International Conference on Innovative Mechanisms for Industry Applications

(ICIMIA 2017)

A Comparative Analysis of Traditional

Education System Vs. e-Learning
First A. Ramya S Gowda, Head-SME-IT, INurture Education Services, Bangalore, Research Scholar,
Bharathiar University, Coimbatore. raashiramya@gmail.com , ramya.g@inurture.co.in

Second B. Dr. Suma. V, Dean Research and Industry Incubation Centre, Professor, Department of Information
Science and Engineering, Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore, sumavdsce@gmail.com, suma-
ise@dayanandasagar.edu

 recognized as a mean of providing access to knowledge. The

Abstract— Education system has a history of decades and from
then the system is continuously evolving. Due to the vast
paradigm there is enormous difference that makes traditional
learning techniques boring to students. Learning is the act of
acquiring knowledge or skills through study, experience or being
taught. With the increase in technology, e-Learning has become
word of mouth in the day to day life. This is because of anytime,
anywhere accessibility to learning. E-Learning is a trivial
combination of pedagogy, technology and accreditation. In this
paper, discussion on e-Learning through comparison on benefits
and drawbacks of traditional education system and modern
system. The major importance of e-Learning is on the emphasis
of agility and Lean management which are the two major
features of e-Learning. This paper shows various types of
resources, its types and how performance is achieved through e-
Learning. This is a comprehensive paper where effort has been
made to identify the parameters to achieve benefits from the
various education system. There has been lot of evolution from
traditional to computer based education system. Always there
has been great debate on the following questions; Are these two
systems really different? If they are, what are the resources
makes them different from one another? This research aims to
addresses the comparison between Traditional learning and e-
Learning through comprehensive approach.
Index Terms— Comparative Analysis, Traditional Education
System, e-Learning, Teacher-Centric Learning, Student Centric
Learning
I. INTRODUCTION
widespread use of information technology (IT) and the mass
popularization of the Internet/World Wide Web (WWW) have
meant that opportunities have been identified for developing
distance learning activity into a more advanced e-Learning
environment [1].
A. Overview of e-Learning?
E-learning provides a platform that provides anywhere,
anytime easy access for up-gradation of knowledge and skills.
It provides a platform wherein the individual gets a
customized package related to key thematic areas, through a
self-guided process. That means, it is a collaboration of
technology, pedagogy and accreditation to come up with the
attractive concept of learning called as e-Learning. It gives
technology enabled learning with the use of supportable
platform and various resources such as text content, visual
content and audio content. It also gives you blended learning
through the collaboration of self-paced learning and lectures
online. Student will not miss the support of knowledgeable
teachers and their guidance and along with additional content
for his reference. It is based on systematic level of pedagogy
that is researched by many scientists and most acceptable of
them are Bloom’s Taxonomy [4], Arc Model and Gagne
theory of education [6].
When discussing about e-Learning and traditional
Learning, knowing the meaning of ‘learning’ is important.

T oday, with the intense speed on the paradigm on the
structure of workforce and education, technology growth
has to adhere the same speed so that they can match the
competition. Innovation is find in every field due to
knowledge based society and so as education is also not
isolated from this situation. Almost all the people use new
technologies to expand their knowledge and acquire new
skills. These have led to change in the way of learning. It is
found that the advancement of computer and network
technologies have contributed to make the way to educate
people very different from how it was previously done [2].
Education facilitates at a distance have recently been
B. What is Learning?
Learning is an act of acquiring knowledge or skills through
study, experience or being taught. That means the act of
acquiring something new which are unknown at that instant of
time. When learnt that is from that instance will be called as
known. Therefore, Learning is considered as foundational
principle and is a must and should terminology to understand.
According to Berkley university, Lawrence Hall of
Science/UC Berkeley NSF-WIDER Grant: Faculty Learning
Program, Learning is a process that is active, builds on prior
knowledge, occurs in a complex social environment, situated
in authenticated context, and requires learner’s motivation and
cognitive engagement[3]. Learning is basically defined on
which the focus of the object. Figure 1.1 shows the

