The perfect learning environment: why virtual beats physical

The future is bright! The future is virtual? Find out how virtual learning and labs beat physical classrooms every time.



The world of education is changing all the time. Yet no matter what changes are made, its aims remain broadly the same: to embed knowledge and deepen understanding.

This is as true of an English literature degree as it is of IT training. Technology is there to serve the student – and to cut overheads for the course provider along the way.

More and more people are taking courses online. Sometimes, this takes the form of hybrid courses, such as university degrees in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic. At others, the course is purely virtual, dispensing with textbooks, classrooms, blackboards and pens altogether.

Here at Ascend Cloud Solutions, we provide lab hosting services for cloud computing course providers. And despite the benefits of classroom learning (there are benefits, certainly), our experience has shown that virtual learning often serves students and educators better nowadays.

Why? There's no one answer to the question. Virtual learning environments are more flexible, more accessible and more cost-effective. They enable students to learn at their own pace and in any location. And they can often be personalised in a way that physical courses struggle to compete with.

Why virtual learning beats classroom learning

1. Flexibility

Physical courses have their advantages – not least the pedagogical relationship that can develop between students and teachers. However, they have one major downside: inflexibility.

Can't make Monday's class? You'll have to catch up in your own time. Trying to balance childcare and education? Sadly, you'll just have to power through the session and catch up in your own time. Struggling with a topic? Well, it looks like you'll have to do some more catching up in your own time.

It's not ideal. Virtual courses, however, let you study at any time and in any location. All you need is an internet connection and a thirst for knowledge.



This flexibility isn't just about the time and the place. It's also about pace. Virtual sessions can be paused, rewound and rewatched to suit your own pace and learning style.

And finally, it's much easier to balance learning with other commitments when learning online rather than in a classroom.

2. Accessibility

Once upon a time, people were prevented from taking part in courses by geographical barriers. Studying a course based abroad or even in a different part of the country meant travel, upheaval and acclimatising to a new but probably temporary life.

Virtual courses, by contrast, are accessible no matter where in the world you are. This means you get access to the best course – not the one nearest to you.

This accessibility extends beyond geography, of course. It also means that learners with mobility issues, learning disabilities and other barriers to accessibility can still participate. The same goes for students who find classrooms anxiety-inducing environments.

3. Cost-effectiveness

Nine times out of 10, virtual is cheaper than physical – and this goes for both students and course providers.

Students access courses for less and don't have to shell out for commuting, parking or accommodation. Meanwhile, course providers can focus on delivering courses without blowing the budget on extra-curricular frills.

What's more, the course itself is cheaper to access and administer. E-books, recordings of lectures and AI summaries are all more affordable than textbooks.

4. Personalisation

Personalisation in education can be achieved in all sorts of ways. To cite one example, course materials can be adapted – or "differentiated", in educational lingo – to suit the specific needs of specific students.

Nothing new there. What virtual learning changes is the speed and ease with which resources, tests and activities can be tailored to the needs and learning styles of individual students.

This isn't just good for the student in terms of learning. It also means they're more likely to be engaged – and when a student is engaged, they're more likely to stay on the course.

Related to this is the fact that feedback can be delivered immediately. Again, nothing new here. The big selling point is that virtual learning empowers educators to give immediate feedback during complex, hands-on simulations.

Take cloud computing, our key area of concern. Let's say you're taking a VEDP course to learn how to master VMware Cloud Foundation. This course lets you participate in highly detailed, highly realistic simulations of core tasks.

And while this simulation is taking place, your instructor can give you in-the-moment feedback – no hanging around for your work to be marked and feedback to be delivered.

Again, this does double duty. It increases the chance of learner success and increases the chance of learner retention. Like so many aspects of virtual learning, it's beneficial for the student, the teacher and the course provider alike.

5. Reduced risk

In education, some mistakes can be made safely. Get your German verb table wrong and no one's going to suffer. However, in some industries, a mistake can cause downtime or even personal injury.

This applies in sectors as diverse as the oil industry and cloud computing. You need to learn from mistakes – but you can't make them on-site for fear of unleashing chaos.

Virtual learning provides an answer to this conundrum. If you work on an oil rig, for instance, you can practise essential maintenance with a virtual reality headset or digital twin.

And in cloud computing, you can practise core activities relating to security, networking and more – all in a virtual sandbox. In this environment, making a mistake won't cause disruption. Quite the contrary: you get to make mistakes again and again until the correct procedure is embedded in your mind.

Hosting for virtual IT learning labs

Here at Ascend Cloud Solutions, we provide highly reliable and highly available lab hosting environments for cloud computing courses – in particular, those provided by VEDPs (VMware education delivery partners).

These courses cover the whole gamut of VMware products and turn the skilled professionals of today into the cloud kings of tomorrow.

Want to bring your courses to life? Get in touch to find out why we're the best lab hosting provider for the job – and one of the most affordable.