Online learning: Meet the startup transforming the education system in the time of Covid-19 crisis
Following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, many areas of our life were faced with new challenges. One of those areas was the education system: with home-schooling becoming more and more popular, children now relied on their parents for help, while the rest of learning institutions were going into full lockdowns.
With face-to-face learning slowly falling into disuse due to numerous restrictions, online learning soon became the new norm, serving as a more accessible and flexible education model. Out of all online learning platforms offering people the opportunity to receive professional training outside the traditional institutions; Lectera.com was the only new platform that managed to go global.
With Lectera’s international launch being originally scheduled for early May 2020, the new circumstances soon rendered the event impossible. In line with the company’s main concept, Lectera’s CEO Mila Semeshkina eventually had to take charge of the situation by adapting to the new reality as quickly as possible. At the time, 164 professionals from 19 countries around the world were involved in the project, making the adjustment process even more challenging as a number of different aspects were to be taken into account simultaneously. With the majority of countries involved introducing travel restrictions or even going into full lockdowns, Lectera’s international launch had to be divided into a series of ‘smaller’ launches.
Despite the many drawbacks and the overall psychological tension, Lectera’s team still managed to stay afloat in that difficult time as they worked remotely throughout. And while it was becoming clear that both people and businesses were now running low on money, the amount of free time people got created a growing need for more learning opportunities. Having taken into account the new trends and having developed the appropriate solutions, Lectera managed to become a steady business which was based on the following principles.
Digitalisation is here to stay
One of the main problems Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdowns have revealed is the amount of specialists unwilling to adapt to the new conditions, preferring working from the office to working from home etc.
As we know, unusual times call for unusual measures; so the only way we can tackle the problem is by adopting an entirely new work format. But in order to do so, one must have a certain amount of skills, such as basic computer skills, basic knowledge of messaging apps and online platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, etc. So it’s safe to say that people who avoid technology are at a great disadvantage here, as we live in a digital age, and devices are definitely here to stay.
The faster the better
Many philosophers today agree that living in a constant state of information overload, we eventually start to feel time passing faster. And while some of us continue to ponder on the issue, others use that time to try and learn to stand out in a job market that has been becoming increasingly more competitive due to mass layoffs.
One of the most accessible solutions was online learning as it allows people to improve their professional skills, learn more about their work field, or even change their career path entirely. According to experts, it is inevitable that about ten years from now certain professions will be ‘replaced by machines’, so it’s especially important that we plan the career change in advance.
However, for those who didn’t manage to do so, signing up for an online course providing concise information and fast results could be the answer.
Nowadays, there are many online learning platforms offering such an opportunity. One of them is Lectera.com, a leading international online learning platform which allows its users to take short practice-oriented courses. With standard courses lasting around 8 hours, the platform also offers unique 30-day career training allowing students to develop personalised career roadmaps designed to help them plan their future career. Stepping away from the traditional ‘job for life’ model, Lectera offers users of all ages the chance to start on a new career in a matter of only a few months, helping them to find their true calling while also staying competitive in the job market.
Hard Skills vs Soft Skills
With the majority of people today seeing soft skills as their main priority, specialists with advanced hard skills are starting to become quite hard to find. As we know, hard skills are job-specific abilities or knowledge that can be easily measured.
It’s one thing to know how to be a flexible and ethical SMM specialist who copes well under pressure, but it’s quite another to be able to develop effective content strategies and manage ads accounts.
One of the best ways to stay competitive is by improving your hard skills day in and day out. So if you really want to become a valuable SMM specialist you will need to learn a number of things from social media moderation and targeting to copywriting etc. Eventually, you can focus on one specific field, especially if you want to work for large companies like Google or Yandex which are always looking for narrow specialists to help them create the best product possible.
Say No to Mentoring
Compared to other platforms using mentoring as their main strategy, Lectera offers an entirely different approach.
On those platforms, users are usually presented with large amounts of information in the form of lectures, webinars, or video tutorials, which they then have to memorise by completing countless home assignments. Mentors’ main task being to check those assignments, students end up spending around 80 percent of their time on them which significantly reduces the cost efficiency of the education process in general.
Considering this traditionalist approach to be highly ineffective, Lectera’s team believes that the only way students can build a successful career is through studying practice-oriented materials and acquiring real-life skills. And that’s exactly what Lectera is here for.
Soft Skills are Still Important
It would be wrong to say that compared to hard skills, soft skills bear no significance whatsoever. As an international online learning platform, Lectera has a number of students taking great interest in courses dealing with soft skills, as well as a number of other areas like sales, digital age skills, network marketing, etc.
The majority of Lectera’s users being professionals who already have a certain amount of professional skills, they see those courses as an opportunity to improve their job performance, increase their income, or learn some new skills related to their field.
At universities, theoretical knowledge usually becomes the main focus of attention, while things like boss-employee communication, business correspondence, ways of fulfilling one’s ambitions, and money talk often get left out. Helping users to improve their soft skills or even master a new profession within the shortest time possible, Lectera allows people to study what they want when they want it. By removing the stigma of discussing job-related issues, people learn to let go of their insecurities, laying the foundation for successful career development.
Affordability & Convenience
Against the modern-day background of advancing technology and self-driving cars, traditional education is starting to look rather outdated as it requires a lot of time, energy, and money.
As for Lectera, it allows users to study at their own pace, using learning formats that best fit their own learning style. Taking into account people’s shorter attention span, all courses are divided into separate 5 to 15-minute long video tutorials, making for a fast and effective learning tool. It is well known that by studying 10 to 15 minutes a day, one can start seeing results by as early as 3 to 6 months, compared to traditional university courses which often fail to bring any results whatsoever while also being much more time-consuming.
As for prices, they are much more affordable, too, as online platforms do not have rent, electricity bills, and other costs to cover. With Lectera’s average course price ranging from 50 to 250 USD depending on the amount of resources used, the platform also offers a number of discounts, including a 50% discount available for all affiliate members.
There is no denying the fact that traditional university education might serve as a great platform for acquiring basic skills and identifying one’s main priorities in life. Nevertheless, online learning still remains the only effective way of honing those skills, and becoming a valuable specialist in one’s field of choice.