978-1-5090-5960-7/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE 567

Authorized licensed use limited to: Universidad Del Norte Biblioteca. Downloaded on March 15,2024 at 14:53:29 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 International Conference on Innovative Mechanisms for Industry Applications
classification of learning which is done based on this.
Learning
Teacher- Learner-
Centric Centric
Learning Learning
Figure 1.1 Classification of Learning on the basis of focus
Both of them should be studied in detail one by one.
i. Teacher-Centric learning: In Teacher-Centric Learning,
Teacher is the main focus object. Teacher gives the
direction to the student to learn. There is a structured
way in which the syllabus is designed, curriculum is
developed and teacher teaches according to the
predefined syllabus so that student in the class should not
get deviated from the actual motive of his/her learning.
Teacher helps student by explaining the concept, giving
examples and clearing the minimal doubts which is there
in the class. Student considers the teacher as a role model
and follows what is taught in the class. Teacher talks and
the student listen to the teacher. In case of activities or
assignment, it is guided learning and there is no scope for
collaboration. Talking or consulting is considered as
indiscipline.
Teacher-Centered education places classroom to run in
order. Students will not make noise and all the activities
in the class are under teacher’s control. Students are so
dependent on a particular teacher for their learning.
Teachers directs every activity in the classroom and are
sure that students don’t miss any important topic.
However, this kind of education has some drawbacks.
The following drawbacks gave an insight to think are
these bearable drawbacks or some other system exists
which can be better than this.
ii. Drawbacks of Teacher-Centric Learning
x Does not collaborate: Collaboration doesn’t happen
among students. The scope of improving
communication skill hampers.
x Loss of presence of mind: Teacher-centered
instruction can make students feel bored of learning
the linear way of engagement. This makes students
to wander in mind and may miss some important
facts. Rate of presence of mind in the classroom may
reduce.
x No freedom to express: Doesn’t allow students to
express themselves, ask questions and teachers direct
their own learning.
x Predefined Teacher- Student has to bear with the
teacher allotted to him/her even if they don’t
understand what is taught.
x Predefined Syllabus: Teachers teach only what is
there in the syllabus and scope of going beyond the
syllabus is very limited.
x Restricted timings: Student has to learn in the time
978-1-5090-5960-7/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
Authorized licensed use limited to: Universidad Del Norte Biblioteca. Downloaded on March 15,2024 at 14:53:29 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
(ICIMIA 2017)
allotted by the teacher or the institution. Irrespective
of the students will he/she has to sit in the classroom
and try to concentrate on what is taught.
x Geographical barrier: The student has to sit the class
of a particular college and study what is taught by the
teacher of that syllabus. He/she is not to sit in any
other class/institution for which he is not enrolled.
x Abrupt holidays: Students will get unexpected leaves
due to unpredictable situation, catastrophic situation
and man-made situation. Due to this learning time is
wasted.
x Educational Cost: Cost of education is very high.
This cost includes visible and hidden costs. This
differentiation of the cost and the items under each
type can be shown clearly in figure 1.2.
Figure 1.2 Types of Education cost with detailing of list
Many researchers looked for various solutions and over
evolution of education from many decades, they found that
focusing of learner is good methodology than focusing on
teacher. Then, Learner- Centric education came into picture.
iii. Learner Centric Learning
As the name indicates, is this kind is completely Learner
oriented? Is there no space or value to a teacher? This is most
important perspective here. In this methodology learner and
teacher share the focus. That means, learning happens
according to student’s interest and teachers acts as facilitator.
Teacher facilitates with all the necessary resources needed by
the student so that his learning can happen without any
disturbance. In this learning emphasis is more on the interests,
style of learning and ability to understand by the student. It is
more like a facilitating according to student’s need and
requirements. In this way it capture the interests of every
individual in the class than considering class as a whole.
Activities needed for the learning can be a collaborative or
group work. In this way learner shares his/knowledge,
improves the communication skills of the individual and have
