eLearning – the practice of leveraging technology for teaching – might be a relatively new term, but it’s by no means a new idea. Ever since desktop devices became affordable, and the internet more widespread, technology has been inseparable from the classrooms and lecture halls.
Yet the phrase has gained true prominence recently, owing to the major technological leaps of the past 2 years. Widespread Cloud adoption has given us more freedom to work and to learn, with technology which allows us to work with more flexibility than ever.
As the following advances in eLearning demonstrate, these benefits aren’t just technical wonders; they’re set to reinvent the way we educate.
1. Mobile-First Learning
Mobility’s no revelation – we’ve been working in a Cloud-enabled workplace for years now. Yet the statistics around mobile working aren’t to be taken for granted. The eLearning Guild reports that 67% of eLearning developers deliver their training via mobile technology, with earning among younger students (ages 3-12) proven to be particularly effective. Meanwhile:
- 90% of teachers claimed mobile eLearning made research easier.
- 83% of learners were more than satisfied with the exercises and functions made available on mobile.
- 84% of all respondents felt that eLearning on mobile helped enhance their schoolwork.
(Source: Statista)
The combined accessibility, personalisation and availability of eLearning (with over 83% of the world reliant on smart devices) has made it much easier to deliver the appropriate content via more convenient channels; arguably a huge part of its success.
2. Personilsation
As we touched upon in our last blog, Personal Learning Environments: The Future of eLearning, eLearning makes it so much easier to tailor teaching to the individual. A long-running frustration among tutors is that no two students learn the same way, and no single curriculum can cater to the needs of every learner.
eLearning is helping to quell those frustrations. With a PLE, tutors can provide a wealth of different learning materials that fit their curricular standards, while still providing a full technical toolbox to students; everything from video to text resources, through to the one-to-one tuition afforded by even the simplest telecoms applications. Give students the technical resources, and they’re guaranteed to discover the learning methods that work best for them.
3. AI Learning
It’s not just students that will learn from your technology. Adaptive AI is fast becoming standard in major workplace software, or at least available as an optional extra.
The eLearning sector is no different. Not only might AI be used to gather analytics, identify learning inhibitors and suggest required reading, it can start suggesting resources to students based on their difficulties, results and preferred ways of working.
The result is that the student, the educator and the technologies will continually benefit from engaging with their eLearning solutions.
4. Virtual Training and Augmented Reality
Of course, the adoption of virtual training isn’t to discount the more traditional methods. If users are working remotely, yet prefer to engage with more traditional teaching methods, there are still ways to experience the classroom experience via their Cloud technologies. Microsoft Teams provides an obvious quick fix, allowing hundreds of participants to enter into video calls and lectures, where files can be distributed, screens can be shared and projects can be worked on in tandem.
Yet it’s with solutions such as Microsoft Teams Rooms that tutors can truly bring the lecture hall online. This solution allows users to interact with on-prem lessons in real-time from their devices. A Teams Rooms solution can even, thanks to augmented reality, turn real-world whiteboards into digital text via webcam. It’s merely the beginning of how technology can bring us closer to the real world classroom – however far away it may seem.
Where Next for eLearning?
Whatever you teach, whoever your pupils, technology is bringing you closer to more personalised, impactful and enabled learning solutions than ever before.
At Intergence, we’ve spent decades perfecting solutions across a variety of sectors, with our talents spanning Cloud technologies, software development, and artificial intelligence. If you’re in the education sector, and are seeking all-new technical solution that take students’ learning further, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
