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Instead of focusing on accomplishing learning goals, assessments were copied directly from the face to face environment, often relying on ineffective, invasive processes. This extended beyond an approach to assessment. We were alarmed at the entrenched, unempathetic rhetoric coming from faculty who sought our support. It is important to note that much of this reasoning came from a place of misunderstanding, not malice. Faculty were often unaware of why such non-inclusive design is both harmful and ineffective at accomplishing goals.
Some of these alarming requests and ideas faculty shared with us were:. Hearing of extremely similar experiences from colleagues in other institutions, we realized this is an endemic and widespread problem. Our office pursued a two pronged approach at changing this paradigm.
Second, we facilitated a faculty run discussion series aimed at changing the mentality of the campus community as a whole. As course design and review was an essential aspect of our existing training structure, it gave an easy window into making sure courses were in line with UDL and Pedagogy of Kindness best practices. An important, if not the most important component of these conversations, was backing up all best practices with extensive data and research.
We found academics, if nothing else are extremely receptive to data backed arguments. As an example, if a faculty member was demanding to use remote proctoring invasive solutions for their assessments, our process would be as follows: First, we would identify the ultimate learning goals and objectives for the course.
Then, we would analyze if their test accurately and effectively assessed accomplishment of those goals. At the end of the collaboration, faculty mostly realized why remote proctoring which our campus does not support , will neither ensure academic integrity nor effectively assess students, and use a more authentic assessment model. This process was repeated with great success with hundreds of faculty collaborations across disciplines.
The expectations that faculty members had for students in an online environment were similar to that they had for them in person, which proved to be too unrealistic. This garnered a reset for faculty members to evaluate the practices they are putting forth in an online environment. A faculty member who also worked in the Center for Teaching and Learning, noted that this was more than just a pedagogical problem but more of a problem of lack of kindness.
Hence, the Pedagogy of Kindness discussion series came to fruition. The topics were tailored to the common issues in this vein that we noted in the faculty population at our institution. The initial events in the discussion series were:.
The main objectives of the sessions were to build community in the classroom through creation of learning collectives, establishing classroom boundaries during pandemic remote learning, effective alternative assessment styles for online learning, generation of mindfulness in the classroom such as syllabus transparency, being able to use trauma-informed teaching practices during a time of social reform, collaborative projects with international students and faculty, and creating a caring environment within the classroom.
The process of choosing the faculty presenters was mainly done through reaching out to the chairpeople of different departments on campus, asking them if any faculty members in their department had demonstrated incredible resonance with their students through the transition to distance learning.
The panel discussions were excellent ways to demonstrate faculty within and across different disciplines course design, such as large-classes, asynchronous, and synchronous implemented the relevant Pedagogy of Kindness topic.
We found a discussion series was very effective for this series, as it provided experienced faculty with a platform and resources to share their experiences, while engaging directly with their peers. Our aim was to encourage organic and fluid discourse with the panelist s and the attendees.
This allowed faculty members to be comfortable sharing their experiences while getting guidance and context for the related pedagogy of kindness topics.
Assessment: Efficacy of faculty collaborations and the series as a whole was gauged on the following metrics: First, the collaborations were measured against overall course design and how well they aligned with UDL and Pedagogy of Kindness guidelines. That was measured against faculty survey feedback and experience with the collaborative process and workshop as a whole.
This information was used to adapt and improve on collaborations measures. Series impact will be measured by attendee feedback surveys, follow up requests, and longitudinal analysis of attendees implementation of topics through future collaborations.
We plan on expanding on topics that garnered the most interest during the series as well as offering related hands-on workshops on how these concepts are applied through other facets of teaching. One requested topic so far has been how to implement these essential pedagogies with a specific lens towards technology and online learning. This is a highly participatory session. At key intervals defining the challenges that faculty bring and what strategies were used in other institutions , the presenters will poll the audience for how they handled similar scenarios and challenges.
A large chunk of the session will also be spent in scaffolded engagement breakout rooms. Essentially, after presenting the problem at large audience members will have the option of moving into a breakout room guided by a presenter focused on one following topics:. Audience members who attend this session will emerge with a clear understanding of what the pedagogy of kindness is, how it applies to higher education, and why it is so important. They will have solid strategies on how to work with colleagues and faculty at their institutions on integrating the pedagogy of kindness strategies and methodologies into their courses.
They will also have a full framework of launching a similar series at their institutions. This interactive session will introduce the Purposeful Learning Framework to inform course design and delivery that creates effective outcomes for the greatest number and diversity of learners. Presenters will specifically demonstrate and engage participants in 5 principles for inclusive teaching and learning, with proven resources and methods for applying each.