a balanced information on a particular concept.
Unlike teacher-centric, learning is directed by the student in
their own way, asks doubts to whomever they want and
complete tasks independently. Since lot of activities have to
perform during course, makes the learning interesting and
active through interacting with peers.
Machine is not the replacement for human beings and
software cannot replace emotions although both software and
568
 International Conference on Innovative Mechanisms for Industry Applications
emotions are intangible parameters. Nevertheless, still in this
pedagogy, “Time to Market is the mantra of the day”, where
people emphasis on agility and Lean management. Before this
one should understand what this pedagogy is and why it is
implemented. Since evolution in education is taking towards
learner focus, with the advancement in technology and after
the accreditation from the bodies, e-Learning is a well-
designed concept for self-paced learning. As mentioned in
learner-centric that it is focus sharing of both teacher and
student, learning can happen in blended mode though e-
Learning concept.
II. LITERATURE SURVEY
As of now fifty research papers have been referred out of
which the following papers are relevant to this paper.
1. PROMISE AND CHALLENGE OF E-LEARNING –
LITERATURE REVIEW [9]:
According to this paper the advantages of e-Learning are:
1. Web based learning gives a new direction to both students
to students and teacher to student interaction. This direction is
often called e-Learning 2.0
2. E-Learning reaches geographically across and capable of
spread knowledge to remote areas.
3. It helps in collaborating with colleagues who are far away
and share knowledge
4. Cost of education is reduced
5. E-Learning aimed in flexibility, scalability and rapid deploy
abiity of web based learning promoting innovation
6. Learner networks can also be created with the help of
innovation in e-Learning. This leads to scial media based
learning
7. Constructivism of education is possible
2. A comparison of E-Learning and traditional classroom
teaching: Petra University [10]
According to this paper,
1. on average, students in online learning conditions
performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction
provided variable factors remained constant.
2. The difference between student outcomes for online and
face-to-face classes—measured as the difference between
treatment and control means, divided by the pooled standard
deviation—was larger in those studies contrasting conditions
that blended elements of online and face-to-face instruction
with conditions taught entirely face-to-face.
3. Analysts noted that these blended conditions often included
additional learning time and instructional elements not
received by students in control conditions. This finding
suggests that the positive effects associated with blended
learning not be attributed to the media, per se.
3. Traditional Education Vs. e-Learning in the vision of
Romanian business students [11]
1. E-Learning platform increases the flexibility of students
study program
2. This platform provides quick feedback from the teachers
and reduces the time for study. That means the waste of time
will be eliminated
978-1-5090-5960-7/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
Authorized licensed use limited to: Universidad Del Norte Biblioteca. Downloaded on March 15,2024 at 14:53:29 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
(ICIMIA 2017)
3. Improves student-teacher communication, interaction with
peers and with administrative system
4. E-Learning: An individual Learning Perspective: an
Analysis [12]
1. E-Learning is more effective to students as it makes
students to develop their problem solving skills, critical
thinking, analytical skills and responsibility to learning
2. E-learning empowers the scheduling for learner, organise
activities, adopt technological tools in the classroom, makes
the student responsible for his learning and subjecting the
students to regular evaluation.
3. E-learning helps the students to visualise a single problem
in multiple perspective. Like this innovations power improves.
4. Role of the instructor shifts to act as a facilitator and
facilitates the support to learning activity.
5. Evaluation of e-Learning Program versus Traditional
education Instruction for Undergraduate [13]
1. E-learning overcomes the restriction of time and place
2. Information access is accurate
3. Self paced learning enhances problem solving skills
4. Considers the individual learning capacity of the students
5. Due to the pedagogy, educational material is designed in
such a way that it retains in student’s mind
6. Increases communication among, student, teacher and peers
7. Easy to update the e-content
8. Ease access of instructor out of working hours
6. Assessing the usability of a visual tool for the definition of
e-learning processes [14]
The tool implements the adaptive self-consistent learning
