Alternative – Digital Learning

By Joemar Matulac

Social media, eCommerce, Fintech, Online Banking, Digital Marketing are at the top of our minds when we think of technologies that changed the landscape of humanity. It was pen pal and phone pal before social media and video call, from shopping at the mall to buying merchandise in just one click, from the hassle of falling in line at the bank to using online banking to efficiently pay or transfer money. It’s all because of technology.

It resolved the issue of a  boundary. The distance doesn’t matter anymore. For example, we don’t need to fly in and out of Singapore for a meeting but now, it can be done via video conference call. Alternative Learning or Digital Learning – that’s what they call it, a digital way to learn and study.

It all depends on your purpose, maybe you just want to learn something new for fun, advancing your career or gaining new skills. If you just want to learn something, there are free Massive Open and Online Courses. You can check out platforms like Coursesa.org and Edx.

There are also platforms that give certificates after completing a course, some are free but some are not. What’s good about this is that the instructors and facilitators are industry practitioners. The certificates issued by these institutions are also accepted by some companies as an additional credential.

In this ever-growing digital age, an increasing number of students are slowly but steadily moving towards digital or alternative learning. Universities are also moving into online education. They are now starting to offer online degrees. Some are fully online and some require onsite visits depending on the higher education.

Digital classrooms are coming up soon and learners are eagerly filling up the seats. Some may argue but we can see the trend that even Georgia Tech, The University of Texas at Austin, Indiana University, Arizona State University, Purdue University, and Boston University are offering degree programs that are fully online. To name a few, Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology is accepting students that earned an online certificate to their Masters’s degree programs.

Not only that digital learning is a highly advanced technological medium but it also provides the learners with a great chance of flexibility, allowing them to choose what they want to study anytime and anywhere at their own pace.

 

Joemar Matulac is an experienced IT technical consultant and system developer with 10+ years of experience in managing technical teams and developing/designing/architecting web 2.0 and mobile-enterprise solutions in various platforms for a broad range of industries. He is currently working as Business Development Officer at Satellite GPS Asset Management and Tracking System, Inc. bridging the gap between business needs and technology.