For the past several years, Educational technology has impacted how business professionals want to learn. Educational technologies have been on corporations’ agenda’s for a while now, and their focus has been on virtual classrooms, mobile devices, digital readers, on-demand video, online gaming, and many cloud-based learning management systems. Most educational technology investment for innovation was designed and focused on the higher education market. However, recently, the trend has been switched and investors are now interested in exploring towards corporate training.
What is driving this change?
A major component for innovation is the adoption rate of new technologies by millennials. Many millennials are entering the job market and bringing with them new traditions and expectations on how to collaborate and learn. Millennials are bringing forward innovative learning methods, and continue to make learning effective and efficient. Due to these new changes in the workplace, investors are heavily investing in the Educational tech market at an unprecedented level. Entrepreneurs and educational companies are making the most of this opportunity; they are designing innovative products across the market and designing them especially for corporations.
2017 has been a vital year for the education tech sector, as it continues to evolve in various ways. It seems to have promising changes to the market, which will have a long-lasting impact for the future.
Investment in Educational Technologies Continues to rise
Tools for content development and delivery, digital readers, virtual delivery, reinforcement, content libraries, gaming, and cloud-based administration systems, all are bringing a level of innovation that is at an all-time high for corporate training. As technology advances and new tools are introduced into the world, the learning methods also increase. People are finding new ways of implementing new technology to enhance both their personal lives, as well as their organizations. Much of the investment is coming from companies that have usually invested in public and post-secondary education but are now changing their focal point to the corporate market.
Access to Learning
With the increase of mobile devices and availability of the Internet, learning libraries and opportunities have certainly grown swiftly. With this rapid growth, it means that learners have access to virtually any type of learning material at any time anywhere. You can consider the internet as the universal library where almost any information required in any field can be accessed from anywhere by using keywords. Just a few decades ago, the local library and the classroom were the main places knowledge and information could be acquired. Nonetheless, the birth of the internet completely revolutionized the way information and knowledge can be gained. People no longer have to leave their homes or offices to take a class; through the use of cloud technologies, people can take a class from wherever they are, do research on various techniques and approaches of attaining their ideals, and essentially reinforce their worth at the workplace without relocating, or waste time or money.
Adaptive Learning
Adaptive learning is about personalizing the learning experience. By using adaptive learning techniques, the time it takes learners to become proficient can be reduced, by eliminating the need to cover content they already understand. The future success of adaptive learning is not only in the design of the technology but also in the design of content. Content should be condensed and modified into learning objects, so it may be used based only on what the learner needs. Yes, repetition is the key to understanding new and complex subjects, but to some degree, there is unnecessary repetition, and this is what adaptive learning recognizes and aims to eliminate. It gets rid of the boring and time wasting process students may be faced with in learning a subject, by determining what is an essential place to commence a lesson. Using computer technology, adaptive learning is able to make learning both more interesting, interactive, and something that the student will actually look forward to. It’s a relatively new approach to learning, particularly in the business sector, but it’s benefits and results cannot be questioned, and that’s why it has gained popularity and preference in the past few years.
Smaller Class Sizes
Virtual learning platforms and online training programs have increased in popularity. Many companies and individuals are adopting these online training programs such as the Agile and Scrum training in a virtual classroom environment. Average class enrollments are continuing to reduce in size due to the high demand. Every serious individual in the business world knows that they have to be invaluable in their organizations in order to not only secure their job positions but also to add value to the company and get that promotion. The surest way of adding value to one’s organization is through growth and development, and the key to growth and development is through constant learning. Life is a school where learning is perpetual, and when we reach a point where we can no longer acquire new knowledge and skills, then our time here is done.
When we stop growing, regardless of where we are or whatever it is we are doing, we die. That’s why those who love their careers and want to be the most valuable individuals in their chosen endeavor, have invested so much in learning. But there are just not enough classrooms to accommodate all the people who want to add value to both their own individual lives, as well as their organizations. The internet and all the technologies that thrive in it have enabled people to take classes from any location on the planet. This has significantly reduced the need for classrooms, as well as other discomforts like transport, that accommodate this classic approach to learning. Therefore, learning has been proven to be more effective for both businesses and learners that training is becoming more affordable to deliver in smaller settings.
