Each year along comes a new recruitment drive, for people to take up courses and enrol in universities and colleges around the world. However with the ever spiralling costs of traditional learning institutions the question that many people are now asking is ‘is there a better way to acquire skills?’ A way that is not just more cost effective but practical as well.
Online training courses are on the increase, with the total market for global e-learning estimated at $107 billion.
The top three countries that are seeing the biggest growth in e-learning take ups are India, China and Malaysia illustrating how e-learning platforms really do now have a global reach.
This article focuses on an e-learning programme on digital marketing skills, through an online university called Wealthy Affiliate. I have mentioned their name before in association with web hosting for this site, but as an organisation they are also pushing into the education arena as well, so I was interested to know what exactly can you learn here and what are the advantages and disadvantages over a traditional university course.
Wealthy Affiliate University
Traditional university courses have really tried to meet the demands of their working students by providing module based courses, and home based learning programmes that students can access from all over the globe. But even these programmes have a limit to there flexibility, for example the following comparison is based on generic requirements across different advertised courses.
Traditional online course
Most traditional courses are still overseen by a tutor who manages assignments and provides feedback on the training. In order for this to work effectively most universities and colleges online have developed a standardised system which consists of the following.
- There has to be a specific start date and end date to the module.
- A certain number of participants are required in order to enable classroom chat situations.
- Assignments have to be submitted within set timescales.
- The work is often based on simulated projects, not real life businesses.
- Costs are usually paid up front for the whole module.
Now image a situation where there was complete flexibility in learning. A university programme that worked with you and your business, rather than you trying to complete a set programme regardless of your own ability and current situation.
Wealthy Affiliate University courses
- Anyone can start at any time there is an automated lesson system that logs tasks and records which classroom you are part of.
- You work completely at your own pace but you can access peer support from people at your level and also with 3-4 years experience or even longer.
- There are no assignments but you work on tasks
- The tasks are on your own real business web site and blog
- Costs can be paid monthly and for as long as you wish to partake in the university training.
So What Can I Expect when I Join?
Wealthy affiliate is a practical learning course and is designed for people who are looking to set up their own website or online business. The course is designed to take you through the process and you are expected to implement everything learnt onto your own site. There are no assessments to be completed, instead you work at your own pace and slowly build up your own site following the tutorials provided. The walk through tutorials follow the progress of setting up an affiliate marketing site from scratch.
Feedback and comments on your site can be provided by the general community at WA, through specific forums if you so request. You can also view many of the sites of other and more established members to see how they are developed.
Most of the members of the university are seeking to make money from their websites and so a significant proportion of the course is geared towards creating quality content, and understanding how to get traffic to your site. However other people have also developed hobby sites with an aim to network and meet others with a similar interest.
The WA Programme Content
The main affiliate marketing course is comprised of five levels, each level containing 10 sessions of learning broken down further into tasks.
Courses Offered At Wealthy Affiliate University
For example the first level (1) is a foundation or introduction level and consists of the following 10 lessons or modules. At the end of this module you will have built your own website and started to create content, linked to keywords and have a basic understanding of SEO.
Each lesson usually consists of a video tutorial providing an explanatory walkthrough of the lesson’s tasks. This information is also written out below the video and a set of tasks accompany the session. You simply toggle the box when each task has been completed and you move onto the next lesson. You can also manually move onto the next lesson if you choose to
