Is school feeling more like a horse race? With technological advancements and changing educational needs, it’s time for your learning to catch up. That’s where the benefits of self-paced learning come in. With all its flexibility and personalization, self-paced learning allows you to ditch the classroom and learn as quickly or slowly as you want. The curriculum usually sets the pace of a traditional classroom, but with self-paced learning, you’re in charge of your education.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss the benefits of self-paced learning and how it has transformed modern education. But before that, let’s look at some platforms that offer self-paced learning.
Different Self-Paced Learning Platforms for Students
A plus point of self-paced learning is that there are a lot of tools that allow you to learn at your own pace and determine what, when, and where to study. The following are the most important of them.
Online Schools
Online schools offer comprehensive K–12 curricula that are delivered fully online. Teacher support, coaching, and assessments make them an excellent alternative to traditional education.
Although some online schools offer live lessons with a pre-defined schedule, others, like Global Town School, provide students with a flexible curriculum that is personally designed according to students’ needs.
MOOC Platforms
Massive open online courses (MOOC) platforms like Coursera, edX, and Udemy offer in-depth courses on just about anything. You can take these courses in college, at home, or even on your commute. Upon course completion, you can earn certification and college credits.
Learning Management Systems(LMS)
LMSs like Canvas, Moodle, and Blackboard offer a complete learning environment by offering course materials and assignments. They also track your progress and make sure you’re doing right. These platforms are not direct education providers; however, students seeking self-paced learning should learn how to use such platforms better.
Educational Video Platforms
Video platforms like Khan Academy and YouTube are lifelines of instructional videos that come to the rescue when textbooks fail. They are ideal for those who want to explore specific concepts in detail.
Video Tutoring
Sometimes, you just need someone to explain things your way. Platforms like Chegg and Wyzant offer you one-on-one tutoring tailored to your pace and level of understanding. These programs are ideal if you need support outside your primary learning platform.
E-Book Libraries and Online Textbook Resources
Digital libraries like Project Gutenberg and OpenStax offer thousands of e-books and textbooks covering a wide range of subjects. You can make use of them whenever you want.
Language Learning Apps
If you want to learn a new language, apps like Duolingo and Rosetta Stone provide bite-sized lessons. They are fun and engaging, and you can learn at your convenience.
Now that we know about different platforms that offer self-paced learning let’s dive into the benefits of this approach and see why it’s a game changer.
Benefits of Self-Paced Learning for Students
Self-paced learning simply gives every student what they need. Many of its benefits are as follows:
Flexibility and Freedom
Balancing study with life: Do you have a sports tournament coming? A part-time job? A family vacation? No problem! With self-paced learning, you don’t have to stick with rigid schedules and can easily manage your studies with other commitments.
Break free from location barriers: Geographical constraints are no longer a problem. Whether you’re stuck at home or traveling, as long as you have your laptop or mobile device, you can access coursework.
Personalized Learning
Target your trouble spots: Self-paced learning technologies are often equipped with adaptive learning technologies that analyze where you excel and struggle. This analysis helps you dedicate more time to weak subjects and improve results.
Adapt education to your style: Different students have different learning styles. Some prefer visual content while others enjoy reading or interactive activities. Self-paced learning allows you to study in a way that suits you the best.
Better Understanding and Retention
Take Your Time: When you learn at your own pace, you don’t have to rush through a topic. If you find a subject or topic difficult, you can take as much time as you need to understand it. In this way, you understand the material instead of just memorizing it for the test.
Revise Anytime: If you ever need a refresher, you can rewatch the lecture or re-read the notes. Course material is accessible at all times.
Leveling Up Soft Skills
Responsibility and discipline: Self-paced learning places you in the driver’s seat of your education. When you make schedules and try your best to stick to them, you become responsible and gain invaluable self-discipline in all walks of life.
Goal setting: When in charge of your education, you set goals and assess your progress regularly. This improves your goal-setting and self-evaluation.
In essence, self-paced learning makes education more personalized, flexible, and accessible for modern learners. Not only that, it also develops your essential life skills.
Self-Paced Learning’s Role in Different Academic Fields
Self-paced learning makes all subjects much easier to learn. Whether it be STEM, humanities, or language and skill learning, self-paced learning has unique advantages in every discipline.
When studying STEM subjects at your own pace, problem-solving and mastering concepts is much easier with interactive simulations and step-by-step tutorials. The downside is that you can’t replace the hands-on experience of a laboratory, which is significant for many STEM subjects. At Global Town School, we overcome this challenge by using Metaglobal, our virtual reality learning platform where students can learn STEM topics through virtual experiments.
For humanities and social sciences, self-paced learning allows you to dig deep into historical and cultural contexts. But the catch is that there isn’t any spontaneous debate or discussion that occurs in the classroom. Again, through Metaglobal, our instructors can virtually create classrooms and start communication among our students no matter where they join from. They can discuss any topic virtually as if sitting together in a classroom.
Final Words
Self-paced learning is an innovative approach that offers you numerous benefits. Its flexibility allows students to balance study with personal commitments. You can customize your learning path and give more time to the subjects that you find difficult.
Self-paced learning is what you make of it. It refines the learning process and develops soft skills like discipline and goal-setting that are invaluable in personal and professional life.
We at Global Town School pride ourselves on offering our students an entirely personalized, hyper-flexible, and innovative self-paced learning experience that allows them to pursue their dreams and passions without sacrificing the quality of their education.
