Comparison of the Online Education Platforms, and Innovative Solution Proposals

Abstract

The traditional education methods may remain incapable to meet the today's rising education demands by reason of the fact that it depends on a time, a place, and a person. On the other hand, the training programs in the online learning environments offer important advantages for meeting the rising education demands, and have been become more popular. However, the online education programs that have become more and more popular have disadvantages such as the limitation of instructor control, the boringness due to monotony and the lack of experiential learning. These disadvantages caused by the lack of platforms where online education programs are available, are being minimized by the help technological developments. In this regard, it has been needed to research what kind of disadvantages may arise based on the lack of platforms, and to create innovative solutions in the light of developing technology against these disadvantages. In line with this requirement, under the scope of this study, a comparative content analyze is performed on the most popular platforms (synchronous and asynchronous and blended) that are preferred by universities in Turkey, and it has also been examined that how these online educations can be transformed into a more effective structure with the help of developing technologies. As a result of this study it has been determined that innovative technologies such as Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality make significant contributions to the instructor control, interaction and the experiential learning (transforming theory into practice) in online educations.