Along with the countless minuses that the Covid pandemic brought with it, there were a few pluses. No doubt, the pandemic stopped the functioning all across the globe for many months; everyone had to sit in their home having no work and employment. But, this time also flourished the concept of digitalization to its par. Everything went from being physical to digital. Whether you talk of business meetings, conferences, shopping or trading, everything just came into a small portable machine.

The field of education has been highly digitalized and flourished since then only. No one could even think of sending their children out of the houses. And thus, various new possibilities of online learning emerged and succeeded. The need of the parents to make their students connected to studies and learning something new, at the same time, encouraged many individuals and organizations to provide online learning facilities for children.

In the article below, we will be taking you through the advantages and disadvantages of online learning and will also introduce some great online learning sites for your children.

Advantages of Online Learning

The concept of taking learning from classroom to the comfort of our home originated and flourished in the account of various reasons and we have listed a few below.

• Enormous Content – The biggest advantage with online learning is that there is no shortage of content to be fed to our children’s mind. You may teach your child anything through these online platforms, whether it is cooking, singing, studies, music or any other skill.
• Softer on the Budget – The cost of learning is also reduced when it’s done online. Just think from the teacher’s perspective, now he does not need to make availability of space, electricity expenses or seating arrangements. Just a stable internet connection and a good device would replace all the direct offline expenses. All this has directly impacted the fee of such learning. If the tutor has to spend less, then the students also have to pay pretty lesser than what they had to spend offline.
• No Barrier of Location – With this great revolution of online learning, you don’t have to think about the availability of teachers at your location as well. It is pretty hard to find a good teacher for the skill you are willing to acquire, at an accessible distance from you. But with online learning, you can learn from any corner of the world. A music teacher from America can easily teach a student in India.
• Assistance from Latest Technology – We must agree that there are few concepts in every field that are not easy or even possible to be taught physically. You need some digital medium or virtualization for a better and deeper learning of concepts. For example, the complexities of a human body are pretty hard to explain on a black board, but with latest software and animation, such complex concepts can also be picturized and explained with ease.
• Less Time-Consuming – We don’t need to travel to and from the physical institution for learning. We can just learn anything from our homes only. As a result, a lot of time is saved which would rather have been wasted in useless travelling. And this precious time can be invested in developing our skills and personality.

These are a few of the major reasons that make online learning a great way of developing one’s knowledge and skills.

Disadvantages of Online Learning

But just like any other great thing, online learning also carries a few drawbacks with itself that make it less effective than the physical learning.

• Lack of Direct Interaction – Although the students and teacher may interact freely online as well, but it is not possible for a single teacher to look over a number of students. In this way, the personal touch is lost which we may see in physical classrooms. This problem may be solved by having a personal teacher for each student but then also internet connection will be a huge barrier.
• Awareness about e-learning – Before the acceptance of a newly found medium by everyone, it is imperative to create awareness among the people about the same. This is the main drawback of online learning that many people are not yet aware with online learning and its advantages. This results in the lack of faith and dedication that people should put in it.
• Accessibility in Remote Areas – One of the major problems is the accessibility of online learning in remote and backward areas. No doubt, e-learning has been highly accepted and practiced in urban cities but we cannot expect the villages to have online learning where there is hardly any availability of interest facilities.

Best Platforms for Online Learning for Children

A young and developing mind is very keen and always ready to grasp new learnings. Below, we have listed the best online platforms that provide excellent learning facilities and possibilities for children.

1. Udemy – Udemy is a massive online course provider that has its accessibility throughout the globe. The Udemy courses are related to almost every field of human race. Marketing, Business, Technology, just name the field and skill and you will get plenty of courses at your screen to choose from. The instructors are industry experts with decades of experience in their respective fields. They have massive discounts on all the courses that are prevalent at almost every time of the year and with that your child may learn a skill at a very affordable price.
2. Coursera – Coursera is another great online leaning website that provides certified courses from the most reputed institutions and companies all over the globe. Institutions like Imperial College, HSE University, London College etcetera and companies like Google, Meta, and IBM etcetera provide high level certified courses on this platform. You visit their website and you’ll see number of fields like data science, arts and culture, business, health, social science etcetera to choose from and get a course as per your interest.
3. Skillshare – Skillshare is one of the best websites for children learning if you are looking to gift your child some real life skills from the comfort of your home. Your child can get the understanding of various complex topics like entrepreneurship, freelancing, and business management etcetera at an early age and explore better opportunities in future. The courses are provided by industry expert individuals and are there to assist your children at every step of his online learning journey.
4. National Geographic Kids – Learning cannot only be encouraged through courses and classes. It is a much elevated concept and this is what rightfully established taught by National Geographic Kids. The platform is free to access and provides various animated and real life videos to introduce some tender yet serious topics to a child in a much interactive and fun way. The educators are highly trained and teach various topics like plastic management, animal life, and plant health etcetera in a very interactive manner.
5. Byjus – It is a truly Indian platform made with the objective of educating children online. The platform has helped carrying the education of a child in the pandemic as well. Your child may follow up with the current education pattern all with this great platform. You have to select the education board and class and the whole syllabus set will be taught through online classes from highly educated and trained teachers.

These are few of the best platforms for the online learning of your child. There are plenty of other websites like vedantu, Khan Academy, codecademy, Future learns as well. Feel free to check these out as well.