This session will begin with introductions by the presenters and sharing of their respective experience and expertise related to the topic. Session participants will be asked to introduce themselves, how their role connects to the session topic, and what they hope to gain from the session. Presenters will then share the designed session outcomes to inform participants and to ensure that needs of all participants are met, as much as possible. Discussion will begin by establishing that DEI efforts do not belong to one office or entity on campus, but rather are something critical to be mobilized through creating more inclusive learning experiences where all students see themselves as belonging, represented, and destined to succeed.
This will be shared in the context of a Purposeful Learning Framework, a set of objectives developed by the presenters and used to inform effective online-blended-hyflex course effectiveness. Presenters will emphasize critical course design and delivery aspects that proactively foster diversity, equity, and inclusion while increasing student success and closing equity gaps. It should be noted that all this is done without changing the course learning outcomes.
Participant sharing, input, and engagement will be fostered using multiple in-session active learning techniques. Multiple hands-on activities will enable participants to initiate their enhanced equity and inclusion plans in a learn-by-doing manner and to set goals for near-terms goals they will meet in going back to their respective roles post-conference. At the conclusion of the session, participants will be provided access to the Purposeful Learning Framework and a wealth of other related Creative Commons licensed resources demonstrated in order to enable their efforts to create the most inclusive learning experiences for their students.
Student recruitment for hybrid graduate programs can pose a challenge due to a variety of factors. Leaders can adopt the Community of Inquiry Framework to enhance student engagement in the educational experience. This session will generate ideas to develop social, teacher, and cognitive presence during a virtual student onboarding plan.
The impact of COVID in healthcare education continues to evolve and forced educators to pivot from traditional face-to-face instruction to an online format rapidly. Alternative modes of instruction required educators to rethink instructional methods for hands-on lab sessions.
Social distancing, hand washing, and temperature checks became the new normal. Mask wearing and protective gear kept faculty and students safe. Despite good intentions, students experienced the negative consequences of emergency remote instruction, leading to isolation, anxiety, and depression.
How do you make connections with students in the virtual space during student onboarding activities? Research shows that the Community of Inquiry theoretical framework supports social, cognitive, and teaching presence in online teaching and learning.
Additionally, the literature also implies students may exhibit heightened levels of intrinsic responsibility to collaborate with educators and help solve the problems institutions face during the pandemic. However, there is a gap in the literature that cites limitations with applying the Community of Inquiry framework throughout the new student onboarding process. As programs strive to build a sense of community, effective communication, collaboration, and reflection contribute to high levels of student engagement.
The purpose of this research is to describe an online student onboarding program that supports student engagement and promotes student retention in a hybrid graduate Doctor of Physical Therapy DPT program in development. Questions and answers will generate ideas for the participants to establish social, teaching, and cognitive presence.
Building a sense of community and belonging is an integral part of the onboarding process for hybrid and online programs. The Community of Inquiry Framework can help educators select intentional learning activities that address social, teacher, and cognitive presence.
Through networking and sharing ideas with peers from other institutions, participants will have new ideas that can translate into virtual onboarding processes for future reference.
Learning design is usually taught to faculty, but faculty are not usually the subjects of learning design. This presentation focuses on centering learning design on faculty using a variety of alternative subject matter experts to teach faculty how to operate an online course in times of crisis. The subject of learning design most frequently centers on faculty learning and creating for the betterment of their students, but faculty themselves are less likely to be the direct subjects of the same efforts.
At Mississippi State University, the Covid pandemic brought this disparity to the forefront as the entire institution shifted to bring over 3, courses online in a single week, with only one full-time employee dedicated to assisting faculty.
This presentation focuses on how many experts in varied technical fields came together to create an innovative, effective, and efficient method to assist faculty learning to teach online for the first time. This session will open with a brief introduction to how Mississippi State Online is structured, and then move into how we informed and mobilized the CRM coordinator, web developer, and student support coordinator into a viable technology unit actively assisting with moving courses online and answering faculty questions.
We will then explain the foundational knowledge that each specialty found missing in our faculty at large and how we used each technical specialization to address those gaps in more advanced faculty training and assistance. Finally, we will speak to how we are continually pulling on the varied technical expertise to create new and relevant training to assist faculty in teaching online. Online proctoring now more than ever needs to not only provide test integrity but should also mitigate the stress and anxiety a student experiences while testing.
