Our world is constantly changing. Everything from the latest discoveries in medicine, to ground-breaking innovations in aircrafts. Our learning systems, too, are changing. In order to assure that we receive the best possible learning tools and systems, we must keep up with the latest trends in education technology. According to the Post University, there are 7 higher education trends that have built momentum around the way we teach and learn. These include:
• Online education innovation will accelerate: Such strategies will feature several key benefits for students –namely, robust support services, high interaction with instructors and students, and outcome-based learning. Much of this innovation will continue to be led by smaller institutions, for-profits, and community colleges, which have spearheaded many online education developments to date.
• The adult learner population will continue to grow: The U.S. Department of Education’s 2010 statistics show that approximately 25 percent of college students nationwide are over age 20. As a result, adult learners will continue to become a crucial part of the overall future of higher education. Educational institutions will be under increasing pressure to better meet the needs of adult learners, who must balance work, school, and life’s other responsibilities.
• The traditional education narrative will continue to shift: This year has seen a significant shift in how learners get information and acquire knowledge, and it will continue. Online information is no longer primarily handed down from professor to student. In many cases it is downloaded and uploaded by students. In 2013, the learner will have even greater voice and expect to be a more active participant in the learning process. This will help allow more learning to take place anywhere, anytime.
• More educators will help students learn how to learn: Increasingly, the role of educators is to help students learn how to learn. More students will be creating and producing materials so they’re not just demonstrating that they know information, but rather, can find and use information and put it together in new ways.
• Students will increasingly become self-directed learners: Rather than students acting as compliant learners adhering to institutions’ rules about what and how to learn, they are becoming creative agents in their own learning. New online teaching and learning technologies will help make this self-directed learning even more possible.
• Social media will increasingly become a powerful teaching and learning tool: Many educators have adopted social media in the classroom, and are finding ways to use social media to help students tap into their creative potential and build their personal learning networks. We will see further development in this area, as more educators use social media to engage students in broader conversations about what they’re learning in class. Educators will be further looking for ways to strategically integrate social media into their teaching design.
• Educational partnerships will help fuel the industry innovation: Educational
partnerships are an important part of the mission to improve and implement traditional, online,
and hybrid learning models that are driven by student needs. The industry will see more
educational partnerships and alliances forming, whereby individual organizations hone their
expertise in particular areas while tapping other resources to create products and services that
best meet student needs and strengthen a global leadership position.
With our world constantly adapting and advancing, shouldn’t we keep up with the best possible learning tools to provide for students?