Education has become an absolute necessity for every part of the world. With the passage of time, the educational sector is continuously evolving. The Covid-19 pandemic has made us realize that we need to adopt the latest EdTech trends since the old traditional ones are not able to cope with the modern-day challenges.
The Covid-19 pandemic has widely impacted the educational sector. Because of the pandemic, it was necessary to introduce modern-day trends to fulfill the educational needs of the students. It would not be wrong to say that the educational landscape has completely changed now thanks to the introduced trends in 2020.
From the past year, a huge shift towards online learning has been increased since offline settings were not recommended. Although the online educational system has its own pros and cons, it is working quite well to fulfill the learning needs of students. Exploring some prominent educational niches like online learning is the need of today since they contribute in providing a better learning environment for the students.
In our present article, we shall briefly discuss some significant educational nichesand how they can be helpful in establishing a better learning environment for the learners.
So, without any more delay, let’s begin learning.
1. eLearning
Some individuals might believe that online education is temporary and it is not going to last forever. However, we personally believe that the rise of coronavirus has acknowledged us about what is the true potential of the online educational system and what advantages it can offer. The popularity of the online educational system is not going to slow down in the coming years.
Because of the sudden rise in coronavirus pandemic last year, the demand for utilizing online educational platforms has significantly boosted. During the times when educational institutions are still closed in most parts of the world, learning is only possible through this system. Now we only need to correct the flaws present in this online educational system to make it better and more interesting for students.
In an online system, learning is possible by using a laptop or smartphone and a solid internet connection. This online educational system provides maximum flexibility and comfort for the students. Every individual who has enrolled in an online educational system can easily learn whenever he wants according to his time schedule.
The core flaw present in the online education system is that not all students can fulfill its requirements. Not all students are capable of having a good laptop or smartphone. Here comes the responsibility of the government which must step forward to fulfill the educational needs of students.
2. Virtual and Augmented Reality
Virtual and Augmented Reality is one of the latest EdTech market trends that is trying its best to create a better learning environment for the students. Because of virtual reality, a student becomes an active participant instead of a passive observer. Thus, learning becomes more engaging and immersive for the students.
It would not be wrong to say that virtual reality has become one of the most immersive and prominent educational technologies. Other than education, this technology is also being applied at corporate training. The usage of this educational technology is going to significantly increase in the coming years.
This educational technology requires a VR headset that has a digital interface for projecting images and creating an immersive world that users can observe and interact. It also incorporates some easy-to-use gesture controls to provide a better and reliable experience. However, most of the VR headsets are very expensive but there are some cheap options too such as Google Cardboard.
Teachers can definitely rely on virtual reality for giving a better understanding of complex problems. Other than that, VR allows students to explore and see the beauty of fascinating museums, galleries, etc. without even leaving the classroom. Furthermore, VR reality provides an immersive way of learning new languages.
3. Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence has successfully managed to receive a lot of attention from the past few years because of the numerous advantages it offers for the business and education sector. More specifically, AI is being successfully applied in the education sector to develop required skills and testing systems.
Artificial Intelligence evaluates a massive amount of unstructured and structured data to find the voids and flaws present in the educational system. It finds gaps and voids present in our learning environment and the teaching methodologies. It also builds a personalized study schedule for a student based on what he already knows and what he does not.
One of the most prominent applications of Artificial Intelligence is that it produces smart content. AI helps in generating digital textbooks, digital learning interfaces, bite-sized lessons, study guides, and plenty of other smart tools for enhancing the learning experiences of students. It also helps teachers in plenty of things such as grading tests and homework.
4. Gamification
Comparatively, Gamification or game-based learning is an emerging EdTech trend that is still in its development stage. Basically, Gamification is based on the principle that students can also learn better when they are having fun. It is being used in educational environments because of plenty of reasons.
One of the most prominent advantages offered by Gamification is that it makes learning complicated and problematic tasks much easier. It also helps in motivating and encouraging students to perform better. It makes learning activities much more interesting and enjoyable by setting goals and offering rewards for achieving them.
Video games contain plenty of addictive features that can grab the attention of children and adults for hours. Gamification tries to develop similar engagement results among the students and learners. By increasing engagement, one can definitely expect a better learning environment and well-optimized learning chances for students.
Gamification mainly incorporates some game-based elements like peer competition, point scoring, score tables, and teamwork in order to increase engagement, help students in learning new concepts, and test their knowledge. It can be implemented easily in countless subject areas. Nowadays, it is being widely used in plenty of self-teaching educational apps and courses.