In addition, many students also have specific testing accommodations which must be considered. A solution to creating a positive testing experience, while addressing the unique needs of both the student and the school, is not a one size fits all. Attendees will walk away with actionable takeaways they can implement into their online proctoring program to create a more positive experience for students. Hear from HBCU leaders, as they share about the many challenges and opportunities for aligning their institutional mission to digital strategy, as well as what they have learned along the way while engaging in this work.
This collaborative workshop aimed to:. In this panel-style session the first session of our multipart Fusion Summit , we welcome back colleagues from that event to discuss the experiences with building out a digital learning strategy for their institutional contexts. Specifically, we will explore the challenges and opportunities that surfaced around the implementation of a digital strategy and the complexities of building capacity to support a digital learning strategy.
Session attendees will leave with a better understanding of the potential impact s of operationalizing digital learning strategies within higher education institutional contexts specifically HBCUs , as well as benefit from the critical guidance and expertise the panelists and session facilitator, Dr. Crisi Ford bring to the session. About the Fusion Summit: The success of the field of online, blended and digital learning is bolstered by the dimensions of diversity present across our community, centering practices of sharing and collaboration in support of student success.
Focusing on the quality characteristics of online learning as well as digital strategies prioritized by these visionaries through their work in online education, this multipart summit uses actionable design practices and collaborative work to create a community of practice supporting work well beyond the conference.
The post-inoculation phase of the pandemic has raised serious questions about right-sizing the mix of instructional modalities to meet student demand, faculty readiness, institutional capability, and regional needs while simultaneously preparing to offset future challenges to normal operations.
The pandemic ushered in use of digital, blended, and online learning at scales never before imagined in higher education. Do the leadership structures of institutions and organizations play a role in the success of online and blended programs? How do reporting structures and departmental organization make a difference in how programs function and are supported? This primer offers insights for academic leaders who aim to create resilient institutions, providing strategies to adopt big picture thinking, respond to external factors, leverage the strengths of their institution, maximize relationships, and take strategic action to develop responsive planning in a post-inoculation era.
The time to go from reactive to strategic with regards to instructional modalities is now. In creating institutions that are able to adapt to growing needs, the promise of the resilient college and university is restorative and transformative.
It provides a moment to create an orchestral arrangement of opportunities and experiences through strategic activities centering the student of our time and in preparation for the evolutionary student of the future. Amidst changes in student demographics and projected enrollment declines with a backdrop of campus closures across the United States, we are aware of the urgency of the call to action to create resilient and nimble institutions for our post-inoculation future, adroit in all instructional modalities.
To go from reactive to strategic, we must reflect on what we have learned during the pandemic about remote work and learning, nurture our capacity for big picture thinking, and capture the advantages of digital, blended, and online learning. This session will discuss actionable strategies for how to apply them to the strategy, systems thinking, and intentional culture building that must follow.
Our aim is to help you create and refine leadership systems that are scalable and adaptable to all future modality challenges our nation and its education system might face.
Join the conversation! We’ll discuss how we’ve advocated for a statewide LMS this past year in several states, why some states can benefit from education-related bills, and what a K collaborative is. We will share student survey results during the pandemic, and how we responded.
Our University is a HSI, and also serves students from tribal communities facing health disparities. This presentation details instructional modifications and student supports, and follow-up survey results. Participants will gain ideas to support students during difficult times. During the COVID pandemic, students struggled under the emotional weight, economic hardship, and logistical chaos of the evolving crisis. Students needed more from their degree programs than just adequate online classes—the uncertainty and isolation associated with COVID called for increased attention to student and community well-being, as well as modification to regular teaching practices.
In late Fall , we surveyed our students about their experiences and what they needed from their program. Our student body is wonderfully diverse and presents a range of unique challenges—our University is a HSI Hispanic-serving Institution , and we also serve a large number of students from tribal communities, students who may lack citizenship documentation, and those who are first-generation college students.
Additionally, our largely rural state lacks widespread access to broadband internet; the digital divide here runs deep. COVID death rates in tribal communities were significantly elevated, reflecting a serious health disparity. As a result, many of the challenges experienced throughout the country during the pandemic were amplified for our students. After sorting through our survey responses, several themes emerged: students were struggling with lack of reliable access to the internet and the costs associated with increased data usage, and were frustrated with certain features of the LMS and Zoom course delivery.
As a program with a large number of adjunct faculty, we needed to improve instructor consistency related to online teaching skills. Our students also identified that they were feeling the strain of isolation and were craving peer interaction. Students expressed how difficult it was to maintain motivation during this uncertain time, and to balance home, school and work expectations after their daily routines had been turned upside down by COVID After reviewing these concerns, we conceptualized a list of teaching and learning modifications, as well as additional student supports to address the increased mental health challenges.
