Exploring trends defining the new era of education

The year 2020 can be rightfully looked on as the water-shed year for education. When the pandemic hit the world, everything came to a standstill. So did education. But not for long. Technology came to the rescue and online education saved the day, at least as far as helping learning to continue was concerned. 

Over the last decade education has seen a lot of changes from physical classrooms turning into ‘smart classrooms’ to virtual classrooms – it has witnessed major shifts in almost all aspects ranging from curriculum design, instruction delivery to assessments. Technology has played a big role in shaping the needs and demands of learners and teachers in the education sector.  With Covid, some of the changes that were already underway in the education landscape, got further impetus and made their way to defining the future of education. 

Let us look at some of the trends that will characterize the new era of education:

• A Blended approach to learning:  Most regular classrooms will have an online component to the curriculum. This way, students will physically attend classes on fewer days and will be free to study at their own pace, thereby also giving them adequate time to assimilate information. In a blended learning environment, students will get the best of both worlds.

• Digital or online learning courses will gain popularity: The last couple of months have clearly demonstrated the advantages of online learning. At a time when physical classrooms could not be opened due to safety measures, the online learning machinery kicked in, full steam to ensure that the students’ learning did not stop. The barrier to adoption of online as a viable mode of learning continues to drop as more and more students and parents experience first-hand, some of the unique advantages that online has to offer. Parents too are willing to pay for ‘online’ courses – something that in the normal course of things, would have taken much longer to achieve.

• Focus on concept-based learning rather than rote learning: Concept based learning focuses on a student’s ability to evaluate facts, relate it to prior knowledge and bring out inferences and connections by understanding the material at a conceptual level. This is in contrast to the more traditional approach to learning that focuses more on rote memorization of facts and concepts rather than on their application. An increased focus on concept-based learning will ensure that students’ learning is transferable across time, place and situations thereby helping them to become more ‘future ready’. 

• A Data-driven approach: Data on student achievement will make learning significantly more effective by not only providing valuable insights into how the instruction needs to change, but also how the student has been able to cope up with the learning tasks, and thereby helping him clearly map the areas that he needs to focus on. 

Detailed reports on student performance, recorded over the course of the entire academic year, is a powerhouse of information for the teacher, and can go a long way to make the interaction between all key stakeholders – students, teachers and parents – a lot more meaningful. 

• Greater personalization of learning: The coming years will see a much greater use of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data to offer a more personalized learning environment to every student. Learning tasks will be effectively customized to suit every learner’s unique needs. Follow-up and intervention too will be tailored to help every student address their individual learning gaps in a manner that is much more constructive. 

• Student Engagement Initiatives: An engaged learner learns much faster. In the online learning space, initiatives that drive student engagement will continue to be critical for the success of any online learning module. Opportunities for active learning, collaborative and social learning are some of the trends that will dominate online learning.

• Gamification of Learning: Stemming from the need to build engagement in online learning, particularly among the younger learners, content creators and online curriculum developers are increasingly realizing the power of using games to keep the learning environment stimulating and engaging. So whether it is curriculum-aligned activities that require students to use their understanding of concepts to complete the puzzles, or badges and reward-points that you ‘earn’ with every level of learning and mastery, the gamification principles are already being used in the online learning world to ensure that students enjoy learning. 

• Teacher and student are always connected:  Gone are the days when the student had access to the teacher only during ‘class’. Thanks to technology, this has changed. The teacher and student today are always connected, even beyond the ‘classroom’ – physical or virtual. This has huge implications not only on the teaching and learning process, but also on the role that the teacher can potentially play in in a student’s life. From obvious transactional benefits that this has brought such as immediate redressal of doubts and queries, to the complex role that teachers’ will be required to play as mentors in their students’ lives – the far reaching consequences of this change will only gradually come to light. 

• Continuous feedback: A regular, timely and continuous cycle of feedback, made possible through the use of technology, will not only ensure that the learning is permanent, but will also pave the way for faster future learning. Needles to say, this is one of those areas where a lot can be achieved by adopting powerful technology.

• Standardized Assessments: Moving towards standardized assessments will not only ensure that there is minimum scope of examiner bias creeping in, but also will go a long way to reduce the pressure on the students. The next few years will most likely see the standardization of several examinations at both the K12 and higher education space in India. 

• Mobility and Flexibility will become cornerstones of the new education era: Mobile learning is fast becoming popular. Students will increasingly value the flexibility to learn anytime and anywhere. Teaching and learning that is not “accessible”  – either on laptops, tablets or other mobile devices, will lose out. The flexibility to “choose” when to study and how much to study will be important for students in deciding on a particular course of study. The growing availability of smartphones and rapid growth of digitization in both urban and rural areas are factors that are serving as powerful tailwinds for this trend.

• Self-monitoring strategies for students: With students increasingly becoming more in-charge of their learning, it is but natural that they will need to have access to tools and analytics that will allow them to monitor their learning and track their performance. This will have the favourable long-term impact of helping every student to become self-directed learners, or learners who are in-charge and responsible for their own learning. As students of higher education, this is one quality that will prove very useful. 

• Short term courses (both online and offline) will become popular: Students and adults of all ages will continue to seek opportunities to upskill that will help them learn and grow. With digitalization, learning will no longer be restricted by age. 

• Approach to teaching will need to become more culturally responsive: Digital classrooms have virtually led to the erasing of geographical boundaries. ‘Classrooms’ in the future will no longer be restricted to students from the immediate physical catchment area of the institute. The group of students therefore may no longer be a homogenous group that shares a similar cultural background. It is important for course developers and content technologists to keep these varied sensibilities in mind while designing a course. Teachers too, on their part, will need adequate training to be more culturally responsive.  

• Increased time on the hands of teachers to help them teach: Technology will take some of the load off a teacher’s back. Today a teacher dons several roles. One of them is also that of an administrator. With increasing adoption of technology in educational institutions, it is safe to assume that a lot of the administrative tasks that a teacher currently spends his time on, will be effectively handled by technology. Routine tasks like creating assignments, evaluating and preparing performance reports and the like can be very efficiently handled by technology. 

• Teacher training will undergo qualitative changes: While the teacher is likely to play a much more evolved role in shaping a student’s learning, it is equally important to ensure that he is adequately equipped to handle the demands of the new age classrooms. Focus will continue to be on training in the use of technology and using this technology effectively inside and outside of the classrooms to make the teaching-learning process a fruitful and engaging one. 

• Role of teachers will change from ‘knowledge giver’ to that of a facilitator: Information is no longer scarce. Thanks to the internet, information today is readily available. A teacher, therefore, is no longer the sole ‘provider’ of the information. However, what is not readily available is the wisdom and this is what the teachers will most successfully bring to the table in their role as a ‘facilitator’. The teacher will be expected to help the student navigate through the vast amounts of information that is available out there, to choose and study that which is most relevant to quench the individual student’s level of curiosity. 

The writer is CEO, Aakash EduTech Pvt. Ltd. (AEPL