Aside from the negative impact that accompanied the pro-longed lockdown around the world, COVID-19 made many companies focus on their online presence. Typically, we all had a worldwide panic, and that led to most people, if not all, choosing to work indoors. More importantly, education continued despite the social distancing rule.
That’s where E-learning came in. before COVID-19, e-learning was a concept that was still under development, but it wasn’t fully adopted. However, during the pandemic, everyone wanted to pick up new skills and advance their careers. Educational institutions lurking behind had to move all their teaching materials, assessment activities, and other sections to online platforms.
How COVID-19 changed the adult learning sector
You’ll agree that learning as an adult isn’t that easy. But again, it’s equally not easy studying as a child. Adults are faced with balancing their daily responsibilities and classes while ensuring they give their all in both sectors.
The pandemic pushed most adults to apply or adjust to remote working since social distancing led to the closure of most businesses. Thankfully, ever since COVID-19 hit, there has been a high growth and adoption of education technology. Overall, research shows that online education will reach $350 billion by 2025 (Source, Research and Markets Dec 2019).
Now more than ever, adults have found the perfect chance to continue their studies as they handle their responsibilities easily. In the midst, there has been a growing need for regulations. Today, online courses are sprouting from every corner hence the need to form a body that will govern the online education sector.
European Centre of Independent Certification in E-Learning
The ECICEL (European Centre of Independent Certification in E-Learning) is an international body that officers and the Council govern. This body was established to maintain distance learning programs’ standards and enhance professionalism.
During the pandemic, ECICEL worked overtime to ensure sanity in the online education sector. You’ll agree that it’s now easy to start an online course and charge for it even without the proper qualification to do so. Therefore, there has been a need to maintain the standards of online education during and after the pandemic.
ECICEL was founded back in 2010 by a group concerned about the growing number of institutions that offer online education. Adults who do not understand the standards of online courses are subject to learning unnecessary and low-quality online courses. ECICEL provides accreditation to different levels in the Online Learning Standards. These accreditations help guide adults on what courses to take under specific institutions. Once a particular company is accredited, they get a badge that they can showcase to their customers.
In Summary
Even though online learning offers incredible opportunities to adults and children alike, we should all be cautious about the courses we choose. The goal is to learn new skills from quality courses and not just any course out there. Whenever you enroll in any new online course, check for the ECICEL badge before paying a dime.