In this presentation, we will share what we learned from that initial student survey and the details of the interventions we decided to try. We will share how we aimed to improve teaching, find new ways to create community, and address students’ emotional and academic needs. We will discuss specific Ideas that were subsequently implemented related to teaching; one of these was assigning all adjunct faculty an online mentor to offer training and assistance.
Instructors were given specific recommendations for LMS usage, as well as asynchronous training modules to help troubleshoot common issues. Simplification and consolidation of assignments was initiated by our Lead Instructors for all courses, and all faculty were encouraged to send weekly announcements to remind students of approaching due dates.
In a response to the isolation, mental health issues and other hardships that students were experiencing, we mobilized a number of resources to enhance wellness and increase a sense of connection within our learning community. We increased use of breakout rooms during Zoom sessions, and provided ongoing social opportunities, including virtual student hangouts and social justice topic discussions open to all which allowed students to process current issues around racism, health disparities and immigrant experiences that were impacting the communities we serve.
A few tangible resources were also offered to students, including a ream of paper and an office supply gift card. For students experiencing a financial crisis due to lost wages or illness, referrals were made to the University emergency hardship funds. Not all of these ideas were successful; some were quickly tossed out or significantly adapted. And like all institutions, our University has an administrative bureaucracy that does not always lend itself to rapid, agile changes.
We look forward to sharing what we learned from our process of needs assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation. We will explain how the follow-up student survey results are now informing our work going forward. Participants in this session will engage in a brief mindfulness activity, as an example of one activity that we utilized during this period to support student well-being. The OLC Community is vibrant, collaborative, and inclusive. This session gives you the chance to let us know what services and experiences can make your OLC membership even more rewarding.
From the website to the research center, to quality scorecards and collaborative learning events such as conferences and online gatherings, OLC is your partner supporting the entire online, blended, and digital learning strategy at your institution. But, what more could we do? We want to hear from you – what can we do to make your community experiences more meaningful, useful, and extraordinary?
Join us to imagine what. This panel discussion situates change-oriented and action-based work within a critical reflection on the ways in which we do and do not build and lead with models that center the diverse experiences and expertise in our community. Join us for collaborative storytelling, strategy sharing, community building, and future landscape-reflecting.
In the second session of our multipart Fusion Summit, Angela Gunder will moderate a panel of visionaries and leaders. Together, they will engage in a dialogue around the future landscape of our field, focusing particularly on the ways in which we do and the ways in which we do not build and lead with models that center the diverse experiences and expertise in our community.
Included in this commentary will be a critical reflection on the implications of our actions and leadership, as related particularly to our engagement with community experience and expertise. Participants who attend this panel session will leave with a better understanding of key differences between the types of actions which serve to benefit the field of online, blended, and digital learning, and those which serve to further perpetuate harmful narratives and practices often western and colonial in our field.
Apart from stories, panelists will offer up a digital strategy, model, or practice they have utilized in their educational spaces. They will contextualize their examples within the lessons they learned along the way, their own journeys in coming to understand the characteristics of quality online learning, and how they came to prioritize digital strategies that center diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Given that an explicit goal of the Fusion Summit is collaboration and community building, session panelists and the session moderator invite participants to bring to this session their own stories, along with any specific questions they have. By applying an effective course quality review process to assess instructional strategies, design teams can impact student outcomes, alignment, and student satisfaction in competency-based education.
In this presentation, we will provide evidence of improved student outcomes based on applying rigorous course quality review processes in our design and development. Session Title: The title of the presentation is limited to characters.
Try to create something that accurately describes your intended session, which is also catchy or interesting. Consider reviewing previous Best in Track proposals. Title: Effective instructional strategies and the quality review process; lessons in using evaluation technology tools to impact student outcomes.
Presenters and Authors: All individuals listed on a conference proposal must have a current OLC account and their profile must be up to date. When submitting the proposal, you will select your co-presenters by using their email addresses. The system will only allow you to select individuals who have an OLC account. To make the submission process quick and easy, obtain the names and email addresses used by your collaborators prior to logging in to the system.
Speakers: Joy Valerio [email protected] obtain email addresses prior to accessing the submission form. Hannah Beaux [email protected]. Additional Authors: obtain email addresses prior to accessing the submission form.
In the system, these items are dropdown menus. You will be asked to select the option that most accurately aligns with your proposal. Please access the appropriate conference site for detailed descriptions of each. Conference Track: Instructional Design The track or category of your intended session.
