Aaron Skonnard is the CEO of Pluralsight, an online education company that offers a variety of video training courses for software developers, IT administrators, and creative professionals through its website. Skonnard shared with us 5 industry trends that are rising in the world of education technology, collecting his data from sources dedicated to following technology trends, such as the Global Industry Analysis, edTech, and the Clayton Christensen Institute. Here are the top five education trends in 2015:
1) Online corporate learning: According to the Clayton Christensen Institute, the corporate e-learning market is expected to increase about 13 percent annually until 2017. What is causing this sudden increase? Companies have now started initiating online training and education for their employees. Just like the sudden increase in popularity for online higher education, corporations have now taken advantage for what our world of education technology has to offer.
2) Skills Measurement. Keeping up with your student’s progress is the key to to track learning. In order to track progress, consistent testing, or “skills measurement testing” allows employers and educators to help their students succeed. But what changes are being made? According to Skonnard, “In conjunction with the building momentum in online corporate learning, expect to see intensified focus in 2015 on identifying better ways to assess skills and measure individual progress, competency-based learning, and ultimately ROI.”
3) Alternative learning styles: For centuries, teaching styles have remained traditional and unchanged. Only as of lately, within our technological revolution, have we adapted our teaching styles more personally adhere to students needs. What does this entail? According to Skonnard, “While those are still effective, new types of learning styles will continue to emerge in 2015, offering online learners more interactive experiences like writing code directly in the browser, or completing online challenges as part of the learning process.” With iQ technologies, we have taken this trend to a new level and actually applied these concepts to our platform. The iQ technologies platform integrates lecture videos, interactive education tools, and real-time study groups via online video.
4) Online competency-based training: The most innovate, and in our opinion, most valuable industry trend is the integration of online education and measuring student competency. What makes this so proactive is that learning is personally customized for students, so that students are not left behind nor stuck in an unfit learning speed. What does this look like? Skannord describes this, “Weise and Christensen go on to explain that providers of online competency-based training “can cost-effectively combine modules of learning into pathways that are agile and adaptable to the changing labor market.” They do so by breaking down learning not by courses or even subject matter, but by competencies, thus releasing learning from the constraints of traditional institutions and methods.”
5) Flipped learning technology: Traditional classrooms have begun to make a switch from old-style teaching methods to online technology, but first making that transition with a combination of both styles. What does this mean? This idea is nicknamed “flipped learning” where students watch lessons online and practice the concepts in class. What makes these “flipped” classrooms possible, though? We first need an interactive, multi-media adaptable technology platform for students. In addition to watching lecture, students will want to share their thoughts, ideas, and most importantly, questions with fellow students and teachers. Social media integration with lectures allows for students to interact with their fellow peers in understanding the material at home, before coming to class. iQ technologies has made this possible.
iQ technologies has embraced these five industry trends and has incorporated their concepts into its platform design. Increasing student interaction and student customizability is iQ technologies’ number one priority.
Check out Pluralsight’s article here.