Digitized Education The New Normal in Learning – Ushered In By the GenX
Digitization of things becomes the new normal all across the world as the quest to engage the young learners & the millennials does not remain as simple as just with a smartphone. Services & industries have been digitized to a large extent or are on the way to complete digitization in the stable economies of the world. With the disruptive effects of technology on education in the millennial world, eLearning application solutions make a mark globally by replacing the traditional chalk & blackboard, pen & paper classrooms almost completely in many countries technically advanced and with others in strong pursuit. Digitized learning delivered by various electronic mediums takes students to virtual classroom environments with engaging & flexible experiences.
Global Market Insights projects that the market for eLearning & mLearning, the learning mechanisms powered by the internet and mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets will grow by 6% every year and the market valuation is likely to increase from USD 165 billion in 2015 to USD 240 billion+ by 2023. Approaches like BYOD & mobile technologies give further impetus.
Genres of Education
Easy availability of technology, combined with willingness of educational institutions to adapt to innovative learning mechanisms & flexible policies like Bring Your Own Device in education influences the way teaching changes today giving rise to the various genres in education.
Collaboration Based Learning
Gone are the days of learning with parents keeping a watchful eye. The influence of internet in education makes collaboration an easily achievable norm, be it web based learning or information sharing. Online classrooms & accessible virtual environments lead to sharing of ideas and like-minded students collaborate with their counterparts in an easy way. While the earlier modes of online learning lacked human touch, collaborative environments fill the gap effectively.
Visual Learning
Visual learning techniques and graphical representations allow the learners grasp concepts & facts better, leaving a long-lasting impact. Modern technologies help represent data in a visually appealing manner adding an extra flavor to the learning theme.
Personalized Instructions
Personalization, the magical mantra of doing things today appeals to the eLearners too! Different students have different abilites, skills and interests. Leaving aside a traditional & single way to teach approach, personalization mentors the learners by targeting weaker points & enhancing the abilities further. Instructors move from traditional teaching roles to knowledge facilitation roles.
Active Learning
Students are no longer happy with listening to what is taught from textbooks or the curriculum. Digital learning enable enthusiastic students to find more for themselves rather than being passive listeners. The millennial student powered with technology becomes an active participant in the education cycle.
Corporate Learning – A Different Niche Altogether
When it comes to tapping the market, eLearning application solutions are more than successful with schools, colleges, universities and even the apps for private tutors hit the popularity charts. Reality check reveals an interesting scenario. Corporates put eLearning to use to train and groom their workforces too!
The needs of working professionals are different than those of students, although the demands of technology based learning are conceptually similar. Executive management & technology expertise programs for professionals are driven by eLearning to make the most of time & investments with an intent to increasing productivity.
Online degrees & certifications quickly replace the traditional executive programs, allowing enterprise workforces improve their competencies to gain additional knowledge without leaving their workplace or laptop. Enterprises bundle up soft-skills training with core skill-set learning for continuous grooming of its workforce, all online and on the go.
The flexibility offered and the anytime, anywhere approach drives the success of these programmes.
Digital Learning Advantages
eLearning or mLearning may not entirely replace humans in education but have a significant impact by changing the expectations from this industry.
High Returns on Investment
Deploying an eLearning system is indeed cost effective considering the number of learners that could participate simultaneously. Post deployment, there are routine maintenance & upgrades to the system, however, it is still less costly as compared to daily human involvement in the training landscape.
For professional training, eLearning systems help reduce travel costs significantly. With more number of participants availing the course, the RoIs increase exponentially.
A Scalable Model
The infrastructure deployment for eLearning application solutions significantly improves in the last decade, and now it is possible to cover multiple institutions, classrooms or offices globally for concurrent training. Spikes in training needs can be easily accommodated within a virtual class, something that would be quite impossible with real teachers in attendance.
Easy Progress Tracking
With eLearning systems, it is possible to organize tests after every course and track grading & participant performance easily. The examination & grading systems designed for automation allow direct & instant result display with trend analysis.
Trainer feedback incorporated online allows personalized, introspective assessments.
Learning Flexibility
eLearning allows students and working professionals to study the courses at their own time, convenience and choice of location. Participants are not bound by the curriculum flow as they can choose the order of chapters & tests according to their comfort level and interest.
Paperless Courses for a Greener Earth
The course & examinations managed online along with the feedback & corrective areas to be highlighted, the assessments with eLearning are all paperless. This keeps a tab on the carbon footprint of an organization, allowing it to contribute towards green initiatives.
Easy Referrals & Revisions
Studies indicate that visually appealing and well-designed online content leads to better retention rates among students. Also it is easy to scroll back to a course area that the student wishes to refer again.
E-Learning in 2017 & Beyond
Experts see interesting trends for eLearning during 2017 and for the next few years too.
Device Diversity
2017 sees a wider acceptance of eLearning beyond the desktop & laptop. Micro nuggets of learning over smartphones, tablets and smartwatches bring in the seamless approach
Learning Gamified
Gamification the new way of the millennials seeps into almost every kind of user experience and it goes without saying that it strikes the right cord with the audience for eLearning. Immersive experiences for the learner prove to be enticing as well as practical enough to be delivered on the trending devices.
Collaborative Techniques
Collaboration becomes the new way of doing almost everything including learning! Better participation and better competition leads to increased knowledge and techniques are expected to offer better opportunities to collaborate.
Increasing Number of Contributors
more number of authors would get involved with generating eLearning content. As the global education industry moves away from bookshelves to the virtual library, content generation is trending & attractive and finds great relevance.
Learning Portals
Mobile learning apps and education portals are on the rage, and this trend will continue throughout 2017 as there is still expansion scope in the industry.
In a Nutshell
The millennials, they say drive almost every industry in the world bringing disruptions driven by technology. The education ecosystem integrates eLearning application solutions into its fiber and turns out to be beneficial for the participants as well as the enterprises offering this service. A multiple number of startups too explore & invest in this relatively new domain within the education industry.
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