Institutional Level: Higher Ed The academic level, rigor, or emphasis aligned with your intended session. Audience Level: All Attendees The level of expertise of people who will gain the most out of attending your intended session.
Choose one of these options: All, Expert, Intermediate, Novice. I would prefer to present: Virtual Your preference for format of presentation. Choose one of these options: Either onsite or virtual, Onsite only, Virtual only. In the system, these items are check-boxes that need to be selected.
You will be asked to choose the option that most accurately aligns with your proposal. Intended Audience: Instructional Designers, Design Thinkers, Administrators, Technologists, Faculty The roles of people who will gain the most out of attending your intended session. Identify the top that most accurately represent your intended presentation.
You may also add your own keywords. Keywords must be comma-separated. Short Abstract: This section has a limit of 50 words. In a few short sentences describe the main idea of your intended presentation. Use active language and craft an abstract that would make you excited to attend that session if it were accepted.
Review our guide on writing effective abstracts and proposals. You will have up to words to describe your intended presentation. The extended abstract will be listed on the conference website and mobile app for attendees to review provided your proposal is accepted. Your extended abstract should include the following points:. Your plan for interactivity this is often overlooked – including a strong engagement strategy is one way you can significantly raise your scores during the evaluation process.
No identifiable information Proposals should be void of information that would indicate institution, organization, or personal affiliations. Anonymity is key to ensure fairness.
As instructional designers, we follow various processes to develop quality online courses. During design and development, teams often experience setbacks in processes that are complicated and difficult to follow. These setbacks result in missed deadlines, stressful collaborations, and misunderstandings among team members. Design teams often have to solve these problems by creating processes which not only work for their own immediate team, but that are also user-friendly for other stakeholders.
One of the approaches in creating processes is to use technology tools to apply strategies that support evidence of rigor, outcomes, and alignment. We utilize technology tools to manage processes that create time and workflow efficiencies among team members as well as to quality check the instructional strategies that encourage student engagement. The use of technology plays a critical role in addressing these challenges we face as instructional designers to develop and safeguard course quality through more streamlined processes.
Course Quality Review. Creating a quality review process that all stakeholders are amenable in applying can be a challenge. To solve this problem, your design team can utilize technology tools which can streamline and clarify communications, track progress, and document possible project management issues. In addition, sufficient use of these tools can create a more efficient and organized course quality review workflow among all stakeholders.
This approach of utilizing a course quality review technology tool can assist your team to apply course quality benchmarks, apply strategies that improve student outcomes, and meet critical deadlines through more efficient workflows. Review of Instructional Strategies Process. By incorporating rigorous practice for students through interactive means, your team can create an engaging course which will improve student outcomes in both performance and satisfaction.
The course quality review process using technology can also provide your team the means to ensure that effective instructional strategies are employed and reviewed for functionality and accuracy.
An effective course quality review tool can create a more organized review and approval or hand-off process between instructional designer, subject matter experts, and faculty and can allow for a more organized review of the functionality of interactive tools within your course design.
Your design team can benefit from utilizing existing tools within your organization as a means to create a more time and workflow efficient quality review process. During this review process, a more impactful quality review of instructional strategies, interactive engagement, and content quality can be measured, tracked, and documented by the entire team.
The use of technology to allow this approach will create not only an acceptable process among your team, but can contribute to impacting student satisfaction and performance within a quality course. Come join us to learn more about how our team was able to achieve both a more harmonious development and thus improve the student experience and performance outcomes using a new approach. Level of Participation : Your plan for interactivity this is often overlooked – including a strong engagement strategy is one way you can significantly raise your scores during the evaluation process.
This session is designed to be an educational forum, with each panelist presenting details within 30 minutes on how our team applied the course review process during design and development. The presentation will include evidence of student satisfaction and performance as a result of applying this new quality review process.
There will be a short 5 minute poll taken with our attendees before the presentation and a 10 minute poll after the presentation to also include a question and answer session. Session Goals : What the attendees are going to learn from the presentation the takeaways. Attendees of this session will 1 learn how to use technology tools to create a more streamlined course review process within their team, 2 learn how benchmarks were used within this tool to review instructional strategies and content quality, 3 learn more about what benefits the approach provides for tracking progress, communications, and meeting deadlines.
Finally, attendees will 4 see evidence of how one course design and development process using this course review tool improved student outcomes and student satisfaction.
