Abstract
With the incredible advancement of information communication technology (ICT), the pedagogy demands the blending of teacher facilitation in the classroom and self-directed independent learning through e-learning portals. The ICT has ensured that individuals and institutions offer free access to a vast repertoire of knowledge of all disciplines. This article aims to support teachers and students of all grades with brief notes on a few helpful learning portals. The websites are illustrated with the features and nature of available resources and guidelines to explore them. These are only a few examples of e-resources, and the author expects further exploration of the resources by the teachers and the students to satisfy their thirst for knowledge and develop an independent learning culture.
Keywords: E-learning, learning portal, app, independent learning, connectivist learning
Defining Learning Portals
The traditional sage-on-a-stage approach or teacher-centered approach of teaching couldn’t satisfy the learning needs of learners. Currently, the meddlers-in-the-middle approach of teaching, which allows students to explore and experiment with possibilities, has opened paths to multiple strategies of learning. Nowadays, the knowledge is not transferred and not constructed either; but it’s connected. Knowledge is a process of connecting specialized nodes or sources of information (Siemens, 2004). Therefore, nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continuous learning. Every teacher must engage her/his students in hands-on experiments with different educational websites, web tools, and learning portals.
E-learning is one of the highly fashioned modes of learning at present. E-learning or electronic learning is the delivery of a learning program by electronic means. It offers new opportunities for both the educator and the learner to “enrich their teaching and learning experiences through virtual environments that support not just the delivery, but also the exploration and application of information” (Holmes & Gardener, 2006, p. 10). It allows the users to progress at their own pace and to receive feedback on their progress. “This improved way of interacting with learning has spawned an impressive variety of technologies (e-books, augmented reality, social media) that facilitate users’ interaction with each other, the content, and now, even their environments and the objects in them” (Corbeil & Corbeil, 2015, p. 58). E-learning contents or resources are stored in learning portals and whoever needs are to explore them by visiting their web links. A learning portal sets up a virtual environment for disseminating access to knowledge and also provides specific tools for learners to access, navigate and aggregate learning chunks or learning objects from courses, websites, internal databases, or repositories (Kolagani, 2018).
Although the learning portals are created for a specific group of similar professionals or learning needs, many learning portals are commonly beneficial to the students. However, the students need to be selective and decisive to resource them as per their needs. These resources are easy to access, download, print, and interact with. The only precaution is about internet access and the habit of exploring authentic links. The following are a few of the learning portals:
Learning Portals of the Government of Nepal
The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MOEST), Nepal, has launched an e-learning portal for students from classes 1 to 12. it contains content on all subjects. It’s being operated and controlled by the Center for Education and Human Resource Development (CEHRD). Although the portal has been launched targeting students who have been deprived of education due to the fear of infection of COVID-19, it’s useful for all students after schools resume face-to-face. The learning portal could make the learners easier to learn after the resuming of the schools as the contents of the books read by the students in the school are kept in this portal. The link helps to access several learning portals, beneficial for students of grades 1 to 12.
When we click on the link, http://nepal.gov.np:8080/NationalPortal/view-page?id=125, the official portal of the Government of Nepal appears. Several e-learning links are given there. Click on ‘useful learning materials’ that take you to an announcement of CEHRD, including websites of useful learning materials. Seven links provide great sources of multiple types like textbooks, audios, videos, games, activities, worksheets, etc. The following brief notes are given to introduce the types of contents of the portals.
- https://www.youtube.com/ncedvirtual: Virtual Class of All Compulsory Subjects (Class 9-10) is uploaded. This portal contains video recordings of teaching all major contents of textbooks. These lessons can be taken as samples of teaching those items and clarify understanding by comparing the video lessons and your everyday practice.
- https://moest.himalayantechies.com contains contents, games, and links to audio and video resources and textbooks of Grade 1 to Grade 12. Besides the learning portal, the link leads to dictionaries, games, and library sources. There are links to Khan Academy, Edutopia, and more useful resources.
- https://pustakalaya.org/epaath E-Paath is full of digital learning activities.
- https://egr.pustakalaya.org This is a popular site for children’s stories and games. Similarly, children’s books are available at https://pustakalaya.org/balpaathmala/
- E-Pustakalaya, which can be accessed at https://pustakalaya.org/, is a free digital library containing school curricula and other miscellaneous resources in reading, audio, video, and activities are found.
