Virtual Collaborative Learning Environment and Online Education:An Emerging Branding Paradigm for Higher Educational System

摘要

The wide-spread use of the Internet has increased the demand for courses to be offered online and through Virtual Interactions, and many universities/ institutions are now offering entire educational programs over the web in a variety of fields. Real Time Virtual Learning/Online Education is synonymous to distance learning or e-learning and is referred to as such because in contrast to the orthodox mode of learning, here students are not obliged to attend classes and so don't have to study in one way traffic by listening to the teachers face to face and scribbling down what they hear without having to interact, make a statement or exchange a few words. Online Education/ Learning are student-oriented fashion of learning. If we are to gauge its efficiency by the yardsticks of flexibility, group concurrence, self paced learning and the rest, then Virtual Educational System/Online learning has no parallel. How it is a befitting substitute for traditional education systems,is accounted for in a thread bare discussion in this article. This paper tries to make the readers accustomed to the general impression that what Virtual Educational System/Online Learning conveys. The various benefits of Virtual Educational System/ Online education have been discussed at length besides what online education does for the students, learners, tutors etc. at large and how it has become an emerging branding paradigm for higher educational system. Various potent drawbacks of Online Learning have been discussed in this paper which, are then trailed by ' opponent views'. These views give concrete justifications against the so-called short comings of Online Learning and enlist the techniques to tackle them. The paper also discuses the Global Academic Ini tiatives Project (GAIP) of East Carolina University, USA of which University of Jammu, India is an integral part and how this project has transformed the virtual educational system worldwide.