Online courses and tutorials help the user in learning like using software, video game, or a lesson. In online tutoring, the students and the teachers are at physically different locations, connected to each other via Internet. Online learning has many benefits. It provides freedom to the learner to learn at their convenient location, convenient time and at their own pace of learning. Also, there is no discrimination of age, caste, gender, background, or the qualification of the learner. The tutorials may be enriched with audio and video information, which makes learning more enjoyable and attractive. Also, tutorials and tests are available for almost all topics, sometimes in regional languages also.
The tutorials may require different kinds of interaction with the user, for example,
● Video/slide tutorials where the video or slides of lectures are available. The learner can visit the site and view the tutorials.
● Interactive tutorials require the user to follow the instructions, perform the desired action and get a feedback.
● Webinars are real time lectures, where users participate in the lecture, may ask questions, and get their queries answered.
Online Educational Sites
There exist several sites for online learning like, http://www.khanacademy.org/, http://www.eagetutor.com/.
1. Khan Academy is an educational website created in 2006 by educator. The website hosts video tutorials on different subjects, like, mathematics, history, physics, chemistry, civics, and economics. The learner can view the video lectures at their convenience.
2. udacity.org is a site which offers online courses for development of technical skills. It claims to provide projects built by technical leaders like Google and AT & T. The site provides verified certificates for a fee.
3. coursera.org and edx.org provide high quality online courses for free, in collaboration with various universities across the globe. They aim to provide free online education through its partners world wide. The courses include topics from hunanities, science, and engineering including courses at school level. These sites provide verified certificates for several courses for a fee.
4. w3schools.com offers free tutorials in all web development technologies like HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP etc.
5. GCFLearnFree.org creates and provides quality, innovative online learning opportunities to anyone who wants to improve the technology, literacy and math skills needed to be successful in both work and life. It has 750 different lessons provided absolutely free. GCFLearnFree.org is a worldwide leader in online education.
6. http://www.ncert.nic.in/index.html is a NCERT portal that provides online learning resources in the form of e-books, journals, question papers, children books, etc.
In addition to learning, there are several sites that allow the students to test their knowledge. These websites hosts tests in different subjects. The learner can take a test and get evaluated. For example, http://www.british-study.com/quizzes/grammartest.php is a site that allows a learner to test their English grammar, for free. http://www.pearsonvueindia.com/ lsatindia/overview.html#2 is site for standardized test of reading and verbal reasoning skills designed by the USA-based Law School Admission Council (LSAC) for use by law schools in India. This is a paid site .
