Online Fashion Education - Are You Embracing The Change?

At We Teach Fashion we strongly believe that the future of higher education lies with online learning. We're not saying that classroom work will not be needed as there are just some aspects of education that can never replace hands-on input from a tutor - just take pattern cutting for example or the increasing us of 3D printing in fashion. But supplementing the input from a tutor with online input can yield benefits for both the student and the tutor.

Time To Adapt

Clearly, the advent of technology as we currently know it has opened the doors to a new way of learning and any organisation, whether a learning institution or not, must embrace online learning in some form if it is to survive. And therefore this extends to its employees who must adapt their skills and stretch themselves to accommodate new ways of delivering their courses and their learner experience.

Educational institutions around the world are preparing the next generation of fashion professionals who will drive the fashion industry. I believe that online learning has the potential to revolutionise higher education as well as employee training provided that it's embraced by all those involved. Students will be able to learn at their own pace and problems as simple as finding a place to park on campus will be eliminated.

Today, we’re increasingly spending larger and larger amounts of our time staring at our computer and mobile screens, soaking up more and more information. Content is fast becoming ‘the new social currency’

Online Makes It Affordable

Online courses are becoming a more affordable option than traditional colleges, and although not all online degrees have less expensive net tuition prices than traditional colleges, associated costs are almost always less costly.

Increasingly, students are being faced with other obligations over and above just getting a degree. Online courses provide more flexibility than traditional classroom based ones, making them much more convenient for many students.

Jobs and family commitments are making equally important demands on their time. So, having an option of taking online courses and studying on their own time is critically important.

In most cases, you can attend class when it's a good time for you and learn at your own pace. Not many traditional college students can say that about their schedules.

Key To Success

A key for success for an online course is to have well-trained, professional instructors who have adapted to this new medium. New technology makes it possible for instructors to create exciting new ways to learn online that engage students in ways that are just as effective, if not more effective than any lecture or class at university or college.

Online instructors have the added bonus of being able to write material that is presented clearly along with the ability to give and receive feedback on the topics they are teaching.

The best online instructors work hard to provide valuable assistance and interaction with their students, enabling them to highlight key ideas and creating follow-up questions.

The current challenges facing traditional colleges and universities, including higher tuition, budget cuts, and course shortages, have caused many students to search for alternatives. With nearly three million students currently enrolled in fully online degree programs and six million taking at least one online course as part of their degree program, online education has clearly become one of the most popular higher education alternatives.

Below Are 10 Advantages To Online Learning

1. Online courses can give a never ending variety of programs and courses requiring less investment in course design, less capital investment in infrastructure and less involvement of headcount for those organisations that deliver the course.
2. Overall costs can be lower for students too. There are no commuting costs and course materials such as textbooks are largely not necessary because, well, everything’s digital. Lectures and other materials can be electronically sent to the student and videos viewed repeatedly for as long as students need them.
3. Online fashion subject courses give students the opportunity to plan their study time around the rest of their day, instead of the other way around. Students can study and work when they are at their peak energy, whether that’s early morning or late at night, at weekends and in or out of term time.
4. For shy or more reticent students online courses offer the opportunity to participate in class discussions or chats with more ease than face-to-face class sessions would. Some students even report that online courses are easier to concentrate in because they are not distracted by other students and classroom activity around them.
5. Students are able to take online courses and even complete entire degrees while working, while in-between jobs, or while taking time to raise a family.
6. Even the most basic online course requires the development of new computer skills. The skills students learn to participate in their online courses translate to many professions, including creating and sharing documents, incorporating audio/video materials into assignments, completing online assessments etc.
7. Students in online degree programs are able to manage their time, learn the materials that are presented, and complete assignments on their own schedules offering enormous flexibility.
8. Real-time chat sessions can be fully interactive allowing students to communicate easily with their tutor at the same time as fellow students. Students can often participate in the live classes and undertake weekly assignments to be completed in their own time.
9. Students can choose from a number of different delivery methods, such as written lectures, video demonstrations, interactive slideshows, class discussions, and sometimes one-on-one video conferences with the instructor, so they have the learning method that works best for them given their learning style and mode of delivery (laptop, tablet, phone).
10. The communication skills that students learn in online fashion design courses can potentially help them once they leave education and enter the workforce or set up their onw businesses. For example, fashion designers,  need to be able to communicate their vision to the people who work for them and with them, in order to move their fashion lines forward. Developing the skills required to communicate a message clearly, as is the case with online material, is a necessity for success.

Skills Typically Taught in Fashion Courses

There are a number of skills that students enrolled in online fashion design classes can gain through their coursework. We carried out a review of the curricula offered by a number of online courses and some of these skills were covered in topics such as:

•  Color theory
• Sewing
• Portfolio development and review
• Fashion illustration
• Supply chain management
• Business planning
• Computer assisted design techniques
• Textile analysis
• Apparel construction

So the question isn't whether or not online learning is of value or that it has a place in the fashion industry. It can, without a doubt, add enormous value. The question is to what extent is it being embraced by our learning institutions and industry in the sector.

And at a personal level, what are you doing to embrace this form of learning both for yourself and your students?