object SET (ASCLO-S) visual language, a special case of flow
diagrams, to be used by instructional designers to define
classes of learners through stereotypes
The empirical analysis revealed that the effort required to
model e-learning processes is not influenced by the experience
of the instructional designer with the use of e-learning tools,
but it only depends on the size of the developed process.
III. OBJECTIVES OF E-LEARNING
The core focus of e-Learning is on student’s learning
process, his engagement and the performance of the student
and its evaluation. Before planning to achieve this, one should
plan the objectives of e-Learning.
The major objectives of e-Learning are
1. Personalised learning: Method of giving right to learner
to choose his own way of learning methods by involving
in various resources provided by e-Learning platform.
This allows the learner to set their own target, evaluate
themselves at every stage and learn from each level until
evaluating the self-progress [7].
2. Online access and resources: Access to online portal
depends on the institutions as each of them will have
their own types of access methods and various resources
in it. Resources are the learning methods which is
converted in the form of artefacts. They may be Self-
569
 International Conference on Innovative Mechanisms for Industry Applications
learning material, lecture slides, quizzes, and videos,
audio lectures, till games, simulations and animations.
3. Scalability: Scalability refers to expanding the e-
Learning methodology according to the demand of the
stakeholder.
4. Enable Anytime, Anywhere Learning: E-learning
provides a platform that provides anywhere, anytime
easy access
5. Blended Pedagogy: This model has combined feature of
self-paced learning and instructor-led training. This
model gives raise to additional models in e-Learning
pedagogy which may be customised to need of the
customer.
6. High student engagement and experience: Without
engagement process, students will not be interested to
use e-Learning as this is new concept. To adapt any
change some effort need to put. This is done by student
engagement team.
A. How to achieve all these objectives?
To achieve all these, now people should be aware of what
the meaning of pedagogy is. When anyone talks about
pedagogy people use big words such as Bloom’s taxonomy,
Arc model and Gagne’s theory. What they are actually.
• Blooms taxonomy [4]: Blooms taxonomy is a term which
was developed by educational psychologist Dr Benjamin
Bloom in order to promote higher forms of thinking in
education, such as analyzing and evaluating concepts,
processes, procedures, and principles, rather than just
remembering facts (rote learning). Figure 1.3 shows pictorial
representation of Blooms taxonomy of education.
Figure 1.3 Blooms taxonomy[7]
• Arc Model: Arc model was created by John Keller and
has four main components to describe pedagogy. Attention to
the student, relevance to the topic, confidence of the subject
for the learner, and satisfaction of what is learnt is correct.
This is represented in figure 1.4 which depicts ARCS theory
[5]
978-1-5090-5960-7/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
Authorized licensed use limited to: Universidad Del Norte Biblioteca. Downloaded on March 15,2024 at 14:53:29 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
(ICIMIA 2017)
Figure 1.4 ARCS Theory on instructional design [5]
• Gagne’s Theory: R. Gagne designed the nine steps of
instruction. According to him there are nine events that
provide a framework for an effective learning process [6]. The
steps are
1. Gaining attention
2. Informing the learner of the objective
3. Simulating recall of prior knowledge
4. Presenting information
5. Providing guidance
6. Eliciting performance
7. Providing feedback
8. Assessing performance
9. Enhancing retention and transfer
These are the roadmaps for the pedagogy to arrive in
education industry.
B. How e-Learning overcomes drawbacks of Traditional
Learning?
Traditional education system has lot of heavy weights such
as restrictions of time, No bypass such as hierarchical silo,
individual silo and organisational silo. With the growth in
technology, like e-Mail, e-business, e-Commerce, e-Learning
are the most popular words heard in the education market.
In case of e-Learning, learner can navigate across the
resources which eliminates carrying lot of books, eliminate
heavyweight, its fastness at that minute and one can bypass
various levels such as if student does not understand from one
site, he/she can refer other sites. In this way Agility is
maintained in e-Learning.
In teacher-centric system, lot of student’s time get wasted.
Student’s contributing time is monopolized by other student.
For example, while taking attendance, giving answer scripts,
or during the process of asking questions, most of the valuable
570
 International Conference on Innovative Mechanisms for Industry Applications
(ICIMIA 2017)

