MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses – and other online learning platforms are currently competing with various college and university programs to give students and other ordinary individuals the chance to learn and hone various professional skills.
And while no one might recognize this battle between these two different forms of learning and education, it is evident to everyone looking at the whole scenario that online learning is here to stay.
While traditional education will always get preference over e-learning, it is needless to say that such a modern form of education is quite beneficial to students of all disciplines and professionals. Of course, one group of students is reaping more benefits than the rest – engineering majors.
Whether electrical engineering or computer science, MOOCs and online learning platforms are doing wonders for engineering kids, both academically and professionally. Here is how.
Engaging Content and Exercises
Online learning platforms have more engaging content and exercises. Be it interactive or animated lectures, easy-to-understand resources, etc.; these platforms have everything. Even homework is fun when your instructors and tutors use so much engaging content.
Platforms like zyBooks use such resources to make their classes more appealing and exciting. Even programming becomes fun on zyBooks, thanks to the way they design every class.
Even when you are stuck with a homework problem, you can always seek help from various online sources that can help you out with your zyBook answers. These online tutoring and homework assistance platforms use expert tutors to help you with your zyBook or any other MOOC homework.
Under their guidance, not only will you be eager to understand tough engineering concepts like circuits, data structures, calculus, etc., but you will also enjoy the learning experience. That in itself is a feat that colleges and universities fail to achieve.
Industry-Centric Learning
Most MOOCs are designed so that the learning outcomes of those courses cater to the industry. As a result, it is safe to say that these online learning platforms provide industry-centric education to their students. And what is more exciting for engineering students is that tech giants are teaming up with these MOOC platforms to provide the best learning experience. Not only that, but they are also willing to hire successful graduates from these programs as interns and full-time engineers.
Take Google, for example. The tech giant teamed up with a leading MOOC platform, Coursera, and provides courses on data science, programming, UX engineering, etc. All courses are taught by Google’s experts and can be accessed by students for a small fee.
The best part about all this is that Google has assured that successful candidates from this course will have the opportunity to work with different tech giants across the world. And these companies are bound by contract to hire the candidates.
How great is that? Not only are you learning new skills, but you are practically opening yourself up for various job opportunities.
Learn Only What You Need or Want to Learn
Unlike college, students do not have to take classes or attend seminars and lectures that they do not want. The only reason they do so in college is that they need to complete a set amount of credits and get good grades if they are to secure their engineering degree. However, a lot of these courses are uninteresting, not to mention unnecessary.
With MOOCs and online learning, it becomes easier to stay focused on one particular area and only learn what you want to learn. Online learning aims to learn and get good at a particular skill, not to earn credits or grades.
Hence, students can work on their skill development while only focusing on things they need to learn for their professional lives. They could even do courses that their college majors would not allow, take a course as many times as needed, and learn whenever they want to.
Given all these benefits, it is easy to see why engineering students should enroll themselves in online courses. And it is not just engineering students who are benefiting. Students from other disciplines are also coming to see the perks that online learning and MOOCs offer. They, too, will find the need to join these online learning platforms and become part of a much-needed change in global education.
