London Technology Week is a weeklong series of events where innovative technical achievements meet new successful companies and talents. A small development team from AgileWorks was also present. Since we have Astra – an Estonian e-learning environment – currently in development, we attended a lot of e-learning themed events. We also learned about other new and interesting projects and made mental notes about a lot of useful information.
E-learning in the future
We visited several events related to e-learning systems and teaching methodologies, and it was confirmed that this is an ever-developing and expanding field worldwide. Despite the intense competition among many system providers in the field, a clear leader has yet to emerge. Since schools mainly teach using books and workbooks, occasionally also via e-systems, solely digitized or HTML/PDF format materials would not be enough to bring significant changes. To make learning easier, more convenient, and most importantly, more interesting for children, a structural change in the entire system is needed. In the coming years, we will focus on enabling e-learning for personal use.
Main observations from the presentation
When developing e-learning systems, digitizing textbooks and workbooks is not necessarily the best solution because electronic devices are more expensive, break more easily, and are less reliable than good old-fashioned books. The initial goals of a digital system would be to improve learning outcomes through personalized learning, to stimulate children's interest in new knowledge by clicking on links and searching through registers, and to deepen learning through videos and simulations.
In the future, we can expect practically free educational programs and training, where e-learning systems generate revenue through additional services such as issuing a paid certificate upon course completion. All indications suggest that e-education systems will soon dethrone traditional academic higher education. Worldwide, the cost of education is rising, and thus, causing independent e-learning to gain popularity. MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) and other e-learning solutions are cheaper and more flexible than traditional university courses. It can be expected that as tuition fees continue to rise, more and more people will consider e-learning.
The winner will be the one who offers the most precise service, meaning that the goal of an e-learner is usually to improve their knowledge in a specific field, and therefore a good system provides only the information necessary at that specific moment. Statistics show that most e-learners do not complete the courses they start. Course success is not measured by knowledge but by the completion rate, which means that even a participant who did not finish the course might have acquired the sought-after knowledge. For example, many people watch Pluralsight course videos at an accelerated speed or in fragments but still return and rate the system highly.
Various internationally recognized universities already offer 100% e-learning-based courses. Surprisingly, this opportunity is mainly used by people living near the universities, suggesting that university "brands" are local.
E-learning can be implemented by focusing both on an individual student and an entire class. A student-centered system presents materials and assignments according to the student's level and repeats previously learned material at precisely the right intervals to enhance learning effectiveness. If a student answers incorrectly, the goal is to find out why they answered that way and explain why the answer is wrong. Naturally, e-learning must be developed in collaboration with students, keeping in mind that in school, students learn to search for information, as knowing facts is not as important in the Internet age.
What possibilities stand out
After London Technology Week, we have a better understanding of the e-learning market, progress, and development opportunities worldwide. We got a closer look at the current trends and met with today's key players in the e-learning field. A week of new knowledge and ideas brought us back home with plenty of motivation and new ideas.