Sikai Chautari is a learning app for Grade 1 to 10 students. This is produced and promoted by MOEST/CEHRD, mainly targeted to support students who have no advanced online access other than mobile. The lessons are also available on the record. The major activities are given. Additionally, there is a unique resource for Secondary Education Examination (SEE) students.
These learning portals and apps are designed especially for school students of Nepal. However, pustakalaya.org is open source to all. There are grade-wise resources and open resources, which are also selected as reference materials for the students. The teachers need to study the resources first and suggest students study. If the teachers give students the links and tell them basic features of the contents available, the students will visit and learn independently.
Other Learning Portals
Khan Academy
www.khanacademy.org is a globally recommended learning portal that provides courses and resources to teachers, students, and parents separately. This is well-known for activities designed to develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and living with survival skills. There are wide varieties of courses the students can join or resources anyone can access for free. The audios, videos, worksheets, games, practice, reading resources, lesson plans are all available. The only effort required is to explore the contents of your interest out of the sea of knowledge. However, the site is designed well enough to find the intended resources easily.
Education.com
www.education.com offers both free and premium resources, which vary from worksheets, games, lesson plans, workbooks, activities, exercises, songs, and stories.
Teach English
The International House Teach English has compiled 11 useful online resources, including distance teaching and learning hub, the techie teacher, one-Stop English, online professional development resources, Cambridge English teacher support pack, live worksheets, English language teaching from Oxford University Press, and given links to access everyone followed by brief notes of the nature of resources available. The single-click link makes the possibility of accessing enormous resources for the students and the teachers as well.https://www.ihteachenglish.com/resource/11-useful-online-resources-elt-teachers.
Pearson English Portal
This portal gives ample resources to the students and the learners. There are resources for practice and also Pearson apps that are easy to access. Visit www.pearsonenglishportal.com and explore all the resources and apps for practicing English.
Teaching English
www.teachingenglish.org.uk, the British Council managed portal, offers ample resources, including reading resources, lessons with audio, video records, lesson plans, worksheets, etc. These resources help both the teachers and the learners learn how the English language is taught and learned.
American English
www.americanenglish.state.gov comprises resources, courses, services in one hub. The resources vary with reading texts, audio, video, worksheets, games, and networks as well. English Teaching Forum is downloadable free, and there are other books free. All teachers, students, and English language learners can take advantage of this site.
NELTA’S Website
Nepal English Language Teacher’s Association (NELTA) (https://www.nelta.org.np/) offers a lot of resources, enhances the professional quality of English language teachers via various publications, training, workshops, webinars, and conferences. The website http://www.nelta.org.np covers information regarding NELTA’s activities and resources. These are only a few examples of learning portals, but they consist of an ample amount of knowledge and activities that improve our students’ English language skills.
Conclusion
Textbook contents and teacher input are not sufficient to satisfy students’ learning needs. Moreover, classroom teaching and textbook-based assignments do not prepare a child as a whole learner and a whole person, either. E-learning portals encourage students to work on varieties of resources at their own pace. The students are exposed to different activities, resources, worksheets, games, and reading texts which are produced by experts with multiple experiences. The only requirement is internet access and the skill to explore the sites. With the rapid growth of ICT, the notion of the teacher as the sole source of knowledge is replaced by the notion of knowledge residing in non-human appliances, like computers or mobile, and the internet.
References
Corbeil, J.R., & Corbeil, M.E. (2015). E-learning. In B. H. Khan, & M. Allay (Eds.), International handbook of e-learning volume 1: Theoretical perspectives and research. Routledge. https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315760933.ch3
Holmes, B., & Gardner, J. (2006). E-learning: Concepts and practice. Sage.
Kolagani, S. (2018). E-learning portals: A starting point to foray into online training. https://blog.commlabindia.com/elearning-development/ways-to-use-learning-portal-to-rollout-training.
Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm
About the Author
Mr. Gopal Prasad Bashyal is an Instructor at Educational Training Centre, Palpa, Nepal. He is a Life Member and Senior Vice-President of the NELTA Lumbini Province Committee. He is an author, teacher educator, and researcher. He has published the Optional English series (Grade 1 – 5), Teaching English to Beginners, ELT Handbook, and The Recollections, and several ELT and education-related articles in local and national journals and newspapers. His texts cover a deeper understanding of the real classroom and focus on concrete experiences at home and abroad. He serves as an on-call trainer to the British Council, Nepal, and other institutions as well.
NELTA ELT Forum
NELTA ELT Forum 