HSE Students Talk About E-Learning Matters
Nowadays thanks to new technology development e-learning is taking over the world. Online studying is supposed to be one of the most perspective directions of educational approaches. This method of education is quite convenient as it makes process of gaining knowledge more flexible and accessible.
High School of Economics is not an exception. Online courses are intensively used in the learning process both as complementary to main courses and separately. However, the question about an effect of this method of education is still controversial. In this occasion, it is quite important to find out whether online-courses live up students` expectations or not. In this article HSE students share problems and difficulties they experienced during online courses.
Let us talk to Mark Belokolotsky and Polina Andrianova.
Mark Belokolotsky
The first time I faced with e-learning was long ago before my student’s life. When I was at high school I used online-courses as an additionally to my exam preparation. These materials helped me a lot to get 94 out of 100 but it shouldn’t be forgotten that e-courses were not the only source. I used this format of studying in combination with offline lessons. Now we also have e-learning practice at university and I realized that what plays a great role in formation of attitudes towards online-courses is my personal interest in the subject of studying. If I am curious about the topic of studying, the lack of face to face communication becomes more important than ever. On the other hand, when I have to complete a compulsory online-course that is not interesting to me, I’m really happy that I don’t have to interact with other people.
Considering objective advantages and drawbacks of e-learning, the main pros of such a format is flexibility of the schedule. It really saves time for other things and makes it possible to plan my time more effectively. Another drawback is little tutor’s control which is becoming a problem of self-control. Not to oversleep a deadline is still a challenge for me! Also, I suppose that online courses are even more standardized in contrast to traditional off-line lessons. This aspect is a fundamental weakness of e-lessons because of a lack of an individual approach that may lead to shallow knowledge. Nevertheless, I think that the trend of online education is mostly a positive phenomenon as a contemporary society is changing a lot and it is becoming more and more technology-oriented. So, it is probable that people will work at home and e-learning will be useful in terms of preparation for future work.
All in all, e-learning has both strengths and weaknesses and the result of using this source of education depends not only on the quality of online courses but also on students’ personal qualities. At least, people have to be motivated in order to gain new knowledge!
Polina Andrianova
I had never tried e-learning before I entered the HSE because I had had a negative opinion about online education. I thought that it was an absolutely useless thing that just imitated a real process of learning. My first e-experience was last year and it wasn’t because of my will. I’d like to mention that in spite of the fact that this course was compulsory, it crucially changed my mind.
Now I am confident in saying that online courses make student’s life much easier especially for those who spend hours and hours traveling per day, me included. So, having a great opportunity to manage my time is very important. Also, these courses are quite convenient to revise information because you can always watch the lessons one more time. Moreover, I think that e-courses are more effective in providing information than off-line ones. Online platforms give short informative videos that contain the most useful information while offline lectures are longer and more uncertain and therefore less efficient.
However, I cannot say that e-learning is an ideal way of studying. For instance, it is impossible to replace seminars by videos because not all courses present information clearly so it is necessary to have a teacher to explain a topic. Furthermore, a huge problem of this format is a temptation to cheat. Most students can’t help looking at the keys trying to get the best result.
To sum up, despite negative sides of e-learning, I suppose it is a very good way of studying as an additional resource. The most important thing that makes you study more productively is to motivate yourself to do the course in time and avoid cheating.
We hope that our students’ experience will help you to take the best from online studying!
Text by
Ekaterina Baranova