In recent years, the education industry has shifted toward a greater proportion of online teaching and learning experiences. Most colleges and universities today include a substantial eLearning component to their teaching and learning strategies. Now that the technology is in place and courses are widely available online, what are the next steps for enhancing the online learning experience? According to Pew Research Center, the “new normal” in 2025 will be significantly more tech-driven. They polled 915 innovators, developers, business and policy leaders, researchers, and campaigners about life after the pandemic. The majority of people believe that human-technology relationships will improve and that tech-savvy students will become increasingly important.
As neweducational breakthroughs emerge, it’s crucial to take a look at some of the key trends in education that industry participants should be aware of.
1. Major Increase In Soft Skills Training
Critical thinking, problem-solving, people management, and creativity are among the most important workplace skills, according to the “Future of Jobs” research [1] [2]. Employers want to see emerging professionals who can make difficult judgments and demonstrate leadership ability. Schools must provide training to help students foster and improve in these skill areas in order to better prepare them for their future employment.
However, as previously stated, many teachers find this challenging due to the concurrent shift toward online education. These instructors will need to find a method to balance the amount of screen time in their classes with the need to encourage students to collaborate face-to-face in order to foster soft skill development. This trend offers a plethora of opportunities for growth for institutions that discover quality formulas for supporting the development of these skills. These institutions, in particular, will gain a competitive advantage in higher education. Their students will be more employable, which will boost their alumni success rates, creating a circular path to further success as future students seek schools with high alumni success rates.
2. Game-Based Instruction The first distinction to make is that game-based learning is not the same as gamification. A teaching approach known as “game-based learning” makes use of game elements to help students achieve particular learning objectives [3]. In order to increase student engagement, gamification is the application of game elements to conventional learning strategies [4]. Gamification can be effective in learning on its own, but game-based learning makes online learning tools much more potent. By assisting students in strategizing, developing problem-solving skills, and rethinking their prior attempts at a task in order to improve future methods, research shows that game-based learning can be effective in increasing learning. Expect to see a rise in the use of game-based learning in classrooms by 2022! 3. AI-Driven Learning
Artificial Intelligence (AI) was also on our list of education trends for 2021, and it remains a prominent topic. Artificial Intelligence refers to a machine’s ability to exhibit human-like qualities such as reasoning, learning, planning, and creativity. It is already utilized in business education, with examples including translation software, plagiarism checks, text editing tools, voice-recording transcripts, and so on, but its potential for further development is vast.
AI does not aim to replace instructors, but rather to enable data-driven decisions that affect the classroom and the students. With COVID-related workforce reductions, AI teaching assistants and automated grading systems are particularly appreciated in most institutions. To free up teachers’ time to concentrate on teaching and encouraging learning, why not automate the time-consuming tasks? Cybersecurity is yet another important role for AI. In recent years, many school districts have been brought to their knees by hackers who have gained control of their computers. These intrusions not only affected learning, but also every other system (including payroll). School district security systems can learn from previous compromises to improve incident response times and security strategies thanks to artificial intelligence’s ability to recognize trends. 4. Need For Higher-Quality Online Courses
Course quality will be an issue that higher education institutions need to address in 2022. As a component of any teaching and learning experience, students have come to expect a higher level of online course design. While some schools have on-the-ground learning designers assisting in the effective production of online courses, many others are catching up.
An institution’s ability to hire Instructional Designers is significantly impacted by its financial resources. Some universities have found success by gathering a strong Instructional Design team to quickly provide exceptional content for students. Others have been forced to rely on faculty and hope that they get it “right.” However, educational content must be properly adapted for eLearning. Otherwise, student engagement and outcomes suffer considerably as teachers struggle to successfully translate the in-person learning experience to online training.
The time has come to begin tuning the online learning experience to match student expectations. If institutions haven’t been conducting excellent online Instructional Design, they’ll rapidly learn that not satisfying that demand comes at a higher cost. Furthermore, the quality of online teaching and learning components is becoming as important as the quality of physical classrooms or campuses in defining institutional branding.
