Technology has long gone beyond developing gadgets for work and entertainment. As of now, they allow you to take learning methods outside the school or university bench. Online courses, webinars, mobile learning, and chatbots are already commonplace for today's students.
While in 2020-2021, it was still possible to enter the market with recordings of average quality. But now, the demands of students are much higher than just a series of video classes. Online platforms have begun to adopt new technologies to retain old audiences and attract new students. But how can all this affect the further development of the industry? Let's take a closer look at this question.
Cloud Technologies
They can solve the server load problem and become an effective way to work on the content together. It is always relevant because online course creators often face similar issues at all stages of project development, from LMS implementation to activity expansion.
There are several ways to solve this problem. The first one is to buy the necessary equipment (if there is a sufficient budget), limit the time of using the online learning system, and set a limit on the file size for downloading. And the second way is not to consider expanding the physical servers and renting computing resources in the cloud.
According to Gartner consulting company, about 50% of large international companies are ready to transfer their management systems to cloud solutions. In addition, such solutions are great for the collaborative development of electronic courses. Currently, the two most popular cloud services are Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots
A chatbot is a program that imitates human communication and helps with specific tasks. It can have a meaningful conversation, just like a live speaker, and sometimes it can work as a voice assistant. Siri (Apple) and Alexa (Amazon) are the most famous chatbots.
At first, this technology was entertaining and was used for small tasks on the device (searching for information, working with media content, etc.). However, it is now becoming an integral part of business processes and online education.
Virtual assistants can help find answers to questions. There are many chatbots available in Telegram for searching information on Wikipedia, practicing pronunciation, studying lectures and articles on interesting topics, and even learning a foreign language.
Bots can also be used as simulators for practical assignments. For example, such programs can present a service or product or simulate communication with a problematic customer.
As a result, AI can accelerate the learning process and consolidate the acquired knowledge on new topics. Therefore, it is worth considering using intelligent bots in an e-course to improve learning outcomes and achieve your educational business results.
Webinars
Many online students (and not only them) have known for a long time that an online course is not just a set of presentations or several modules with theory and practice. Instead, everything is much more interesting: each student joins an online platform and receives their own individual development plan. And to achieve high results in the learning process, attending group sessions and performing practical tasks with the teacher is necessary. And webinars are the best way to do this.
Students can easily take online classes anywhere there is an Internet connection from any device, so mobility is vital for any e-course. Furthermore, Webinars can be conducted either live or recorded. In this case, it is worth remembering the inherent advantages of meeting with a live expert: students' motivation through stories and advice and the opportunity to practice theoretical knowledge through various activities.
And most importantly, such interactivity improves the assimilation of knowledge and saves time for both students and teachers.
Learning Personalization
Experts in online education are noticing a growing demand for the personalization of content. It means that people are interested in using unique learning solutions that consider all their needs. This is where the capabilities of artificial intelligence, which we wrote about earlier, come into play.
What does AI have to do with personalizing online learning? The answer is simple: the system where the e-course takes place tracks the student's progress and makes an individualized progress plan. Thus, personalization directly affects the quality and value of online learning.
The most commonly personalized aspects are as follows:
- Class schedule;
- Learning content (course creators set separate blocks of tasks for beginners and students with specific knowledge of the topic);
- A roadmap (the artificial intelligence itself assembles a training program for each student).
Unfortunately, not every online learning platform has all the features needed for personalization. That is why course creators are looking for a service that will allow them to fully adjust to students' desires, especially in cases where there are no clear ideas. Such a platform should have everything you need, from a course and website builder to automatic knowledge assessment tools.
AR and VR
Augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies have been actively discussed in society for several years. And now, this trend has become an integral part of the eLearning sphere.
Today, many spheres are developing and improving, and education is no exception. People become less and less interested in gray textbooks and presentations every year. Moreover, videos on YouTube, Instagram, and other social networks, as well as hundreds of messages from colleagues at work, compete for students' attention. Therefore, AR and VR are coming to the forefront because of their ability to create vivid and engaging content that will appeal to students.
Now augmented and virtual reality is actively used in corporate training. For example, in September 2018, the American retail giant Walmart bought 7,000 Oculus Go headsets. They must train store employees on special virtual polygons, which are organized in each of the 5,000 outlets. Among other things, Walmart salespeople and consultants are trained to provide responsive customer service on peak days (e.g., pre-Christmas and Black Friday).
And combined with the growing popularity of metaverses, online courses may move entirely into a virtual space with avatars instead of teachers and students.
What Is the Overall Outlook for eLearning in 2023?
The global market for online education continues to grow strongly, despite the waning impact of the pandemic. According to HolonIQ, a global education market research platform, in the next 30 years, the number of people needing education will increase by almost two billion, from 7.8 billion to 9.4 billion. But, of course, traditional education methods are not designed for such a workload, so it is necessary to look for other ways.
Over the past 3-4 years, many platforms for gaining valuable knowledge and skills have emerged. And in 2023, this trend will continue because the existing platforms will only grow. Moreover, the number of online programs at classical universities will increase several times, allowing young people to get a prestigious education anywhere in the world.
We hope that you found our article helpful. If you still have questions about working with online courses, leave them in the comments. We will answer every question and review the most interesting ones in new articles.