A few years ago, getting a mobile phone for students was an indigestible problem for parents and teachers. But nowadays owning a mobile phone has become a necessary issue for students to continue their studies. Virtual education and e-learning are literally intertwined with our lives and our children.
Virtual education, which some call e-learning, is a type of distance education. There are few people who are not familiar with it these days. From a 6-year-old to a PhD student, everyone deals with it in some way.
What is virtual education?
Virtual education is a type of distance education in which the virtual space is the platform for teaching and learning. A student and teacher or student and professor communicate with each other over the Internet instead of appearing in the classroom at school and university.
People who have undergone virtual training know very well its meaning and concept. Most likely, you are also familiar with this method of teaching. If you think no, just look what you’re doing now. You are currently reading an educational article about online education. You learn from the internet and learn what you need to know about online education through virtual education.
Virtual education that is conducted in schools, universities and educational workshops is something similar to that. A person shares information with users via the Internet and in virtual space, and users use it to find out what they need to know.
A trainer can be a teacher, professor, or skilled technician. The person receiving the training can also be a student, student, or technician in training.
The difference between virtual education and e-learning
One of the issues that many people ask is whether virtual education is the same as e-learning and distance education.
At a glance, “yes” these days, all of these expressions convey the same concept. If you want to look at the story in more detail, it must say that there is a difference between all of them and the above options are subsets of each other and are not the same.
There are different types of distance education. “Books and Handouts” is also a form of distance education. Payam Noor students have been studying remotely through these self-reading products for years.
Another type of distance education is “e-learning”.
E-learning is a type of education that is conducted through electronic and digital tools. Education that takes place through any kind of technology through electronic devices such as mobile phones, tablets, computers, laptops and even televisions and other similar devices is called e-learning.
Correspondence, social networks, online education platforms, etc. are also a kind of e-learning, and since they operate through the Internet and virtual space, they are called virtual education.
As a result, virtual education is a kind of e-learning, and e-learning is also a kind of distance education.
Of course, as we said, these days they mean all of them with the same concept, and that is the virtual education that is being done in schools.
Virtual Education History
In 1892, the first academic course was conducted by mail. This method has been used for 18 years and is still used occasionally. Until now, you might receive books and textbooks from an education center by mail.
From that year until now, the method of distance learning has changed several times and has gradually taken on an electronic form. The first e-learning dates back to 1921. At that time, educational materials were made available through radio and television for those who could not attend the educational sessions themselves.
After that, he started training through digital tools. Education centers provided learning materials to students through CDs and DVDs by mail. The beginning of this method dates back to 1960.
With the advent of the internet, a new change was made in educational methods, and virtual education as we are now facing it was launched. The beginning of this method was from 1984 to 1989.
Read about: E-learning Mathematique.
The era of virtual education boom
Both in Iran and in the world, the booming era of virtual education can be linked to the onset of Corona. Although virtual education existed before Corona, it did not receive much attention and importance.
Until now, virtual education was known as secondary education or supplementary education, but in the era of Corona, it has become the most important educational method. All educational stages, even primary ones, have chosen this method as the main one and used it in teaching.
Learn about the types of virtual education!
Online training takes place using various methods. For example:
1. Virtual training through messengers:
Messengers such as Shad, WhatsApp, and Telegram have the ability to create groups. Several group categories configured as default groups in these messengers. Students and teachers communicate with each other through chatting, sending audio and video. They ask and answer questions, do exercises, submit assignments, and even take quizzes.
2. Online training through video call:
Video call is another type of virtual education. This method mostly used for high school students and college students. If the number of students is small, everyone can attend the video call. But when the number of students is large, the video call is usually one-way and only the teacher’s picture is available to the students.
3. Virtual Training Through Virtual Training Systems (LMS):
Virtual education systems are specially designed for the educational environment. These systems may be provided as web pages or as software. If these systems are software, both sides must install the relevant software. But when these systems consist of web pages, they can accessed using browsers.
There are many virtual education systems. Some are publicly available and freely available to the public. Some of them can accessed by paying a fee, and some cannot used due to sanctions in Iran.
There are also many original and easy-to-use virtual education systems for Iranian users.
4. Virtual training through video and audio download:
There is another way. In this way, the teacher pre-records the class and presents it to the students in the form of downloadable audio and video files. Students download and play the files by connecting to the Internet.
Comparison of virtual training and face-to-face training
Online education is different from face-to-face education. Each of them has its own characteristics. Below we compare these two pedagogical methods.
Training place:
In face-to-face training, everyone must be present in the class. Both teachers and students. But in virtual classrooms, there is no site limit. Teachers and students can attend class from anywhere and benefit from educational concepts.
Educational tools:
Educational tools in face-to-face education differ from virtual education. In a face-to-face classroom, you need a chair, blackboard, markers, and physical teaching aids, but in a virtual classroom, you only need a smartphone or a computer.