Amid disruption and hardship, faculty reached students this past year in new and creative ways, to help them engage and keep learning. This panel will discuss how professional development in effective teaching practices empowered them through new skills and knowledge. During this experience, faculty gained new skills for effective online teaching. During the discussion, the panelists will share strategies they will carry forward to create inclusive, effective learning environments—and that you can also implement in your courses.
Join us for this presentation about the value of SARA, including cost savings that participating institutions realize. We will summarize the findings of a recent national cost savings study completed by NCHEMS, demonstrate a cost savings calculator, and share the additional benefits of SARA for states, institutions, and students.
The National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements NC-SARA , in collaboration with the four regional higher education compacts, was established to develop and implement an effective and efficient reciprocal state-level authorization process for postsecondary distance education. SARA establishes comparable national standards for interstate distance education program offerings. These reciprocity agreements help streamline distance education regulations, improve coordination between states and higher education institutions, reduce costly application fees and staff time, and help ensure member states and participating institutions adhere to a set of basic consumer protections for students.
This report reveals the significant savings that institutions participating in SARA can realize. In particular, the report takes a detailed look at the estimated cost savings that result from SARA participation, examining how institutions save time and resources while also expanding access to quality distance education programs for students nationwide. Additionally, the perspective of an institution will lead a discussion on the benefits to students of SARA participation.
Join us as we address some key points faculty should consider when adopting an online proctoring solution when assessed against the measures of fairness and reliability. Institutions may have access to a multitude of tools to help them achieve this objective.
Faculty must return to this purpose before introducing any new technology that may impact the fairness and reliability of the measures they are implementing.
The reliance on AI and machine learning algorithms alone, without human objectivity, for such a task like making determinations on human behavior, is a risky proposition. Many students have attested to this point over the past year and have demanded more transparency and accountability from their institutions and the technology vendors.
Join us for this session that will address some key points faculty should consider when assessed against the measures of fairness and reliability. Join the conference leadership and planning team for an introduction to all of the exciting events, programming, and ways to engage and connect in this conference kickoff session.
OLC Live! Wearables that prompt learning for students of all ages, or deliver guidance in field services, manufacturing and other physical occupations are becoming more prevalent as real-time learning integrates with productivity solutions. Games have long been a core instructional strategy in the Pre-K space and game-based learning apps still dominate this space. Elements of gamification have also been making their way into higher educational levels and corporate training over the past few years and more recently, serious game design elements are being used in professional online training.
STEAM and coding have become one of the largest domains of innovation activity over the past few years across all sectors and age groups. Offline solutions focus on boot camp-style offerings for kids and adults alike, especially for upskilling in the area of coding.
A new wave of STEM products such as robotics and science kits are integrating software and hardware, and the maker-movement. Arts education, broadly defined, is also seeing a renaissance, with tech-enhanced creative and design skills, online music and art education. While the use of technology to learn a language is not new, over the past few years we have seen significant investment and innovation in technology-led language learning models. Live synchronous small group learning that makes use of advanced video and audio technologies connecting language learners with teachers anywhere in the world has powered the Chinese afterschool tutoring market.
App driven language learning for kids and adults has made language learning, particularly English, one of the top app categories on all platforms. The use of artificial intelligence is well and truly embedded language learning solutions, from adaptive processes to voice recognition for pronunciation. Morphing from pencil and paper to technology-based language testing has been happening for many years.
However, efficiently scaling the speaking and listening components have proved challenging. Application of artificial intelligence allows for a unique assessment path for each test-taker, and moving beyond language basics to assessment of skills and capabilities for courses or scholarships. Data from millions of language learners and billions of learning interactions paves the way for the disruption of incumbent language tests and testing procedures.
Parents and students are turning to technology to help them find the best match for their study goals and preferences. Other approaches see platforms built out of networks of college advisors to guide and answer questions from initial contact through to course choices and admissions. With over 8, international schools worldwide, serving almost 5 million students and half a million teachers, international schools are big business globally. Over three quarters of enrolments in international schools come from the host country, an indicator of the demand and ability to pay from parents who want to give their children an internationally focused education and provide a better chance at entry into a top global university.
China has the most number of international schools with almost in the country and will need at least to double that in the coming years to service the likely demand from high net worth families and the growing middle-class population.
International education is one of the most commercialized aspects of the higher education, with millions of students travelling abroad each year to study overseas, undertake summer school or exchange programs, or as a pathway into higher education via English language and foundations studies.
Discoverable digital resources for teachers, facilitators and even those aimed at parents provide an easy to find, curate and contextualized content for teaching — saving hundreds of hours creating or searching for content and lessons. Not just covering the core curriculum, digital content, activities and instructional guidance also help teachers with age appropriate resources for skills such as critical thinking using authentic scenarios.
