Internet… a window to the world

For many people The Internet has always been an indispensable educational tool. Indeed, experts claim that the main features of the Internet are closely related to the fundamental issues of education. For example, both the Internet and education deal with information exchange, communication, and knowledge creation.

Participatory, communal nature of many training platforms is closely related to the basic characteristics of human learning, not only to the practice of creating, sharing, and collaborating.

The implications of the Internet for education and learning can be understood in different ways. First, the Internet has the capacity to offer individual learners greater freedom from the physical limitations of the real world. Often it means reducing limitations regarding place, space, time, and location, so that individuals have access to high-quality learning options and educational offer, regardless of local conditions. The Internet is thus presented as enabling education at any time, place and pace.

Second, the Internet is seen as supporting a new culture of learning - ie learning based on bottom-up principles of collective exploration, play and innovation rather than top-down, personalized instruction. The Internet enables many-to-many, rather than one-to-many, learning format, thus supporting different ways of learning and cognitive development that are profoundly social and cultural in nature.

For example, it is often argued that the Internet offers individuals increased access to sources of knowledge and expertise that exist outside of their closest environment. So there is currently a great deal of interest in the Internet's ability to support powerful forms of learning and digitally dispersed communities of practice. The Internet is therefore seen as a powerful tool to support learning through authentic actions and interactions between people.

Training platforms

Online training is often considered simply a more modern form of classroom training. Their popularity is constantly growing, not only because of the growing demand for education, but most of all because of the convenience they bring. Nowadays, when almost everything can be settled online, people seem to prefer this form of learning- from home- than regular classroom training. Online training is a form of saving time for them.

Another advantage of training platforms is also the large variety and accessibility of available materials - this type of learning can be used by residents of large cities, as well as small towns and villages in a democratic manner.

However, it is often difficult to choose a trusted platform - there is a lot of offers of courses, webinars, vlogs, analyzes, e-books, packages and other educational materials, and undoubtedly, the demand for training also attracts people who do not have sufficient qualifications to conduct them. Therefore, sometimes choosing the right training is even more difficult than learning later.

Nevertheless, training platforms now have a clear advantage over classroom training in terms of versatility and convenience. And more and more people, having the choice of staying at home or having to go to the training, will choose the former without hesitation, if only to save time.

Platform selection

When choosing training, we may not be sure of our own level. The inability to accurately determine the level of one's own knowledge is usually explained by the Dunning-Kruger effect - it causes the uneducated people in a given field to overestimate their level of knowledge, and vice versa - experts underestimate their skills. In the context of training platforms, it also means that the former tend to choose training that is too difficult, and therefore may not be able to cope with the prepared material. This is the reason why it is good to objectively assess your own skills before choosing online training, and ideally take an external test.

Another problem that can make it difficult to choose the right platform is overestimating your own learning motivation and the speed of acquiring knowledge. People who have this tendency often invest in highly compressed, quick training that requires a lot of free time. If the training platform offers such option, it is worth considering whether it would be better to approach the topic slowlier but more carefully. When choosing a platform, it is worth considering not only the first impression. People offering low quality courses know very well that laymen come to them, so they try to make their platform look professional. Regardless of the level offered, most training platforms share the same marketing tricks and methods of persuasion. Proven training platforms such as Webinar Universe are reviewed as striving for customers, so sometimes it happens that they provide some free materials on the condition of, for example, subscribing to a newsletter.

Is it working?

Participation in trainings brings tangible results. It has long been proven that the chance of a successful career is directly proportional to the knowledge acquired during education. People who participated in the courses are twice less likely to be unemployed than those who have only a university diploma, and almost three times less than those with lower education. What is extremely interesting, the field in which the diploma was obtained does not really matter - the trend continues among both: people with humanistic and technical studies, contrary to the common myth that graduating from a niche, humanistic studies more disturbs than helps on the job market.

But why are better educated people, and also those who have completed many courses, better on the job market? The learning process itself and the acquisition of soft skills are important here. Acquiring knowledge in college or as part of a course translates into better performance in real life. In addition, people who invest in self-development are considered better employees, but also entrepreneurs and employers.

Here, however, we come to the lerning paradox - it is at the same time very easy due to the availability of materials, and very difficult because these materials can be of various quality. What's more, there are plenty of scammers who try to make easy money by offering non-existent products or piecing together material available for free on the web into expensive compilations.

It is also a very profitable business, especially if we target a business client. Business client is so eager to use training for employees, because he can deduct it from tax. Similarly, false training courses financed by the European Union are organized - preferential financing means that for some people it is "not profitable" to employ competent people. However, most scams await the unaware on the Internet, as fake training platforms or educational package offers are a simple and hard-to-prove way to ensure a regular flow of illegal cash.

In summary, online training is a great method to learn, but it requires you to be familiar with the recommended platforms, not to overestimate your own strength and ... a lot of self-abnegation. Even so, the effort pays off as training often opens the way to a new career and great opportunities.