E-learning - an interview with the creator

The article was written as part of the implementation of the Quality in Education in the Vocational Training Sector project
funded by the EEA Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 No. EOG/19/K3/W/0010.

In today's post, I wanted to take a look at the topic of e-learning. In many easily accessible sources you can find a range of information on this topic, but I wanted to show you the process of creating e-learning a little more "behind the scenes", as well as provide a handful of very useful information on professional e-learning from the practitioner's side. Therefore, today's article takes the form of an interview, with a trainer who creates his training courses in the form of online lessons. Kamil Mielnik is an academic lecturer of English, as well as a great enthusiast of electronic forms of teaching.

Przemek: Kamil, what are the most obvious benefits of the e-learning form of teaching? I mean the added value of such lectures.

Kamil: Creating webinars - because that's what e-learning meetings are called - are first of all very practical. There is no need to organize lecture halls or at least order catering when we are talking about a longer lecture, in which breaks are provided. Therefore, we can, in a relatively easy way, organize such classes for a wider audience. Another very important aspect is outreach. A common complaint of people who would like to be at an event, but are not there, is simply that the lectures take place at a considerable distance from where the interested parties live.

Przemek: When do we talk about good e-learning?

Kamil: This is where several issues come to my mind. I will try to put down the ones that I consider the most important for good e-learning. A very important aspect, compared to classroom, is economics. We are not talking about the economics of showing up in the lecture hall, but logging on to a particular platform. We are talking about the availability of technical solutions so wide that virtually any user of technology can participate in classes, without any "surprises." Another very important aspect (and one that is very often confused by e-learning developers) is the understanding that the lecture hall and the remote class platform are two different worlds. It is impossible to map it one-to-one, one way as well as the other. They are governed by their own laws, which must be respected in order to create lecture material that is good in reception.

Przemek: What are the most common mistakes made when creating e-learning?

Kamil: The most common mistake I've observed is to translate the desktop form of teaching into a remote form on a one-to-one basis. This is practically unworkable, in short. Let's use discussion leading as an example here. While in the lecture hall with a desktop class, the lecturer can "control" the course of the discussion and not allow shouting at each other, when conducting an online class, when the lecturer "joins" the discussion, which takes the form of shouting at each other to control the course of the discussion - all that can be heard is an array of voices without much order or composition.
Imagine debates in the media when politicians are shouting each other down. It is often difficult to understand them then, and most often, discouraged, we simply switch the program... When creating webinars, we need to follow certain rules, such as the accident of discussion - give or disable the "voice" of the speaker when he "raises" his hand, usually by clicking on the "paw up" icon. Such a form of guidance is essential for a remote discussion to proceed in an orderly and comprehensible manner for all participants.

Przemek: What are your personal thoughts on e-learning as a part of the overall education process?

Kamil: I will answer this question from the perspective of normal times, because as we know in the current situation, virtually all teaching activity has moved to the Internet. Personally, I believe that the remote form of classes has a very important complementary function to classroom teaching. Current technological thought offers Us lecturers to create lectures that are very attractive in form and content. Today, due to the rampant Sars Cov-2 virus, the remote form is a real savior for the "lecture" professional group. Returning to normal times - as we know, nothing can replace contact with a live person. The very quality of interpersonal communication is as much as 70% of non-verbal communication. We are talking about a kind of "amplification" of the message, which we direct through facial expressions, or at least the smell emitted. Webinar, especially in such developed forms as are currently available on the market is an excellent complementary tool, but let us never forget our "natural" form of contact.

As we can see from our brief yet informative conversation with Kamil, e-learning can be said to be "taking our educational business by storm" these days. The old law of the market: there is demand, there will be supply as well. With this in mind, are we just waiting for remote culinary training to pass on the flavor?