Even the most dedicated educator may find it difficult to keep up with the current eLearning developments. However, as a brief refresher, eLearning is shifting toward more inclusive and collaborative ways. Current digital education trends are also favouring more engaging forms, with a heavy reliance on AR/VR and gamification to pique and maintain learners’ attention. In addition, there are a few unexpected eLearning advancements.
Here are ten of the most popular eLearning trends to keep an eye on, and don’t forget to check out ViewSonic’s solution to boost classroom collaboration even more!
eLearning isn’t going anywhere. Many people’s educational experiences sound like dusty blackboards, dirty overhead projectors, and over-saturated photocopies. But take comfort in the fact that, in many schools, those issues are no longer an issue.
For those unfamiliar with the term, eLearning refers to learning that takes place in an electronic environment and is designed to be more dynamic and instructional. This can be seen in the usage of interactive whiteboards, online classes, and other similar tools.
Rather than remaining a niche notion in education, eLearning is quickly becoming the dominant method of imparting knowledge to people of all ages. However, because it is still relatively young, the concept is always evolving and changing.
To that aim, we’ve compiled a list of ten trends that we believe will shape the future of eLearning and its place in the classroom. This article is for teachers, professors, parents, students, and administrators who want to make a smart investment in the future of education.
- Adaptive learning: Adaptive learning is a method of teaching in which materials, activities, projects, and assignments are adapted to the specific needs of each student. Adaptive learning is frequently implemented in the context of eLearning using standardized algorithms and assessments, rather than by the possibly arbitrary decisions of teachers themselves.
Adaptive learning has so far been mostly experimental, with corporations and competitors spending the last few years ironing out the wrinkles and conducting small-scale trials. Experiments will come to an end as eLearning develops, and broad adoption will commence.
- Social Learning: The basic components of human interaction and group dynamics are applied to the present technological age in social learning. Collaboration has never been more productive, efficient, or smooth than it is now, thanks to social learning in the electronic domain, which includes online forums, class-wide chatrooms, and file-sharing platforms. Now, teammates may offer advice and support from anywhere, including their classrooms, homes, and local coffee shops. As social learning applications grow, additional collaborative solutions will undoubtedly enter the market to compete for market share. Furthermore, social learning as a whole, outside of particular classrooms and group project settings, has the potential to become the backbone of the college curriculum around the world.
- Video-Learning: They believe that when faced with films, vocals, and practical demonstrations, three categories of learners — visual, auditory, and kinesthetic – thrive best in education. Despite this paradox, auditory learners were the only group that the traditional lecture/note-taking classroom model adequately serviced for many years. That is no longer the case with the emergence of eLearning, with video learning becoming more and more common in schools around the world.Video learning has come a long way from the shared-classroom televisions of the past, with video-based lectures and instructive DVDs. There isn’t a single application that can’t be improved with video learning today and in the future. As a result, there’s no reason to anticipate a reversal very soon.
- Artificial Intelligence: It’s safe to say that artificial intelligence, or AI, has outgrown its original reputation as the evil mastermind behind HAL 9000 and the Y2K hoax. With Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, and your everyday text-based chatbots, AI is already being used in homes all over the world. AI has found a place in eLearning, in addition to basic smartphone commands. AI can not only assist students through courses, but it can also help inform learning forecasts and on-the-fly personalization, proving the concepts of adaptive learning. Given the prevalence of AI in various areas outside of education, the potential applications for this appear to be unlimited at the moment. Consumers and educators should expect more sophistication on the inside, as well as more flexibility when it comes to different learning styles and needs.
- Microlearning: Many pupils, regardless of age, are likely to be intimidated by the possibility of massive, multi-phase projects. Breaking up projects, classes, and other learning materials into manageable portions has proven to be a huge success for those kids, as well as collaborative classrooms all over the world. These “chunks” can take the form of video lectures, readable text, or interactive games, to name a few examples. Instructors have discovered that breaking up a 2-hour class into four 30-minute sessions, in addition to online modules, results in stronger and faster memory. Microlearning is an example of a trend that extends beyond eLearning and into traditional classroom settings. As a result, it’s evident that microlearning’s widespread adoption isn’t yet complete.
- Gamification: Learning is usually more engaging, not to mention more digestible, when it is fun, whether you are five years old or fifty. Gamification is a type of eLearning that aims to make learning more enjoyable. It isn’t all about fun and games, though, as there are proven benefits to playing games once a subject has been introduced or reviewed. For starters, it can give instant material application and contact. When students’ knowledge improves, so do their engagement, retention, grades, and general enjoyment in the classroom. Given the wide range of beneficial outcomes, there’s no reason why game-based learning solutions won’t continue to be used in classrooms, both digital and physical, in the near future. Furthermore, given the impersonal nature of eLearning in particular, the industry’s gamification is not just welcome, but perfect.
- Mobile learning: The evolution of mobile learning, or mLearning, is clearly an appropriate trend to discuss, even though it is not strictly a component of what constitutes ‘traditional’ eLearning. It wasn’t long ago that the idea of doing anything on your phone other than making phone calls and playing 8-bit games was a pipe dream. In today’s world, almost anything is feasible, and everyone loves the opportunity to do things on the go. However, when it comes to mLearning, there is still some distance to go before it is truly feasible. In that regard, the last several years have been quite nice to it, with the rise of phone-based language-learning applications. While this is a positive beginning, mLearning designs must still discover ways to incorporate the same learning characteristics trends that eLearning did before becoming mainstream and commonplace. However, there is little doubt that mLearning will become enormous in the future.
- Virtual and augmented reality: 360-degree images, graphical overlays, and an explorable interface are just a few of the eLearning uses for augmented and virtual reality. The old paradigm of a teacher scribbling on a blackboard has already been thrown out the window, and there’s nowhere to go but up. In practise, augmented and virtual reality enable eLearning instructors to thoroughly immerse their pupils in the subject matter, whether it’s mathematics, physics, history, or literature. Furthermore, augmented and virtual reality help to elevate the other aspects of eLearning to new heights. When combined with augmented and virtual reality, video learning, gamification, and mobile learning have never been more immersive, and the technology is developing all the time, so expect to see this eLearning trend continue for a long time.
- Learning Management Systems: Employers and managers frequently use a content management system, or CMS, to produce and store digital information in many collaborative contexts and workplaces. This concept has recently evolved into the realm of eLearning. Instructors and other eLearning practitioners may now build, document, and administer courses and curriculums thanks to the introduction of learning management systems (LMS). Because of the behind-the-scenes nature of LMSs, it’s now easier than ever to plan ahead and course-correct at the same time. In either instance, the capacity of an LMS user to share information and integrate assets at the last minute allows for this type of content curation. As new means of learning, particularly eLearning, become increasingly digitized and supported, the availability of an LMS will make course preparation and management a snap, effectively eliminating the need for the old analog methods. LMSs, as a result, are here to stay.
- Learning & Development: Lesson design and implementation aren’t the only things that Learning Management Systems can help with. They also help teachers and other behind-the-scenes individuals collect actionable data and other analytic aspects. This not only assists all parties in accurately evaluating the effectiveness of a session and/or overall course, but it also aids in Learning & Development. Learning and Development, or L&D for short, is a management method that links individual performance to larger institutional goals. While this is widely used in a range of businesses and situations, we’re obviously here to talk about its role in eLearning. Those working in L&D assist teachers in implementing the acquired data in a way that improves the areas of their lessons and courses that are lagging.
Regardless of which EdTech trend you choose to implement, the advantages are undeniable. Giving your kids a pleasant and unique learning experience is critical to ensuring that they not only learn well, but also enjoy their educational experience.
