Digitalisation is expanding in the education sector. Whether for students, universities, lecturers or companies – the digital era is changing our overall learning environment.
Two thirds of current primary school students will later pursue a profession that does not yet exist today. The demands of the labour market are growing and require for an increasing amount of knowledge in specific areas.
Consequently, digital courses are playing an increasingly important role. Subsequently the education system is being called upon to adapt to the changed conditions to internationalise their courses accordingly and to make them more accessible through digitisation.
Eminence, your local digital pioneer, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, has collected some interesting insights.
Trends and developments in the e-education
Based on the technological and social changes, there are several trends and developments in the e-education environment including:
Social learning
Technological advances are driving this trend, there is a growing need for students to interact, work, and learn within a community. Social learning is a way of incentivising the achievement of learning goals and it promotes the motivation of learners. The knowledge and experience of all employees can be used. This makes learning outcomes more varied and meaningful. And in addition – social learning is fun and a way to create new contacts.
Mobile learning
The increasing pressure on students to perform requires more flexibility in accessing learning content. Small learning units and a knowledge pool that is independent of time and location are becoming increasingly important for future training and learning processes.
Enriched content
Audiovisual, interactive media enhances content. For example reading devices such as Kindle or Apple Books.
Edutainment
By combining entertainment with teaching content, knowledge is imparted without pressure. In addition, the use of smartphones and tablet PCs is creating an increasing demand for interactive content.
Open education
Students have more access to free study and teaching materials on the web. This enables ubiquitous access even outside of formal university resources.
Making teachers fit for the digital world
Computer science has become an integral part of almost every profession. The appropriate use of digitisation in education requires teachers to rethink their approach.
If young people have fun and are motivated to engage in computer science in their free time, they will soon be able to know more about computer science and program better than their teachers. Therefore schools and universities are required to ensure that all teachers have the necessary competences in the field of digitisation. This applies not only to teachers in training. Teachers who are already active must also be capable in this era of digitalisation.
The basics in education and social skills are still important
Schools must ensure that the important basics are taught. Languages and mathematics still remain indispensable. These are skills that are essential for further learning progress.
Also soft skills must not be forgotten. In order to be able to lead a self-determined life, students need a high degree of social competence. In addition, humans are superior to computers on the social level and in context-dependent questions. Therefore, sports, literature, theatre and/or music are just as important as the transfer of digital knowledge.
Implementing the trends
More and more universities are implementing digital into their courses. Below we have listed some notable examples:
EdX (www.edxonline.org)
EdX first started as a project and cooperation between Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Today they offer distance-learning opportunities in collaboration with other prestigious universities worldwide, such as Boston University, Sorbonne University, the University of British Colombia, etc. This platform offers interactive tutorials, online laboratories, discussion groups, wikis and communication interfaces to both students and professors.
Udacity (www.udacity.com)
Udacity was founded by three robotic engineers. The online academy offers free lectures and exams on computer science and programming. Based on computer science lectures from 2011 at Stanford University, the first courses were created. The courses all last about seven weeks and are broken up by automatic comprehension tests. In addition to weekly homework, there is a final exam, which covers the entire course content. In between questions can be clarified in a discussion forum with other course participants and supervisors.
Khan academy (www.khanacademy.org)
Around 3’500 educational films on the disciplines of economics, natural sciences, mathematics and history are available on this non-commercial learning platform of Khan academy. In addition, the academy has an extensive YouTube channel with content that is freely available under the Creative Commons license. In 2011, the Khan Academy was awarded the “Project 10 to the 100” prize by Google and gained 2 million dollars in prize money.
University of Cambridge (www.ice.cam.ac.uk)
The University of Cambridge offers continuing education and a diverse array of subjects and courses for personal enrichment as well as professional development: Non-credit courses, residential and summer programmes and part-time award-bearing programmes ranging from Undergraduate Certificates through to part-time Master’s degrees.
Growing academic and professional demands are driving the need for change in the education system. Both social and technological trends offer the potential to respond to the increasing needs of students and the labour market. Eminence, your digital marketing pioneer, who is successfully active in various sectors such as education, luxury and other industries, can help you to set up an extensive audit and implement a successful strategy for the digitalisation of your company or brand.