Some say that ability comes with age while others insist that it comes from learning. Nowadays, learning is open to all and nowadays it’s all possible due to internet. Education is the single best resource for professional and societal advancement, for improving an economy and for creating a better, happier world. An online course takes advantage of all that modern technology offers. Online learning highlight important points, drive problem-solving and critical thinking skills and connect to other resources for deeper learning.
So far, e-learning has been effective to the people in understanding the value. Education may have several purposes, and online courses help to fulfill it. Some even say that e-learning can revolutionize education as it provides new opportunities for traditional learning. I believe online learning is the greatest revolution in contemporary education. It has made a huge change in the system and opened great opportunities for everyone who wants to learn something.
With the theme –“While Isolated, Let’s Get Skilled”, Glocal after School launched two online courses and that was successful indeed. I was also one of the participant of these courses and I must say it was indeed an amazing experience to read online. The first one was 2 hours course, and it was the first ever online course that Glocal After School had launched. The course title was – “Capsule for Covid-19” which was facilitated by Mr. Deepak Raj Joshi, Ex-CEO of Nepal Tourism Board. It was a special session on Retention and Recovery Formula for Business Community. In this course we learnt about the core specifics of crisis management from a contemporary corporate perspective. We were introduced with the key strategies for crisis planning, prevention, response and recovery, also learnt Preparedness for future Crisis lessons.
The most interesting way of such learning was that, we were able to connect the readers from different nooks and corners of the country in a single frame. Wow! I must say this makes a world small and enthusiastic learner can share their ideas interacting one another online. The first online course had a facilitator deliver his ideas, hearing upon the participant’s perspective and ended providing them with an assignment. This was a good practice for everyone who wish to grasp knowledge and be skilled in this chaos time too.
The second course held for three days and it was all about Entrepreneurship ideas and skills. The course title was “Entrepreneurship-101” which was delivered by Mr. Niraj Khanal, CEO/Co-founder of Antarprerana, a company that is supporting entrepreneurs of Nepal through investment and mentorship. I was quiet interested in this course because I want to open my own startup in the upcoming days. I had opportunity to learn business skills and ideas, so I registered quickly for this course without the second thought. I was truly happy to hear from the man himself, who had guided and inspired many entrepreneurs in the country with his mentorship and experience. In this course, we learnt about Customer Research, Market Analysis, Selection and Development of Business Ideas, Estimation of Total Addressable Market Size, SWOT Analysis, Marketing and Promotion Plans in Business, also acquired the skills and knowledge needed to start and improve our business.
More than that, I was amazed to see the participants who were part of the same course but were from different parts of the country like Kathmandu, Hetauda, Birgunj, Kavrepalanchowk, Morang, Dhanusha, Rupandehi and so on. All the participants were truly dedicated upon learning, they were punctual and their interaction with the facilitator was also something extraordinary. Hearing everyone’s story, I could sense that youth are really the change makers. Every one taking the course had a serious commitment to be an entrepreneur in their life. They were punctual, interactive and positive as well. I was happy as I also shared my entrepreneurial plans and got some insights and guidance. The way of facilitating was really interesting. We had many work courses sheet to fill within the learning process. At the end, we had to fill the Quiz and assignments, that would evaluate us and we were certified with the Certificate of Completion of the course at the end.
As far as I researched, this type of education has grown over the last few years and has experienced mainstream acceptance. With an online class, we can get control of our learning environment, which ultimately helps us develop a deeper understanding of course. New models of learning are always springing up in the market, providing students with varied opportunities to fashion their education into something that fits them, not the other way round. The future of online education looks promising, and opens up education to a larger section of the population than ever before. It is good that GAS has been opening such online courses for the students who want to learn in wider topics of their interest. GAS plans to run many different courses in upcoming days as well and I will undoubtly join the course as learning is a never ending process. To summarize, my first online learning has been incredible.
-Saru Pyakurel