Benefits and challenges of applying e-learning in the Georgian higher education system

E-learning has an increasingly important role within the ever-growing tertiary education system in many developed countries. While the research on e-learning is still relatively a novel discipline, with even a universally accepted definition being absent, there are numerous indications pointing to its increasing importance. For example, in the US alone, some 35% of university students take at least one online degree, while the ratio has been steadily increasing in the recent years. There are numerous underlying factors which support the intensification of e-learning. Most countries cannot keep up with the increasing demand for tertiary education by merely expanding their traditional universities – be it because of high needed fixed investments, or because or elevated costs of engaging the relatively scarce teaching staff. In the same time, the ICT revolution – as well as the ongoing COVID outbreak – both facilitate and require shifts to a delocalized contact between students and the teaching staff. In sum, this provides many developing countries with a mechanism of provision of tertiary education to large masses of prospective students without having to invest in physical infrastructure. However, this is not a process without challenges. Regulation in many countries is only yet to cope with these technology and demography-induced shifts in education. Some academic fields are not yet appropriate for distance learning. Cheating and plagiarism could be widespread if not tackled with appropriate strategies and technological solutions. This document examines these elements by providing an overview of the experiences in some of the countries where the e-learning system already took deep roots. Georgia has much to gain if it includes e-learning in its tertiary education system. Georgia at this moment is, seemingly, one of the few relatively developed countries which still do not have a fully-fledged and accredited e-learning platform within its tertiary education system. However, as World Bank data show, some 64% of Georgia’s high school graduates successfully enroll to a university, which is approx. 10 percentage points lower than OECD average, or as much as 25-30 percentage points lower than some of the world’s top education performers, such as Finland, the Netherlands or South Korea. While this gap needs to be bridged if Georgia is to tap the potential of the ongoing technological revolution, introduction of e-learning to its system may be of significant help, while it would not incur large additional costs. Indeed, numerous international examples show that in many countries, the number of students enrolled to universities soared following the introduction of e-learning, while the quality of education has not declined. In terms of increasing the base of potential enrollments, in Georgia’s case it is important to underline that e-learning may also be a mean of reaching out and connecting with members of the numerous Georgian diaspora. Also, setting up an e-learning platform also helps the universities to engage top lecturers in many educational domains at relatively low cost, meaning that more students may be given a higher quality education. COVID-19 outbreak is a case in point. The ongoing pandemics outbreak has shown, among other, that true business continuity for many education institutions, at all education levels, could have only been reached by employing adequate e-learning procedures. This means that those who have already instituted some forms of e-learning had fewer difficulties in overcoming the operative issues, while continuing to deliver education. Keywords: Higher education, E-lerning.