This is the final part of the three article series discussing about the education market trends that edupreneurs should be aware of. The first part discussed about trends such as social media, online learning, MOOCS, GBL and homeschooling.
The second part focused on flipped learning, mobile technology, cloud-based technology, tablets and android. This part will discuss about other such growing trends in the education market.
More trends in the education market that edupreneurs must know:
- Big Data/Analytics: Discovering what data to collect on students is the first step, but learning how to analyze data so that educators, students, and even publishers have actionable results is the next big step. Standard metadata frameworks for marking up educational content on the Web are required. Big data in the online learning space will provide institutions with the predictive tools they need to improve learning outcomes for individual students. By designing a curriculum that collects data at every step of the student learning process, universities can address student needs with customized modules, assignments, feedback and learning trees in the curriculum that will promote better and richer learning. Big data can amplify factors that contribute to student success by helping personalize courses, strengthening the instructor and student relationship and building a wired sense of community. Smart universities are looking for ways to adapt using big data and community-building technologies. They know that students will seek opportunities that allow them to virtually cross borders and boundaries in learning. Beyond online learning, administrators understand that big data can be used in admissions, budgeting and student services to ensure transparency, better distribution of resources and identification of at-risk students.
- Adaptive Learning: Adaptive learning is becoming increasingly popular as it offers students a personalized learning experience. This type of learning uses the technology of computers as interactive teaching devices. The skill level and needs of each student are analyzed and content and instruction are tailored according to it. This simultaneously helps improve the teaching process in an automated manner. Many educational companies are now providing adaptive learning platforms, and Knewton is one such company. It provides a widely deployed adaptive learning platform that uses student data to personalize the learning content. The platform is adaptive in the sense that it responds to the activity of each user on the system in real-time and adjusts accordingly to provide the most relevant content. Knewton captures every move that a student makes from speed, accuracy to key-strokes and drop-offs. This data is collected by the platform and the software adapts to help the user learn in his own learning style. Adaptive learning platforms are not meant to replace teachers, rather they are supplemental tools that help make a learning experience more effective by personalizing it.
- Interactive Self-Assessment: Many new products have come up in the education market that help enhance the self-learning process. One such product is Eklavvya. Using Eklawya, an individual who is looking to practice for objective questions based exams like NEET, UPSC, MHTCET and more, can analyze his performance. Strong and weak areas of a student are highlighted which helps the student to focus on weaker areas to improve performance. Students can take as much number of tests as they want to analyze individual performance over the period of time. Such an assessment processes is the easiest way to understand one’s own performance and benchmark it against selection criteria.
- Cross-Platform Integration and Vendor Collaboration: Education technology vendors are now moving from being application makers to being platform providers. They are opening their cross-platform APIs to foster collaboration. Vendor collaboration encourages innovation at a fast pace and also facilitates content sharing that eventually benefits the stakeholders. It also opens new distribution models for new companies who want to gain scale rapidly and new business models for those who want to extend their reach. Open APIs and public developer platforms allows education technology vendors to extend functionality of their systems and attract new business opportunities with the help of a services model. Vendor collaboration and cross-platform integration is important for education and it will continue to be a big trend because vendors want to improve learning lives of students through digital technology and data integration in education is a significant challenge and vendors will find ways to successfully tackle this issue.
- Security and Privacy: With the variety of personal devices used in learning, anywhere and anytime access to educational systems, and the push for data collection and analytics lead to increased concerns over student privacy and security. Protecting student information is considered as a big challenge for any technology company and resource provider. Their job is not just restricted to collecting data and making it accessible but is rendered complete when information security is guaranteed. Tools for protecting and securing data across educational institutions are very much in demand and should be the priority of educational product providers.
Even as students look for products that take advantage of the latest digital efficiencies, they still demand quality content that helps them achieve their learning goals. Edupreneurs must be aware of the latest trends in the education market so that they are able to deliver products that are currently in demand and are much desired by those who are involved in education.
Share more such trends which will keep edupreneurs up to date with what’s new and most looked for in the education market. The Comment Box awaits you.