Ready-made interactive online resources and printable worksheets integrate on- and off-line learning. In addition to proprietary providers, peer to peer teacher sharing platforms engage tens of thousands of teachers, rewarding popular and well-designed resources with micro-payments and community kudos.
As learning productivity tools, apps are more popular with digitally savvy generations. Easy to use, organize, tag and find, study note tools are increasingly integrated with operating systems think Chrome extension. Study and homework organizers range from tools for collating, and finding, going paperless by scanning and storing study papers, annotating and notetaking on PDFs, and putting together citations and bibliographies.
Other apps in this category assist students organize their classes, assignments and exams while synchronizing across devices. Arguably the fastest growing segment in the Asian EdTech space, online and offline after school tutoring and coaching supports millions of students every day of the week in thousands of online and offline classrooms and clinics. Whether learning English to better prepare for high school exams, remaining competitive in mathematics or undertaking broader critical thinking skills training to prepare for SAT-style exams, after school tutoring and coaching in core areas remains vastly popular, particularly in competitive, exam focused cultures.
Technology enables high quality digital alternatives to physical classes and have been a catalyst for huge scale and broader access. Tutoring platforms match tutors with student needs and provide interactive online class spaces for synchronous instruction.
High stakes exams such as language tests, university admissions and entry into professions still feature heavily in the education landscape. As such, test preparation remains a thriving part of the sector, with more online and personalized options available. As the cornerstone of learning, assessment design, delivery, grading and feedback has been digitized significantly over the past fifteen years.
Now far beyond multiple choice question banks, technology solutions are enabling everything from online proctoring, handwriting and audio to text, analysis of video assessment, robust peer-grading systems and assessment design tools. AI applications in text analysis supports machine-grading of complex written work and identification of engagement and participation in online classrooms.
As careers are increasingly made up of many jobs or gigs, which are digital in nature, systems for capturing and recording work output are extending beyond the creative professions. Digital portfolio platforms provide the opportunity to showcase non-academic work, while code repositories are effectively showcases of programming skills. Traditional credentials provided by universities and other educational institutions are less able to service the need for more granular verification of specific technical, content and professional knowledge and skills.
A number of proprietary and open badging and credentialing services are now available, which manage the design, issue and management of digital badges, allowing learners to evidence their learning, and keep digital credentials from different providers attached to their online social and professional profiles. Blockchain technology is now powering a number of these providers, thus enabling tamper-proof, shareable and immutable records.
Partnerships and integrations between traditional institutions and credentialing providers offers new possibilities. Tools in this space support the new job seeker as well as providing B2B solutions for government and industry managing workforce and industry transitions.
Other platforms use artificial intelligence to improve job-seeking performance through automated resume evaluation and feedback, online interview practice with a robo-interviewer and in-depth interview analysis and feedback.
Self-exploration tools help individuals identify their strengths and preferences and identify career possibilities and pathways. Employers are increasingly seeking evidence of candidate skills rather than just relying on education qualifications for hiring decisions. Using artificial intelligence, solutions in this category assess in demand skills such as creative and critical thinking, problem-solving and communication.
Understanding individual preferences, styles and traits and matching these against employer needs and profiles, or team culture fit are also part of this landscape, with some apps focusing on enabling graduates to uncover their skills and match these with employer needs.
From labor market analytics that help governments, universities and employers make decisions and understand local labor markets to platforms that assist in supporting whole workforces successfully transition into the fourth industrial revolution. New models that take full advantage of big data are disrupting traditional talent acquisition processes with the promise of finding better matches, lowering search and turnover costs and eliminating bias from the hiring process. Others in this cluster are focusing on matching qualified talent by recirculating candidates who are not hired at one firm into their network of organizations or those that combine training solutions with outsourcing graduates as temp talent.
New players are prioritizing a full suite of features from on-demand video screening, mobile first interfaces to conversational AI chat-based candidate hiring. Solutions in this category are focused squarely on supporting organizations to keep their workforce engaged and updated with the capabilities required across the company, whenever and where ever needed.
Rewarding, recognizing and managing performance solutions range from apps that focus on individual and team recognition for performance, to systems that provide non-salary benefits and rewards, to administrative systems for managing remuneration. New solutions in this category aim to minimize complexity and provide a digital experience for staff as well as making full use of the data that is captured in these systems to support predictive intelligence and identify compliance issues in advance.
