The Importance of E-Learning in Higher Education
E-learning companies all forms of electronically supported learning and teaching. The information and communication systems, whether networked or not, serve as a specific media to implement the learning process. The growth of e-learning gives a nature of change in higher education. According to the findings of the Sloan Foundation (2010), there has been an increase of around 12-14 percent per year on average in enrolment for fully online learning over the five years 2004-2009 in the post-secondary system, compared with an average of approximately 2 percent per year in enrolments overall. The aim of using e-learning is to improve the quality of the learning experience for students, the drivers of change are numerous, and learning quality ranks poorly in relation to most of them (Diana, 2010). The importance of using e-learning in higher education are to create an environment which learners in higher education become more advance, make the significant differences, and increase the tendency to create a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
Firstly, the importance of using e-learning in higher education is to create an environment which learners become more advance. Diana (2010) states when the students use e-learning they creating an environment in which learners can explore, manipulate and experiment. The features of the digital environment are fully controlled by the program so that it can be designed to offer as much or as little freedom to the learner as is appropriate to their level of mastery. In the others word, e-learning increases their capability in understanding and critiquing an existing theory. Preference example for a mathematical model of a well-researched system, such as population dynamics in biology, or unemployment fluctuations in economics. An interactive simulation enables students to explore how the model behaves according to the way they change parameters (Diana, 2010). The quality and flexibility to meet the diverse needs of students will potentially enhance by this technological learning process (John, 2001).
Next, the importance of using e-learning is it can make a significant difference in university teaching. E-learning is defined for our purpose here as the use of any of the new technologies or applications in the service of learning or learner support. It is important because e-learning can make a significant difference about how learners learn to master a skill quickly through the easiness of studies while enjoying their learning (Richard & Diana, 2000).
Furthermore, e-learning such a complex set of technologies that make different kinds of impact on the experience of learning towards cultural, intellectual, social and practical. It clear can be seen in methods, as they are similar to the forms of information search and communications method they use in other parts of their lives. Through intellectual aspect, this interactive technology offers a new mode of engagement with ideas via both