Why E-learning remains the way to go for us

Planning to be in town or somewhere on the outskirts of Kigali within 20 or so minutes is stealthily becoming a thing of the past with the growing pressure on roads by motorists. Traffic snarl ups are becoming the order of the day. Employers will not let anyone leave work before 5pm but evening classes for many campuses start at 5.30pm.Why then, not bring the classroom to my desktop computer? I can stay at work longer than the normal working hours but I cannot leave earlier, does it make sense?While business people are thanking ICT for the innumerable benefits they are reaping from it, students who are in a ferocious hunt for higher education are cursing traffic jams and highly dynamic and challenging work schedules. As businesses continue cutting down their operating costs through increased use of ICT, some higher education institutions are bloating their expenditures through soaring face-to face enrolments.The contemporary mainstream workplace demands for relative flexibility in, what I refer to as other ‘subsidiary professional needs,’ such as further education and training.Institutions of higher learning that are not going to invest in developing e- learning and inter-varsity collaboration will soon be drowned by an academic tsunami. Face to face learning will soon be a thing of the past for those with economic muscle who want to study at their own convenience.Today’s youth are quite possibly the most media and technology savvy generation there has ever been. It goes without saying that this degree of sophistication deserves an equally sophisticated and creative pedagogical approach. Complementing traditional textbooks, new technology both arouses students’ curiosity and puts them in charge of their own education.If I am not wrong, the youth form the bulk of the clientele for higher and basic education. Customising the pedagogical approach to be consistent with their interests is imperative.There is a notion that e-learning offers students an improved learning experience when compared with a more traditional learning environment. Research has consistently shown that students who pursue e-Learning university courses attain higher achievement than those who learn in traditional learning settings.E- Learning could have potentially major effects in the way higher education is designed, implemented and delivered. For full benefits to be realised however, the quality of lectures, assignments and assessments given have to be taken a notch higher too.