Education as a sector has made big leaps in recent times, with a concept of digitizing the learning experience through various innovations and trends, and giving birth to E-Learning. The concept of E-learning has taken the education sector by storm, becoming a major means to deliver education and knowledge to people of all age groups.
Many institutions have started distance education courses in which students can enroll themselves and after the completion of the course or program they are awarded with certificates. E-learning has also become common in various online coaching platforms for students preparing for upcoming competitive exams like GATE 2021. Given below are some recent trends that could be crucial in the evolution of education in the future.
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Mobile Learning
There has been a colossal rise in the number of smartphone users accessing the internet through their mobile devices to satisfy their communicational, informational and entertainment needs and more. Not only this, they have slowly started perpetuating their mobile internet usage and time towards enhancing their education and learning on their mobile phone devices. This has become another avenue for the E-Learning Platforms to reach out to potential learners by developing Apps, Courses and Content that is compatible or flexible to be accessed on a mobile phone or any other device of user’s choice. As for E-learning content developers, they still have to work on the ways to create and curate content that meets mobile users needs and offer them the best possible learning experience.
Gamification of E-Learning Experience
Addition of games and rewards in the Online learning process increases the involvement and enthusiasm of the learners. Different online learning platforms have started incorporating gaming elements in their courses and programs, and this has become a trend to improve the effectiveness of the E-learning wave. Gamification will help in making learning a fun activity and it has shown better results in recent past through improved grades, better retention and understanding among students. This trend has not only found a way in online learning programs, but also is being continuously enforced in physical classroom teaching.
Multimedia Experience
To make E-learning an interactive and user-friendly experience, many institutions have started designing their course content in the form of Videos, Texts, Animation, Presentation and more. This has enabled the users to watch live and recorded lectures, to download study material and notes, and to attempt test papers anytime. These tools not only help the learner to understand better, but also supplements in the instructors teaching. For instance, in GATE CS Online Course students are provided with Online Lectures on Algorithms, Data Structures, Computer Networks with accompanying study material as well as quizzes.
Microlearning Approach
Breaking the whole content of the online courses into small chunks in the form of videos, tests, notes and assignments etc for successful learning is what microlearning is all about. Due to this, students can study through small quantums of content as per their daily needs. They can access it on mobile or other devices anywhere, and can easily jump to the portion of information needed at the moment. Microlearning also helps the curator to break for eg, an hour long chapter into a number of smaller sessions.
Social Interactive Learning
This is an imperative component when it comes to classroom teaching. In order to avoid bland or less interactive E-learning experience, some features such as live classes, discussion forums, chatrooms, emails and more have been introduced by major E-learning platforms so that students can interact with each other and with the instructors. This will encourage them to clear their doubts or confusion, and to put out their thoughts along with collaborating with each other. Falling in line with the social media experience, social interactive learning has shown proactive results and impactful learning among students.
Individual Centered Learning
Based on the idea that every student has an individual special needs when it comes to learning, especially learners belonging to the young generation. Many online learning platforms have started a trend to offer individual attention to each student. Also, this approach encourages personalized or customized learning, E-learning platforms are providing a student the freedom of choosing the content, the way he/she intends to learn, at the pace that suits him/her. The developers are able to curate and align content according to the individual learners needs. This can be very helpful for students that are already working. For example, medical professionals can access different online courses through which they are going to obtain advanced medical certifications necessary for them to thrive at their place of work. They can do this at a time and pace suitable for them personally.
Self-Assessment Analytics
Like in formal education, E-learning programs also offer tests and assignments to their students, so that the students are able to assess their progress throughout the program. It is through these assessment tools, a student would be able to develop the skill of how to apply what he/she has learnt and to solve a problem or question. Most of the online platforms provide interactive performance review through which a student can analyse his/her performance, and could differentiate himself from the other students.
Curated Manner of Content
The Internet gives you access to unlimited information from anything to everything in just a few clicks. It is the user who has to decide which piece of information is relevant to his/her needs, and to select the right information he/she has to go through a colossal amount of information. Curation of content solves the above problem by providing only the relevant information or content needed by the user. It not only gives a user a personalized learning course, but also offers customization in creation of content. The user feels encouraged as he/she participates and contributes in the creation and curation of content pertaining to the students needs.
Interactive Teaching Aids
Use of Interactive Animation and Videos tools, and features like Presentation, Blogs, links and Online quizzes etc., has been on the rise throughout online learning platforms to aid and assist the teacher in creating an interactive and effective teaching experience that arouses interest and curiosity in students. They are able to participate in the process of learning. Teachers are allowed to curate visual as well as audio content that fits the learning needs.
