Technology has revolutionized the way the education sector works these days. EdTech has simplified a lot of administrative tasks, improved teaching methods as well as helped boost engagement.
This is only helped by the fact that AI is on the rise, giving birth to a lot of new technologies that simply weren’t possible before. With virtual classrooms becoming the norm, the education sector is going through a revolution.
Let’s take a look at the rise of EdTech and how AI and virtual classrooms are reshaping the education sector.
The Rise of EdTech: A Brief Overview
EdTech, which stands for Education Technology, involves the use of communication and information technology in classrooms to create a more inclusive, engaging, and individual learning experience.
Classrooms have slowly moved from the desktop-based learning environment to a more tech-based one that uses tablets and online courses. We saw a lot of fast growth in EdTech due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced students and teachers to stay at their home.
This led to rapid development in the education sector where now we see the use of virtual reality and gamified learning which makes it easier for students to stay engaged with fun ways to learn.
The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Education
With an increased interest in AI, there are now a lot of new ways to enhance a lot of parts of the education sector; some of which were impossible before.
- Streamlining Teacher Roles: Teachers also have some administrative tasks they have to do. With AI, a lot of this can be automated and streamlined which gives teachers more time to engage with their students in a more meaningful way. This can help create a richer learning experience for the students, as long as it’s used to improve the teacher’s role, not to replace them.
- Refined Student Assessment: Integrating AI into education can change the way teachers assess and analyze their students and their performance. Non-standardized tests can be used to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a student, allowing teachers to strategize and create a customized learning program for each student.
- Increasing Digital Literacy: A lot of educational institutes don’t address the growing gap in digital skills, which in this day and age is very important for employment. AI can be used to improve a student’s critical thinking, digital literacy, creativity, and problem-solving, which can prepare them for job demands in the future.
- Personalized Learning: Individual tutoring can boost learning for students and give better results in the long run. However, individualized learning can be very expensive. This is why the use of AI-driven personalized learning can be used to tailor learning for each student, increasing academic performance without a major economic impact.
Virtual Classrooms: Bridging the Gap in Remote Learning
As the internet and technology have become more accessible, there has been a rise in virtual classrooms that allow students to learn from the comfort of their homes.
This started becoming the norm after COVID-19, which forced students to use remote ways of learning. Through a virtual classroom, teachers can teach using digital course materials, as well as interact with their students through a video call.
It’s also possible now because of how fast internet speeds have become, allowing users to connect to each other through video calls with crystal-clear image quality. With the internet also becoming very affordable, like the ones offered by Xfinity Bundle Deals, most people nowadays have access to extremely fast internet speeds.
Where online courses generally rely on pre-recorded learning material, virtual classrooms take place in a live environment that allows interaction between the teacher and their students.
Key Features of Virtual Learning Environments
Having a virtual classroom allows access to a lot of features. These are:
- Simple Customizable Layouts: Virtual classrooms are designed to include everything a student needs to complete their course. There, they can find course descriptions that show what the student will learn in the class as well as a content library with the course content as well as the learning sequence.
- Learner-Centered Features: The learning management system gives students the resources they need to manage their learning experiences. Students can also get access to recorded lectures in case they miss out on the live classes.
- Self-Paced Modules: Students usually like to move at their own pace. However, there always needs to be a form of a roadmap that helps guide students through the course. The different topics are broken down into shorter segments and the students have the ability to go through them all at once or take their time.
- Socially Connected Groups: Most online learning platforms allow students to join a group on the platform or a social media platform that allows them to learn through shared experiences, study groups, and shared experiences.
- Assessment & Certificates: Reinforcement is crucial with learning, which is why building them in the courses is important. Most courses have assignments and quizzes as well as grade books that allow students to view their performance.
- Mobile-Friendly Interface: Nowadays, mobile accessibility is very important for online learning. Mobile users finish courses faster than desktop users. Most online learning platforms offer interfaces for both desktop and mobile screens.
Benefits of AI and Virtual Classrooms for Educational Institutions
Combining AI with virtual classrooms can have a lot of benefits. These include:
- Improved Student Engagement: Virtual classrooms that use AI can make learning a lot more fun for the students by incorporating fun quizzes, and gamified learning, which can make education feel more fun and rewarding for the students. This leads to improved attention from the students.
- Cost-Effective Learning: AI’s usage in classrooms can help reduce some of the education tasks as it can be used to get digital data like attendance, grades, and other data about students and create an automated report of the student without much input from teachers or administrators.
- Decreased Language Barriers: AI can be used to create real-time translations, and can even do it in the teacher’s voice. This means that classes can now become multi-lingual while ensuring that there are fewer language barriers for students who speak different languages.
- Reduced Teacher Burnout: Teachers often have to deal with heavy workloads, which include planning lessons, grading, and other administrative duties. This gives them more breathing room to do the thing they love, leading to lesser burnout.
- Better Scalability: Virtual classrooms can essentially be limitless. Rather than being limited to a class of 20 students, teachers can teach hundreds of students at a time, and AI can be used to make sure that the learning process is seamless and rewarding for each student.
The Future of EdTech: What’s Next?
It’s just the beginning. We are yet to see how EdTech is going to evolve the education sector in the upcoming years.
There will be a larger role of AI as it will continue to influence the learning process in newer and improved ways, including advanced learning for students that’s tailor-made for their strengths and weaknesses.
We also expect to see a larger role of augmented and virtual reality with AR and VR being used in physical and virtual classrooms to provide a more immersive learning experience to students. With blockchain technology, we can also expect to see more secure ways to store student credentials and records.