One thing has become clear in recent times – education is evolving, and fast. As the needs, priorities, and expectations of learners are shifting, teaching methods and approaches are evolving to create more dynamic and learner-focused environments. Moreover, with digital resources and cloud-based platforms now more widely accessible than ever before, remote learning is quickly becoming the norm in many quarters.
In the midst of all this change, educational institutions are faced with a new challenge, as they must seek to adopt a digital-first approach if they are to move with the times and empower the kind of experiences that today’s learners require. In this piece, we’ll discuss how they can go about doing that, outlining key measures educators must take to thrive in the new age of digital learning.
Laying digital foundations
First and foremost, before educators can create more adaptive and dynamic learning experiences, they must begin by establishing the digital foundations that will support them. This means putting in place an infrastructure or networks, systems, applications, and data that will allow them to build, maintain, and iteratively improve upon their learning modules.
This process begins with ensuring there is access to adequate technology on campus, including up-to-date endpoints and peripheral devices, and sufficient connectivity and bandwidth. Ongoing performance monitoring, analysis, and assessment of digital infrastructure will be required to keep track of the usage and health of devices and networks. By implementing some of the best IT reporting tools, administrators can do this effectively and gain insights as to how to allocate resources effectively and improve their systems. Integrating IT management tools with CRM tools and other data platforms can empower even deeper insight.
In addition, establishing frameworks and systems for online and distance learning will be critical to the longevity of our educational institutions. Today’s students expect constant access to educational modules and materials, so our schools and colleges will need to set up online portals and virtual learning environments that allow for interactive learning activities and centralized access to course resources.
Creating learner-centric educational experiences
With the core infrastructure in place, our schools can begin to focus on the development of more dynamic, engaging, and personalized learning experiences. Rather than systems that require students to learn through the passive receipt of information, our institutions can begin to leverage new technologies to give them greater agency in their educational journeys.
Adaptive learning platforms, for instance, can leverage AI to personalize learning experiences and instructions to individuals, providing task extensions or additional explanation or support as required to suit each student. Gamified learning systems, including those that incorporate AR and VR technologies, can also be implemented to create more dynamic and enriching learning systems for students, encouraging active participation and collaboration among students. When implemented within the framework of established pedagogical theory, all of this can make the learning experience more gratifying and engaging for today’s learners.
In addition, course managers and developers can utilize analytics platforms to keep in touch with the experiences of their student bodies. With these tools, they can track student progress, monitor engagement, and even collect feedback to better understand learner perspectives and sentiment. Through the analysis of this data, they can make more intelligent choices about the development of curricula and develop new strategies to meet the learning needs of their students. By utilizing these innovative digital technologies to power more learner-centric approaches, our schools and colleges can create educational environments that align more closely with contemporary life.
Achieving equity and accessibility
Of course, in order to adopt a true digital-first approach, educational institutions will need to harness the power of technology as an equalizer for students. In addition to the implementation of personalized systems that can adapt course materials and tasks to different learning styles, schools will also need to address accessibility. Providing consistent access to features like closed captions and color-blindness settings, as well as translators, text-to-speech tools, and even adaptive hardware, will be essential to creating more open and equitable educational environments. To meet the evolving demands of today’s learners, our educational institutions must take all steps to empower students of different competencies, abilities, experiences, backgrounds, and learning styles to succeed on their chosen paths.
In addition to the provision of appropriate technologies and facilities, our institutions will also need to equip faculty with the knowledge to aid increasingly diverse student bodies in digital-first learning. Educators should be informed of the common digital challenges that students face and be equipped with strategies to help them overcome them. As digital technology empowers students to gain more agency in the learning process, faculty will increasingly need to adopt the role of facilitators by helping students to onboard with essential learning tools and platforms so that they can take control of their own education.
Final thoughts
With innovations like AI and machine learning expediting the development of new tools like never before, it’s safe to say that we are in the midst of a digital revolution in education. For our institutions to succeed in this new era, they will need to embrace the digital-first approach and transform the systems through which they impart knowledge. By establishing robust digital infrastructures, implementing adaptive, learner-centric strategies, and striving for equity and accessibility in learning experiences and systems, our schools and colleges equip both themselves and their alumni to thrive in an increasingly digital world.