Students’ concentration level in class:
They say that in face-to-face classes, especially for younger children, student concentration is higher. But in the virtual classes, because of the student’s universal access to everything, his concentration level is lower. Regardless of whether the educational tool itself, like a phone or a computer, is a huge distraction; Other environmental factors in the home may also have a negative impact on students’ concentration.
Mastery of the teacher in the classroom:
Whether we like it or not, the teacher cannot control the virtual classroom as well as the classroom in person. Students do not see. Many parents do not properly monitor their active attendance in class. The student may miss class. Of course, the teacher can increase his mastery of the classroom with clever tricks.
Success in transferring educational concepts:
Since the history of online education in our country is very little, at least as far as the lower levels are concerned, we cannot expect much from it. The culture of virtual education has not amounted to much for teachers, students, and families. Many teachers cannot succeed in conveying educational concepts as they should.
Many families attend online classes instead of accompanying their children, and many children would rather learn how to cheat than learn. As long as the situation is like this, we can say that success in transferring educational concepts in face-to-face classes is more than in virtual classes.
What are the advantages of virtual education?
As mentioned, virtual training differs from face-to-face training. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Among the advantages and disadvantages of virtual education and face-to-face education, the following can mentioned:
No location restrictions:
It does not matter where you are! It doesn’t even matter which city you live in. There are no site restrictions in Virtual Education.
No time limit for training:
In some ways, class attendance is entirely at the request of the student. He can download the class file and use it whenever he wants. Students can review their class again and again. Some classes have time limits.
Access to many educational resources:
Access to educational resources is more in virtual education. There are endless resources you can use. You don’t need to use a sphere to represent the spherical surface of the Earth. There are countless educational videos that you can use in a virtual classroom to teach your child what the earth is like.
You may like to read also: Preschool education at home
When do we need virtual training?
Honestly, classes are best-held face to face. Face-to-face classes are better because the student-teacher relationship is better and the transfer of concepts is easier. This problem is just as valid, at least in the lower grades.
We can say that we need virtual training in two ways:
Where we don’t have access to high level classes and experienced professors Location: You may need information covered in a course. But this course takes place in another city and you cannot move to that city.
Or you would like to attend a certain university, but cannot leave your city due to work or personal restrictions. In these cases, it is best to turn to virtual education and try distance education.
When it is not possible to attend face-to-face lessons: For example, during the quarantine period that occurred after the spread of the Corona virus, the possibility of attending gatherings became largely impossible. As a result, face-to-face training has given way to virtual training.
Introducing virtual learning tools
In online education, we need different tools. No more uniforms, various stationery, matching shoes and schoolbags. All this gives place to virtual training tools.
These tools include:
- mobile phone system or computer and laptop
- Internet at a decent speed
- virtual education systems
- Speaker and microphone
Elementary virtual training! good or bad?
A year or two after the start of virtual education in elementary school,If we want to sum it up, we have to say that virtual education in elementary school was not very satisfactory.
Of course, this does not mean that virtual education is not good for elementary schools. it is good. But so far we have not been able to handle it properly. Most experiments point to this fact.
Teachers are unhappy because they cannot communicate well with their students. Families are tired of taking on the responsibilities of teaching children at home, and students are upset about not being in the community and not understanding lesson concepts.
According to a research and survey, an article title “Pathology of Online Education from the Perspective of Primary School Teachers” published, in which interesting results were obtained by examining 15 teachers of this stage. The result of this research was that virtual education currently has created many problems for teachers and students at this stage.
Among the most important of these damages are the following:
- Lack of effective time management
- Management challenges
- For the harm of entering the teacher’s position and glory
- The lack of appropriate feedback
- Lack of diversity in teaching methods
- Impossibility of effective follow-up
- Lack of motivation to learn
- Lack of proper interaction between school and family
- Reducing student responsibility
- Lack of appropriate group activities
- Not enough supervision
- And much more
How do you help improve virtual education?
It is true that in the current situation and with the level of virtual education that is happening now, a lot of harm has been done to primary school students, but this should not be accepted as a consequence of the action.
We must try to improve in this area. Educators, families, and students must all accept the current circumstances and seek blame for the harm caused.
Efforts must be made to compensate for shortcomings and minimize damage by using methods to improve online education and applying creativity in virtual teaching.
The last word
Virtual education in our country does not have a long history. Because of this, he wasn’t brought up much in relation to it.
When it comes to online education, we only look at the appearance of the case and don’t care about its details.
It is better to increase our knowledge about them and to know the conditions and when it is best to use them.
There are many educational approaches in which virtual education used as a complement to face-to-face education. The effectiveness of education increases greatly in the combination of these two methods. As a result, online training can used as a complement to face-to-face training even after the end of the corona era.
