How digitization has transformed education

Education is the foundation for a person’s future success and stability. It’s important to ensure a quality education by taking advantage of new technology, continually upgrading standards with new information. Learn about the biggest digital transformations of the education industry below.

Online learning

Online learning is incredibly popular these days. When learning online, students get access to a huge variety of courses and they can choose something specific and relevant to them individually.

While the programs in most schools and universities are standardized, online courses grant students a wonderful opportunity to tailor their programs to their needs and get the exact skills that will be useful for their future career.

Here are the key benefits of online courses:

• Accessibility: Online courses are available to anyone on the Internet. Many of the courses are also accessible for people with certain disabilities (i.e. hearing or visual impairment), which is also a huge benefit that physical establishments can still lack.
• Low costs: Most online courses come at a lower price point than the ones in schools and universities.
• Self-study: When studying online, students have the option to learn at their own pace. This, in turn, affects the retention of the material and the level of engagement with the course.
• Variety: It’s hard to cover all topics of interest in a school or university, but with online courses, you can cover many topics with minimal overhead. Thus, students can close the gap by choosing a suitable online course that matches their individual interests.

It is important to remember that online courses demand strict discipline and self-organization from a student and they should be taken as seriously as studying in a regular educational establishment.

Learning materials in different formats

People perceive information differently. Some people love reading, while others memorize material better when listening to podcasts. This leads to some issues with the traditional education system. For a long time, there were only books – and they were not suitable for people with dyslexia or visual impairments.

Luckily, the digital transformation led to different forms of learning materials: audio, video, and traditional books. This change contributed to a more personalized learning experience and enabled every student to receive learning materials in the format that is most suitable for them.

AR and VR technologies for a more immersive learning experience

Augmented and virtual reality has become a new trend in many industries, including education. The use of these technologies provide incredibly immersive user experiences, allowing simulating situations and learning with fewer risks (i.e. training for emergency cases).

First, the use of AR and VR enables better memorizing and learning due to the fact that learning occurs through visualization. When students actually see something instead of reading plain text, chances are higher they will remember the material. Even a 3D model of an object is more helpful for students than a few paragraphs that describe the model.

Second, AR and VR can help students master their practical skills through virtual simulations. An example would be a simulation of surgery for medical students or an AR class on safety instructions.

Finally, AR and VR offer a deeper understanding of a topic. With the help of AR mobile apps, students can scan an object, see what’s inside of it, and better understand how it functions. Therefore, AR and VR classrooms should become more common in the near future and help leverage students’ interest in an interactive and engaging manner.

Gamification for a better learning experience

It can be incredibly hard to concentrate on certain topics, especially if presented in a dull manner. Digitization can solve this problem by bringing a gamification element to education.

Mobile apps, the use of AR and VR technologies and educational games on PCs, laptops, and tablets can become a much-needed asset in the modern educational program. The fact that people learn better through games means new technologies can optimize the process and make it even more valuable. For example, students can learn about history or the environment through AR or play a mobile game to master math.

In this way, students will become interested in learning without being forced to, which will lead to a much better academic performance.

24/7 communication and feedback

Just a few years ago, students had to wait several days to receive a comment on their paper and then spend a few more days to fix and submit it. And that’s only one example of how cumbersome the educational process used to be.

Now, thanks to the Internet, students can get in touch with professors and receive feedback almost instantly – as soon as they submit their work. Email conversations between the students and professors have become a common thing and facilitates a speedy communication process.

The availability of tools like Google Docs allows students and professors to collaborate on tasks, see comments in real-time, and better understand which areas call for improvement. In this way, students become more engaged and involved instead of submitting a task and forgetting about it for the next few days.

Elimination of manual processes

Last but not least – digitization led to the elimination of many manual processes that required unnecessary effort, like printing a 100+ word paper and then bringing it to a professor’s mailbox.

Now, students and professors spend significantly less time on such activities, as paper writing, submission, and editing can be done online, allowing them to pay more focus to more significant tasks and concentrate on the work instead.

As well, the use of Intranets, internal portals, and messengers facilitates the management of the data across the departments of an educational facility, optimizes the communication between the students and professors and centralizes the majority of processes in one place. This contributes to saving time and allowing easy and instant access to the needed data for all the assigned users.

Conclusion

With such rapid development of technology, the education industry has chances to become even more optimized and efficient in order to maximize the value for both the students and the teachers. At the same time, it is important to retain the balance between the entertaining aspect and the actual education so that students learn and gain the necessary skills and knowledge.