E-Education vs Education in Sweden - Research Paper Example

E-education Section I Global market in education in Higher education dominates the global education arena. Commercialization of higher education has led to stiff competition for students (Mazzarol 1). More students continue to undertake their studies abroad. The top destinations for mobile students are “United States (19%), United Kingdom (11%), Australia (8%), France (7%), Germany (6); and Japan (4%)” (UIS 1). The e-education market in 2012 The e-education market can be divided into synchronous and asynchronous training. In synchronous training, interaction between the instructor and students takes place in real time for instance virtual class rooms, e-conferences among others. Asynchronous training allows students to take instructions at their own convenient time. This can be accomplished through web based training (WBTs) – emails, blogs, wikis – and computer based training (CBTs) – video courses, or even written articles (G CUBE 1). Countries leading in e-education include the US, India, China, South Korea, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa (ICEF 1). As shown in the diagram below, e-education is gaining a lot of momentum. Diagram (Sloan Consortium 1) Consumers in both e-education and education In Sweden, consumers of higher learning institution are Swede students. There are also a considerable number of international students from other countries being led by China, Pakistan, Iran, India Finland, Germany and Bangladesh in that order. On the other hand, Swede students mostly prefer the UK, US Denmark, Norway Poland and Australia in that order (UIS 1). Spending in both e-education and education Global education continues to be more costly. Government educational sponsorship continues to diminish but the economic environment is hardly changing for the better. According to HESA, the implication of this is that students are starting to refrain from enrolling in universities abroad as they seek cheaper means of attaining education. Section II Increase Housing and Transportation costs According to Umea University, the following is a student budget for a student who spends economically – he or she lives in student ‘corridor’ room and does most of the cooking. Expenses Per Month (SEK) 1 Academic Year (10 Months) (SEK) Food 2200 22,000 Accommodation 2800 28,000 Student union fee and books 500 5,000 Phone, Internet, TV/Newspaper 300 3,000 Hygiene products 250 2,500 Clothing 400 4,000 Leisure 350 3,500 Local travel (bus card) 500 5,000 Total Sum 7300 73,000 The above figures only apply to Swede students, for international students the costs are even higher. Attainment of education through the conventional physical classes is exceedingly becoming expensive. Housing costs are ever on the rise. The accommodation fee shown above is for a student ‘corridor’ room – a far cry from the comfort of most homes. Any attempt to get a better accommodation will shoot the fee to 4000 and upward depending on the region. Transport from classes to a student’s residency will cost money. Depending on how far and often a student has to travel, this can be quite costly. The cheapest is by use of a bus card, anything other than that will eat into a student budget greatly. Increase Schooling/University costs Due to tuition increase, there was a drop by 29% of international students coming to study in Sweden between 2010 and 2011 (Myklebust 1). Diagram (Marcucci and Usher 14) Tuition fee has increased globally due to the hard economic times that many countries are facing. Increase in choice/price/adequacy of instructor E-education offers students a multiple choice on how to engage in a learning process. The choices include the price whereby comparison can be made and the best choice taken. Other factors include the time of the class and even the length and frequency of the same. This makes e-education flexible and convenient for every person. Section III Professor student proximity E-education closes the gap between an instructor and a student. The access of the instructor is enhanced compared to the classroom situation where contact point is significantly during the face to face class sessions. E-education provides multiple links to the instructors and makes learning more interactive than it is in the cases of face to face mode of education. Anyone with a Skill can teach E-education removes all the bureaucracy associated with teaching. It is possible for any person to teach online as long as one has the skills. An optimized learning infrastructure E-education makes a learning experience quite comprehensive. A lot of auxiliary materials are availed to the student. These include live video, online video, platforms for sharing ideas with other students and social links. This makes it easier for students to get and offer help from and to other students. Distribution of reusable digital content The uniqueness of e-learning is that the classes can be prepared and used later. Instructors can prepare classes on various topics and offer them to students. The instructor can therefore conduct classes in absentia. Such classes can be stored and used in the future. E-learning is simply like a talking text which presents its concepts in a manner that students can best understand. More transparency and efficiency in the market with a user rating system With e-learning efficiency prevails because there is a lot of transparency. In this market, the use of rating system will enable a student to go for the best system and especially for the best instructor. This does not often happen for the case of normal classes and it is the institution which assigns the instructor to take student through a given class. Section IV: The Evolution of E-education Increase in spending in e-education Spending on e-education is ever on the rise. Though the US and Europe are increasing their investment in e-learning infrastructure, the Asia Pacific region has been noted to have a faster growth (Gutierrez 1). Reasons for e-consumption Absence of accommodation and transport fees for e-education make it cheap, it is easier to compare various aspects of one course offered by different providers, e-consumption has become the in thing and is highly popular because of its convenience. Classroom training is uneconomical “85% of every dollar spent in classroom training is spent delivering it (instructor time, travel etc)” (Gutierrez 1). Evolution of the market E-learning is the fastest growing in the education market. By 2015, 50 percent of corporate learning will be undertaken through e-learning. 4.6 million students at least take one online class, by 2014 this number is expected to hit 18.65 million and by 2019 half of all class will be online. More is covered in e-learning than in normal classes (Gutierrez 1). Social networks are influential in marketing e-education. The world is highly connected and anything worth praising becomes known around the world so quickly. All indications point to the fact that the future of education is in e-learning. The launching of Coursera and its explosive picking up is a witness of the popular of on line learning. Works Cited G CUBE. Types of E-learning and what suits me best. G CUBE, 2013. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. . Gutierrez, Karla. 18 Mind-Blowing eLearning Statistics You Need To know. SHIFT’s eLearning Blog, 2012. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. . ICEF. 8 Countries leading the way in online education. ICEF Monitor, 2012. . Marcucci, Pamela and Usher, Alex. 2011 Year in Review: Global changes in Tuition Fee Policies and Student Assistance. Higher Education Strategy Associates, 2012. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. . Mazzarol, Tim. The Global Market for High Education a Decade On. Edward Elgar Publishing Blog, 2013. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. . Myklebust, Petter. SWEDEN: Living costs and fees deter foreign students. University World News, 2011. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. . Sloan Consortium. Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States, 2011. The Sloan Consortium, 2013. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. . UIS. Global Flow of Tertiary-Level Students. UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2012. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. . Umea University. Cost of Living. Umea University, 2013. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. . Read More