Much of the education sector sees constant changes as it shifts to match the learners of the present. Not surprisingly, countless developments form up-and-coming eLearning trends that quickly spread on a global level.
As eLearning continues to gain momentum in the education sector, it’s crucial to stay on top of the current trends to ensure you maintain your value in such a competitive market.
In this article, we’re taking a closer look at the current eLearning trends in the education sector.
Let’s get started.
Understanding the Ever-Evolving Trends of eLearning
Since the origins of the eLearning concept, the industry has seen countless developments as it continues to grow. The education sector of eLearning has been ever-evolving. If you remember, it wasn’t that long ago that eLearning referred to referencing YouTube videos in classes. Today, classes are held entirely virtually. The transformation is unprecedented.
Aside from the natural progression of technologies available, the development of eLearning has been impacted by a number of outside factors, including:
Allowing freedom and flexibility in learning environments for working professionals
Maintaining education capabilities through global pandemics (i.e., COVID-19)
Providing accessible education for students in remote areas of the world
Still, it’s essential to stay ahead of the curve when understanding the ever-evolving trends of eLearning in the education sector.
6 Popular eLearning Trends in Education Today
2022 marks a unique year for eLearning in the education sector, as many students balance some type of virtual learning as a result of COVID-19. Some of the popular eLearning trends you’ll find in education today include flexible learning, social learning, microlearning, virtual reality, personalization, and gamification.
1. Flexible Learning
As the world continues its path to recovery following the global pandemic of COVID-19, 2022 is an interesting year for eLearning. As people fight to return to their typical lifestyles pre-pandemic, many are faced with having to learn to adapt to new flexibilities and freedoms in education that were not always there.
Depending on their mood and availability, plenty of learners across the globe have adapted to the flexible learning trend. Be they a student or professional, this type of flexible learning not only offers an equal opportunity to everyone who wants to learn but also helps in reducing the stress associated with learning in a more formalized environment.
2. Social Learning
Social learning is quickly becoming one of the most practical experiences of learning. In this learning format, users observe surroundings, events, patterns, and more to learn new information. Social learning can take place either on- or offline.
There are various ways users can execute social learning online, including:
Scrolling through social media
Going through the news
Reading blogs
Talking to people
Playing games
Observing videos
Etc.
Social learning can be an incredibly effective learning strategy for notoriously dynamic genres like entertainment, fashion, and politics.
3. Microlearning
Getting distracted is a normal tendency of human beings. As we continue to learn bits of information, such as this, about human behavior, our eLearning techniques shift. Today, the trend of offering bite-sized learning experiences is an effort to help curb distractions during learning. The idea behind microlearning is to provide eLearning content in short forms that are not distracting or boring to learners.
Improving their knowledge, eLearners attempt these bite-sized learning experiences for a period of time only. Students are able to learn things easily since microlearning stays on the point. It also helps developers to improve their ROIs, creating a win-win situation for everyone involved.
4. Virtual Reality
The way that we both entertain and educate ourselves has wholly transformed thanks to technology. A revolutionary technology offering a more interactive experience for its users is Virtual Reality (VR).
Students become a part of the learning experience when VR is applied in the education sector. VR does wonders for education. From exploring the depths of infinite space to diving into the world of dinosaurs and learning about them up close, VR provides a type of hands-on learning never offered before.
The VR-based learning ecosystem is brought to life through other technologies, including:
Gaming consoles
Interactive sound experience
Computer graphics
Etc.
To offer better learning experiences to visitors, even many museums and planetariums across the world have started leveraging VR technology. It’s exciting to track the advancements with VR for eLearning as this sector continues expanding.
5. Personalization
Personalized learning programs for their users are rapidly becoming the focus of modern learning apps. The data collected through user behavior or choices selected by the user customize the learning patterns or programs in an attempt to get to know them better. To target the specific needs of their users, machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) use Big Data to customize learning programs accordingly.
These learning apps are capable of doing more than ever before. From helping users with learning materials that can grow their knowledge to providing in-depth progress reports pointing out weaknesses and strengths, there is very little that personalized eLearning courses can’t offer students.
6. Gamification
Making learning entertaining is one of the most popular forms of modern learning, especially in the eLearning space. Recognizing that there are fewer things more entertaining in life than games, plenty of education experts and app developers have partnered to develop games that are entertaining and educational.
Gamification works well for learning in nearly all spaces, including vocabulary, coding, and even foreign language. Gamification has inspired plenty of entertaining learning apps for modern users, from kids in primary school to adults.
Final Thoughts
These six examples of popular eLearning trends are just a few of many. It’s safe to say that the world will likely see these trends expanding sooner rather than later as they continue to gain popularity on a global scale.
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