to recognize credible sources of information and distinguish them from the fake news. Therefore, young people should stand up in order to secure a safer online space.
Methods of HRE for the virtual life of young people will be added further as a contribution of those who work on fighting for human rights in the virtual world and believe that human rights online need to be equally respected as human rights in the real world.
If you want to provide your experience and expertise in the fields of human rights and non-formal education and help us develop joint HUB of HRE for the virtual world, go to our CONTRIBUTE section.