Online learning is more prominent today than it has ever been before. Although associated technology has been developing for many years, the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic meant that students everywhere had to adapt to online learning — and fast!
Thanks to the incredible technological advancements across education, learning away from the classroom has proven to be both possible and amazingly efficient, as well as highly engaging.
While millions have moved back to in-person learning, it’s hard to deny that online education still has a prominent place in our society today. As time goes on, we are seeing increases in advancements in technology to create even more efficient and accessible ways of learning online.
So, how has online learning transformed with the advancements in technology? Let’s explore a few examples.
An overview of how technology is transforming online learning
When thinking of education, you likely imagine a standardized classroom, with a professor at the front, students at their desks in lines and so on. That could all be set to change. More and more people are finding issues with how education takes place, as it has barely changed in centuries.
Yet, fate changed how many students learned during the global pandemic. With students forced to stay at home, there was no way to rely on stuffy classrooms and chalkboards. Suddenly, students everywhere had to adapt to a new way of learning: at a distance and completely online.
Thankfully, technology was always waiting to help us adapt to distanced learning, and it’s safe to say that’s always going to be the case.
Technology has long had its place in education. From tools as simple as calculators to AI and chatbots, we’ve come a long way from abacuses and etchings. What’s more, education, alongside technology, is always evolving. Even if you’ve long since left the classroom behind, it’s fascinating to see how much of a difference modern tech is making in students’ lives.
Here are just some of the ways in which online learning has transformed alongside technological advancement.
Mobile apps help research on the go
Nowadays, there are apps for pretty much everything. Gaming, travel, cooking and even learning new skills. The number of apps specifically designed for education may surprise you.
Whether you intentionally know of them or not, a few famous brands will likely sound familiar. Take Duolingo or Udemy as examples. Both are commonly used by students and general curious folk alike, whether at school or post-education.
One thing that all these apps have in common, which is arguably their best feature, is that they are accessible to us everywhere. Whether you prefer learning on a laptop, tablet, home computer or even your smartphone, you can have these apps right at your fingertips, wherever you are, whenever you want.
This is ideal for students who need to work on the go. These apps allow for flexible learning and development during their commutes, while waiting in lines, from their own homes and even when on vacation.
For enrolled students in particular, it means no longer having to rely on scheduled time in the school library to do research. Instead, learning can take place 24/7, on campus or elsewhere. Research and learning apps were incredibly helpful during pandemic lockdowns, and their worth continues to be felt.
Video conferencing connects students and professors off-site
As wonderful as learning apps may be, nothing quite beats being able to talk with someone one-on-one or even following a class. Human teachers remain the best at educating us, but during the Covid-19 pandemic, we had to keep our distance for safety reasons.
However, that distance didn’t have to feel quite so large, thanks to advances in conferencing technology.
Online video conferencing allows students to contact their classmates and professors away from class easily. In fact, they can follow along with entire lessons, all present, following their one teacher, efficiently and coherently.
Apps such as FaceTime, Skype and even Messenger became essential tools to keep students connected as they worked on group projects, shared notes and developed presentations.
The biggest “winner” during the video conferencing boom was Zoom. This easy-access software allowed entire classes to follow their lessons with their individual professors via HD video and sound from wherever they were, provided they had an internet connection.
Zoom’s setup also helped to create safe, distanced one-to-one and group learning sessions for students and tutors. It’s made such an impact that many educational bodies still run hybrid models, where there are online and offline classes taught in parallel.
Zoom’s growth during the earliest lockdowns was so substantial it went from overseeing around ten million users per day to upwards of 300 million. While not all users may have been students, as Zoom is still a staple for business networking, it’s clear that video conferencing is now a mainstream resource for people in both part-time and full-time education.
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) replace in-person learning
VR and AR have slowly been evolving in the background as new exciting playgrounds for entertainment, education and even marketing. VR places people in virtual environments, while AR brings virtual environments into the real world. While hardly educational, the world first said hello to AR on a grand scale through Pokémon Go, a smartphone app released in 2016.
Developers are still creating new experiences for AR and VR, with clear indications that they will become a standard for learning, both in and out of school. Their nearly limitless applications can help students apply hands-on learning without having to handle any physical tools or scenarios.
For example, elementary to high school students can experience more immersive lessons through AR and VR from the comfort of their own classroom! A trip to the zoo? Dangerous lab experiments? All of this and more is easily achievable through VR. Students don’t even have to leave their desks to have incredible experiences, all thanks to these particular advances.
The applications of AR and VR go far beyond general school. Consider the uses for university students, for example, students in medical studies. AR and VR are useful in creating hyper-realistic surgery scenarios, allowing medical students to perform general to intense surgeries without physical surgery rooms, tools or patients.
Students can collaborate anytime, anywhere
As we have seen, video conferencing tools have proven to be highly efficient and beneficial for maintaining contact between students and professors. However, this technology provides just one facet of communication.
There have never been more ways to communicate with others than there are today. Thanks to social apps such as Facebook and Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp and iMessage, we can easily communicate via video, message, voice and even recorded message whenever we want.
Additionally, as long as we have an internet connection, we can communicate for free. No more counting text messages or worrying about the length of calls. Ultimately, while all the above apps are widely usable outside of learning, they’ve helped to break down communication barriers previously restricted by distance and cost.
However, as we all know, collaboration in education is usually about more than just talking ideas through. Students commonly need to work together on school projects. This previously meant setting times and dates for everyone to meet up and work in whatever little time they had together to ensure presentations could arrive on a professor’s desk in time.
