Do you know what I DON’T miss?
Travelling an hour through heavy traffic to get to a full-day seminar where they serve bitter coffee, allow only a couple of brief 15-minute breaks and the educator speaks with as much enthusiasm as a funeral director.
When I first heard about the shift from in-person working and studying to more modern options, I thought that anyone without a lightning-fast internet connection would be pretty disadvantaged.
As it turns out, there are some fantastic perks to studying from home, aside from the obvious one of getting to do work in your pyjamas.
Always looking to take things one step further, RipeGlobal has pioneered the concept of digitally delivered, collaboration enhanced learning.
But what is that exactly?
Digitally delivered, collaboration enhanced learning
We're on a mission to make learning online more engaging and fulfilling. We believe the best way to learn is through a concept called digitally delivered, collaboration enhanced learning.
The digitally delivered aspect refers to learning hands-on in a real-life simulated situation from home. This is so you can learn skills and then actually put them into practice straight away, ensuring that you have the best possible chance of retaining the information and using it when you need to.
The biggest benefit of this style of learning is that when you find yourself in a stressful situation at work, you're able to easily recall the knowledge and let your muscle memory take over.
Collaboration enhanced is one of the fundamental reasons that RipeGlobal exists. We believe the best learning comes from lively discussion and pushing each other to be better dentists. We've set up a number of community chat spaces so that there's a continuous feedback loop between educators and students, which helps promote an open-ended dialogue that everyone can learn from.
So, now you know what digitally delivered learning is, but how exactly is it going to benefit you? Keep reading to find out!
Flexibility and productivity
One of the main benefits of digitally delivered learning is the flexibility it allows within your schedule. People are busier than ever and trying to find time to fit in extra learning can be such a headache.
Especially for dentists. All week you’re working with patients and if you were doing in-person courses you’d have to book time off or sacrifice the majority of your weekend so that you can try and improve your dentistry.
Not only does online learning fit around your schedule but it’s been proven to be much more productive as well. Prodoscore reports that since March 2020, productivity has shot up 47% despite initial fears that working and learning from home would result in lower concentration and work efficiency.
Furthermore, the Research Institute of America discovered that students undertaking online learning had retention rates of 82%, while people doing in-person training were only retaining 8% to 10% of the information - largely due to the fact that students can learn at their own pace and revisit any information as required.
Improves your self-motivation and determination
The fact of the matter is, it’s never easy to do something that you don’t particularly want to do. Of course, this extends to hitting the books and studying when you might just want to curl up and binge Netflix.
Having the ability to self-motivate yourself is incredibly useful in life. Those that are effective self-motivators typically achieve more in their careers. Self-motivation is very much like a muscle. The more you work to improve it, the better chance you have at focusing on the task at hand and getting things done.
Online learning is a great way to train yourself to be self-disciplined and learn habits that can be applied in other areas of your life. Online learning teaches you how to prioritise your time, be self-sufficient and demonstrates your ambition to improve yourself.
Helps build global relationships
One of the best things about the internet is that it encourages and nurtures relationships with people from around the world. Being exposed to different cultures and perspectives gives us a deeper understanding of life, it’s one of the reasons why people love to travel so much!
Thanks to the internet, we can be exposed to different opinions and ways of doing things without having to hop on a plane. Digitally delivered learning allows us to have insightful discussions with people from a range of different backgrounds, not just those who had time to turn up to an in-person training session.
When you think about it, the course content is really just one aspect of learning. It’s great to have a healthy discussion with people who think there are different ways of approaching a particular topic so you can combine these viewpoints and find the best way of tackling it.
For example, anyone who joins the RipeGlobal Fellowship in Restorative Dentistry has access to a community chat space where you can discuss cases and issues with people from around the world. Some of the most thoughtful insights are born from these global discussions and it ultimately makes everyone better dentists just for being exposed to it.
If you're interested in joining the Fellowship, click here for more information.
Much more affordable
When you think about it, the significant overhead costs that come with in-person learning are pretty unfair. Students are not only paying for access to the educational content but they’re paying the teacher’s salary, their transportation costs, the rent of the venue the course is taking place in and any other underlying costs that spring up.
The reason that digitally delivered learning is a much more affordable option is that these costs are eliminated when learning from home. You’re not forced to carry the brunt of additional costs when you take up online learning, which ultimately saves you money.
For instance, RipeGlobal is able to offer a variety of courses for much, much cheaper than if we were to hold them in person because we're able to deliver content to a wider variety of people and not just those who happen to be in the location we choose to present in.
Instead of forking out money for a fancy lunch spread or putting educators up in hotels, we pass the savings on to you, to ensure you can become a better dentist for a much more affordable price.
Customised learning experience
It’s often said that one of the best parts about digitally delivered learning is that you get to do it from the comfort of your own home. While this might seem like a fairly unimportant advantage, the fact is that studying from home allows you to cultivate a space that bests suits your learning.
Do you learn best by getting up and walking around every 10 minutes? At home, that’s fine. If you got up during an in-person training session and wandered around the room there’s a high chance you’d be asked to leave.
It's also been noted that learning in a comfortable environment enables you to stay motivated and engaged for longer. Digitally delivered learning enables you to create an environment that you feel comfortable in so you can retain more information and study more efficiently.
If the idea of elevating your dentistry from the comfort of your own home and joining a global community that constantly seeks to improve each other sounds interesting to you, then be sure to check out our membership options!
