UK Dissertations - The UK's original provider of custom dissertations, dissertation writers and dissertation help...
As one health-care e-learning provider said:
Simulation lets you take the exact experience online and correlate it to real life.Not only can professionals receive relevant training on complicated equipment, but their proficiency can be precisely measured the key to testing, evaluation, and certification. The combination of simulation learning and proficiency measurement changes behaviour, improves care, lowers costs, reduces risk, and assures compliance (Harris 2003: 4).
Taking it a step further into offering the ability to conduct real simulations tends to create more of an impact with the learner who can immediately view and feel the consequences of making a certain decision but provides that in an environment where the individual can learn without causing real harm if they select the wrong option.
Today's learning environment is characterized not only by greater autonomy for the learner, but also a greater emphasis on active learning, with creation, communications and participation playing key roles, and on changing roles for the teacher, indeed, even a collapse of the distinction between teacher and student altogether (Downes 2007: 2). As Douglas Rushkoff explains, knowledge is no longer about accumulating as many facts and information as possible but it is considered the riding of waves in a dynamic environment (Downes 2007: 2) where everything is constantly changing. E-learning serves as a personal learning center, where content is reused and remixed according to the student's own needs and interests. It becomesa collection of interoperating applications an environment rather than a system (Downes 2007: 4).
While e-learning provides new opportunities to add knowledge, most believe that it is this new technique combined with the traditional ways of learning, such as classroom training and textbooks that provides the maximum benefit. It is hard to imagine that the classroom setting and personal one-on-one interaction will ever be completely replaced.
The Benefits and Disadvantages of e-learning
E-learning works in industries that are highly regulated, and populated by numerous organizations that employ dispersed white-collar workers who are knowledge and service intensive (Harris 2003: 1). Because there are so many compliance issues related to various industries, e-learning provides a fast, effective way to educate employees on the new rules and regulations. A good example are companies that make pharmaceuticals and medical devices because these organizations are constantly being regulated by such agencies as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, requiring them to constantly retrain their employees on highly detailed operating procedures (Harris 2003: 1). One such e-learning vendor, Pathlore LMS, is providing significant e-learning procedures in healthcare networks in the U.S.
Please note: The above dissertation snippet was written by a student and then submitted to us to display and help others. Thanks to all the students who have submitted their work to us.