Thankfully, that is no longer the case. Thanks to collaborative tools such as Google Drive and Google Classroom, students can easily share their notes and work on projects together, seeing each other’s work and keeping the evolution of the project saved online, even if they are oceans apart.
Ultimately, all this connectivity and collaboration means that students don’t have to be in the classroom unless there is a legitimate requirement. It’s helping to support mature students and those with busy lives in balancing work and other commitments while developing their knowledge and career prospects.
AI can create lessons and answer questions
For those who are a little less technology-minded, it’s good to know that artificial intelligence (AI) is well on its way to making education even easier to manage through the relative magic of machine learning.
Machine learning allows AI to give systems informed directions without needing a human at any point. With piecemeal input from human users, a dedicated system can gradually learn and help to create personalized content to suit each student. In years to come, we may not need to plan any lessons ourselves.
If there’s one thing that every teacher knows, it’s that every student is different. We all learn differently based on our interests, work patterns, learning pace and upbringing. Machine learning can help students by catering to their specific learning methods and needs.
AI can also help students by providing them with reports based on their progress without being biased. The reports will be purely factual and data-based, effectively removing emotion from the scenario altogether.
AI can also provide grades and support should a student need help in any given area. We’re very much at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we’re already seeing machines create art and write content that’s akin to human standards. However, there’s still going to be some necessary refinement, and just how this technology supports online learning will become more apparent as time progresses.
Progress monitoring is easier than ever
Learning from home or away from the classroom presents a few difficult administration concerns.
For example, it can be difficult to track one’s progress if you’re studying remotely. While we may feel we are making progress, our knowledge may not be as exceptional when faced with tests or examinations.
However, thanks to new strides in app development, tracking one’s progress is easier than ever. For example, productivity challenge timer apps allow students to track their working hours. It also tracks study habits and ranks progress.
There’s also an awards system within the app that encourages students to work harder and go further within their modules and personal studies.
Many people also use apps such as Toggl to balance time and track progress through complex disciplines.
Tracking time and progress can also help to promote student confidence. Without seeing progress, it can be easy to become discouraged from pursuing further studies. It’s safe to say that tracking even minor details on an app or two can help inspire students to hit that next big target.
Interactive exercises make learning fun
One thing that many teachers find difficult is keeping their lessons entertaining. Although many consider education to be the mere act of standing in front of a student and lecturing them, that alone does not work. To keep students engaged and to help them apply their knowledge in useful exercises, it’s worth thinking outside of the box.
Incredible interactive websites and online apps enable teachers to set up virtual escape rooms, in which students need to use knowledge gained to reach the end, and virtual scavenger hunts while keeping their students entertained and informed.
Interactive exercises encourage students to participate and allow them to make mistakes, learn and actively enjoy participating in developing knowledge and building skills.
Apps to help students stay focused
As efficient as online learning has proven to be, it also includes a handful of challenges. Without the benefit of having a teacher in front of us, it can be easy to become distracted when we should be working.
Thankfully, even human errors are reversible through technology. Apps such as RescueTime and Tide can help us by providing us with focus timers and even by blocking the use of other apps during our study time. This helps to foster greater concentration, allowing users to focus on the task at hand.
These are great tools for those who tend to procrastinate or who find it difficult to focus on subjects that may not interest them. These tendencies are often hard to keep in check when learning outside of the classroom, meaning apps supporting a stricter regime are even more welcome.
Any student can succeed in their chosen path by following coursework, keeping on top of assignments and using strategies to help get the most out of distance learning, such as using apps to stay focused.
A wider range of information is available online today than ever before
One of the best things about the advancement of technology in education is our wide, global access to information. There is more information available to us all online than ever before. We have access to journal articles, entire encyclopedias, dictionaries, dissertations and critical thinking — all available in just a few clicks.
Even Wikipedia, for all the collaborative knowledge center has faced problems with accuracy over the years, has fast become a cornerstone of learning, supporting education from elementary all the way through to college.
We have access to knowledge and discussions dating back decades, even centuries, which is archived easily for anyone to find with just a simple search. There’s also a wealth of educational videos and visual courses available through platforms such as YouTube and MasterClass, helping people understand often complex subjects and broad knowledge pools.
We’re even using the power of the internet to help refine how and where we’d like to study. For example, it’s never been easier to look up the best states for nurse practitioners, so there’s no longer the need to scour the information from different schools – Carson-Newman University is a great option when it comes to MSN-FNP degrees.
Online learning has never been more accessible thanks to the growth of the internet, and providing there are always measures in place to ensure such details have trusted sources, we can keep on growing our knowledge by sharing what we have available.
Learning is becoming more enjoyable
By becoming more accessible, learning has quickly become more immersive and entertaining. Apps are competing with one another to create more interesting content, which helps students to assimilate information better, and helps to keep people of all ages interested and engaged.
Instead of staying locked in a bleak classroom all hours of the day, we can choose the best times and spaces to help us focus. This way, learning becomes not only more fun but also more efficient as we can schedule study around our lifestyles and individual demands.
Conclusion
Although learning away from a classroom may seem counter-intuitive, it has proven to be an efficient method of learning that has helped countless students around the globe. Online learning quickly became our new norm at the height of 2020’s lockdowns and hasn’t stopped growing since. Even with students returning to classrooms, technological advancements continue to revolutionize learning.
Don’t be afraid to use technology to your advantage. Chances are, we will all be increasingly reliant on it in the decades to come. Right now, there are some seriously intriguing advances getting underway to help make learning more accessible.