time of the student get wasted. This waste is called deadlock. V. CONCLUSION
Here productivity reduces due to unwanted loss of time. Through this study the highlights of e-Learning can be
Generally traditional classes are measured in No. of hours. concluded as Time is value. With the increase in populations
Student Engagement in the traditional class with each class of Competition rate very is high. In the modern education,
1 hour/session. If you waste 10 minutes of an hour in taking therefore, survival is the biggest challenge. Due to the rapid
attendance, monitoring while giving notes and asking evolution of technology and increase in competitive world, if
questions as revision to 1 person, considering 6 hours of a there is a problem of education and time, One answer to this
class in a day, here it goes like this, problem is e-Learning. E-Learning can replace and overcome
∑ = 60 min a day the drawbacks in traditional education system. When it comes
∑ = 6 hrs a week to platform and software, lots of concerns comes into picture.
∑ = 24 hrs a month There are many cost estimation techniques in this field.
∑4 Months = 96 hours Further research is continued on the existing software cost
That means, student is deprived by the period taken to learn 2 estimation techniques with heterogeneous parameters.
courses.
This is waste of time. Waste is something which fetches no REFERENCES
value to stakeholders. Here stakeholders are students/learners.
The process of eliminating such waste is called Lean [1] Papanis, E. (2005), Traditional Teaching versus e-Learning.
Management. Experimental Approach, Statistical Review, 1, vol 1, pp. 19-35.
[2] Y.H.Tamsamani, “Elearning versus Traditional Classroom”[online]:
Available at “http://www.morocco worldnews.com/2012”.
[3] Berkley Center of Teaching and Learning, “what is learning?”,
IV. TRADITIONAL EDUCATION SYSTEM VS. E-LEARNING Available at http://teaching.berkeley.edu/resources/learn/what-learning
retrieved on 10-01-2017
E-Learning overcomes the waste caused to the stakeholders
[4] Bloom's Taxonomy by Edward Vockell (1988), “Learning Theories:
through Lean Management. As e-Learning can be highlighted Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism”
for agility and Lean management, comparison of traditional [5] John Keller, (1988), ARCS Model of Motivational Design, et.al.
and e-Learning is as shown in table 1.1. [6] Gagne, R.(1965). Nine steps of instructional design, et.al.
[7] Retrieved from
http://wytonprimaryschool.org.uk/PersonalisedLearning.htm on 11-01-
Table 1. Comparative study of Traditional Education System 2017
Vs. e-Learning [8] Bloom, et.al. (1956), retrieved from
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html retrieved on 11-01-
2017
Traditional e-Learning [9] 1Ibrahim Albidewi, 2Radi Tulb, (Jan 2014), PROMISE AND
CHALLENGE OF E-LEARNING – LITERATURE REVIEW,
European Scientific Journal January 2014 edition vol.10, No 1 ISSN:
Depends on books Depends on LMS 1857 – 7881 (Print) e - ISSN 1857- 7431
[10] Ahmad Al-Hassan, 2011, “A Comparison of E-Learning and Traditional
Classroom Teaching: Petra University, in proceedings
Restriction to learn There is no restriction of (AlHassan2011ACO)
time/boundary(syllabus) [11] 1M. Tutunea, 2R.V. Rus, 3V. Toader, (2009), Traditional Education Vs.
e-Learning in the vision of Romanian business students,
Lot of heavy weights Eliminate heavy weights INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EDUCATION AND
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES, Issue 1, Volume 3, 2009
persists such as [12] Asha Unnikrishnan, 2016, E – Learning: An Individual Learning
Perspective: an Analysis, International Journal of Engineering Research
x Hierarchical silo & Technology (IJERT), Vol. 5 Issue 11, November-2016, ISSN: 2278-
x Individual and 0181
[13] 1Jasim Mohammed Atiyah, 2Mohammed M. El Sherbiny, 3Shawkat K.
organizational silo Guirguis, 2015, Evaluation of e-Learning Program versus Traditional
Learning process is slow Process is faster education Instruction for Undergraduate, International Journal of
Advanced Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, Vol. 2,
Issue 7 , July 2015
No bypass at any level Can bypass the level and [14] Gennaro Costagliola, , Andrea De Lucia, , Filomena Ferrucci, , Carmine
discuss/share knowledge Gravino, , Giuseppe Scanniello,(2008), Assessing the usability of a
visual tool for the definition of e-learning processes, Journal of Visual
Lot of waste exists during Elimination of waste Languages & Computing, Volume 19, Issue 6, December 2008, Pages
721–737
the educational process

978-1-5090-5960-7/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE 571

Authorized licensed use limited to: Universidad Del Norte Biblioteca. Downloaded on March 15,2024 at 14:53:29 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.