The outbreak of COVID-19 has affected millions of people and threatened lives. A record number of children and youth consisting, more than 91 per cent of students worldwide – around 1.6 billion have been affected because of school closure forced by the pandemic. Educators seek to scale up measures to fight this challenge and help students, as well as faculty, cope with the shift to learning from home by leveraging the ubiquity of mobile devices and collaboration platforms.
As most learning institutions were unprepared for such a model, they have had to rely on publicly available resources that have wide reach and accessibility such as video conferencing tools like Google Meet or Zoom. However, this is only the first step and it’s heartening to note that decision-makers at several universities are now in the midst of adopting eLearning solutions as a part of their teaching programs. Institutions who already had an eLearning platform are adding newer modules like online examinations and online result generation for students.
Most educators across learning institutions already believe that there is an urgent need to infuse funds in developing eLearning content that is tailored to the specific needs of their students. There have already been several strides made in this direction, for instance, Southern New Hampshire University figured out how to get more than 200 courses online in a short duration of time. The Imperial College London began offering a course on the study of coronavirus, which is currently the most enrolled for course launched in 2020 on Coursera.
Students and learners can benefit tremendously from eLearning
eLearning provides speedy delivery of lessons to students compared to traditional methods where a lot of time was spent on solving queries and doubts. Most estimates suggest that the time taken to learn a lesson is diminished by 25% – 60% compared to customary learning. Those students who are not clear about a particular topic can re-view that topic to learn about it. Moreover, if a student did not understand a theory or a concept, he can choose directly to view that topic again, despite going through the complete module.
As not everyone has the same learning needs, schools and universities have now started creating versatile eLearning solutions that provide adaptive and modular paths depending on the needs and abilities of different students. Students can get a modified version of their course and adjust according to the most suitable learning provisions they need.
Microlearning is also increasingly popular in schools across every age group. Through eLearning courses in schools, microlearning modules give students the chance to learn a small amount of useful information about a particular subject through scenarios, quizzes, and games. It helps in engaging learners and improves their productivity.
Learning Institutions will need to make eLearning a strategic priority
Although e-learning is not entirely a novel concept, its adoption has varied across learning institutions depending on several factors. Prime amongst them is the emphasis placed by the management in embracing technology to create personalized and improved learning experiences.
However, it is safe to say that most schools or colleges had only skimmed the surface of e-learning and were far removed from embracing it in any strategic capacity. Unfortunate as it might be, the outbreak of COVID-19 has been a catalyst in accelerating the adoption of e-learning in learning institutions across the world.
This has necessitated a fundamental shift in the way learning programs are conceptualized, delivered and the way student performance is measured. As a result, facilitators will have to unlearn practices they have used for decades and become quickly familiar with digital mediums that require a more immersive and involved approach. At the same time, it provides the academic leadership at colleges and schools an opportunity to redefine the quality of their learning programs and benefit from a relatively level playing field.
To make quantifiable progress towards this end while keeping their immediate operations working smoothly, learning institutions will have to treat e-learning as a strategic initiative that is bolstered by the right investments required for it to succeed. The post-pandemic new normal will force schools and universities to plan, oversee and allocate a special fund for the development of eLearning courses and eLearning platforms.
Blended learning and Gamification will change modern education as we know it
Real-time remote learning will take place for students via electronic and online media through different channels. Under the blended learning model, learning institutions shall function at a much-reduced capacity for in-person instruction. On an average at one time, between half or one-third of the student population shall only visit a school or a university.
During a press conference, Bill de Blasio, Mayor of New York City said that 26% of public school students, or 264,000 students across the five boroughs will start the school year learning remotely full-time. Students choosing to learn remotely are already issued 240K devices by the Department of Education (DOE). They are expected to bring the same to school for the upcoming academic year.
Gamification has added another dimension to eLearning courses. It becomes interesting for students to learn through playing games and competing with others. A few of the gamification features, like, points, badges and levels have added depth to eLearning courses. The students’ attention, as well as the content both, has stood out because of using these features.
To help learning institutions in these unpredictable times, we at Happiest Minds provide scalable and rapid technology solutions that truly match or better the experience of an in-person classroom to provide improved learning outcomes.
If your institution needs to have a dedicated education platform that is equipped with features like whiteboards, inbuilt chatbots, interactive quizzes and a virtual notes repository to name a few, we can help build such an integrated platform or work on individual features depending on your unique requirements.
is an Engineering Manager with Happiest Minds with approximately 15 years of experience in software development (MS technologies). She has good exposure in managing mid to large enterprise clients and have worked in multiple technical & project management roles including but not limited to key methodologies, frameworks, data modeling, process reengineering and cross-group collaboration.
She is an experienced engineering leader and has worked for various industrial domains like telecom, petroleum, forestry, aviation and education.