Other solutions focus on ensuring that organizations can easily collect and act on staff feedback to support a positive work culture and collective performance. Taking a holistic approach to staff management, solutions in this space range from re-inventing processes such as managing health benefits, to apps that support employee engagement, motivation and development through online community-building, creative challenges and health-habit improvement tools.
Integrated solutions for companies also incorporate well-being assessments, wellness coaching and biometrics screening. Other tools provide mechanisms for dealing with workplace conflict, giving tough feedback, preparing staff for performance review processes and other stressful work situations.
In K12 and Higher Education solutions are supporting cyber safety, managing bullying, physical and mental health support for kids and young adults. As workers in the twenty first century will likely have many jobs and multiple careers through their adult lives, they will need to constantly update knowledge and skills to remain relevant and able to fulfil ever changing job requirements.
Organizations in this cluster fulfil this need with on demand training in everything from digital skills, safety and compliance to hobbies and creative pursuits. Operating B2C, B2B2C and B2B models, companies are beginning to use these providers to manage their whole workforce onboarding and training needs, attracted by the ability to add your own content or use extensive provider libraries and easy monitoring and tracking functionality.
Other peer-based platforms highlight the community and social aspects of learning, encouraging members to actively contribute and become a trainer. Gaining practical experience in an area of career interest remains highly sought after by most students and universities are increasingly incentivized to provide internships as part of their programs.
However, internship opportunities are hard to find and traditionally reserved for the elite few. Platforms specializing in promoting internship opportunities help to match candidates with employers and virtual internship models go one step further, allowing students to get hands-on experience while working remotely. These models are increasingly popular as companies become adept at managing a remote workforce and technology is able to support virtual team collaboration and workflow.
With a long-held tradition of practice-based learning with a mentor, apprenticeships have dominated vocational education for centuries. Over the last ten years there has been increased recognition of the importance of practical, vocational training both in traditional and in new skills that will be required of future workforces. However, conventional apprenticeship models are hard to scale and new solutions are emerging to solve the scale issue.
Combining online courses, mentoring platforms, skills assessment and on-site practice-based training, these blended models are becoming more accepted. Meanwhile, technology is now supporting significant elements of traditional apprenticeship programs such as virtual reality training and video assessment of skills.
Systems such as these are likely to become a more accepted and popular way of fulfilling specific projects or tasks as skills shortages in some geographies are balanced by a large number of trained and ready workers in other parts of the world, in particular in emerging economies.
Peer to peer mentoring platforms connecting alumni and students are enabling meaningful connections and scale that were not possible in face to face, localized models.
Other services combine structured learning with one to one mentoring, where learners work through content and are paired with a mentor already working in the field.
On demand marketplaces connect professionals in specific fields such as coding, to enable project feedback and coaching. Platforms designed to support organizational mentoring programs manage matching, workflow, communication and administration, reducing manual processes and allowing mentoring programs to scale. Global technology companies provide infrastructure, applications and services to support institutions, in both administration and increasingly learning contexts.
Traditionally servicing consumer and business, tech companies are seeking to become the ecosystem platform for the education sector. Global publishing houses still provide a significant proportion of formal learning resources especially in the higher education and high school environments. With traditional publishing business models under threat, publishing houses are investing in EdTech products and moving to digitize their traditional products and product delivery.
Back to top. Firms, individuals and government organizations support education innovation by providing capital funding through direct investment, grants and equity financing. Neither of those is realistic experiences as they pertain to what educators experience daily, so take the gap year but go read at a library to kids frequently, coach a rec team, work at summer camp, anything that gets you in front of children either face to face or virtually on a regular basis.
Virginia Wilcox: Go into this knowing every single person you encounter was once in your shoes The quickest way to make a friend is to ask for help. ASK someone not only will you get the assistance you need, you will make their day Jacqueline Abernathy: I think one of the most significant changes to the job market is how the pandemic forced employers to do business virtually if they wanted to do business at all.
For non-essential businesses, they had to find a way for employees to work at home if they wanted employees to keep working. This means that jobs that were originally considered location-bound were found to be done remotely, some with little to no modifications. What this means is that some employers have reconsidered the costs of maintaining physical office space for workers that could telecommute and would rather work at home.
Instead of paying rent and utilities for all employees to work in cubicles, they could export those costs to the employee using the spare bedroom they pay for, and home internet, phone, power, the water they pay for themselves. This cost-saving epiphany could affect employers and jobseekers alike in several ways. If a job can be done from anywhere, it means that those who are interested in a job can apply regardless of where they live. This means a wider pool of talent for employers to choose from instead of just those willing to live within commuting distance.
It also means more potential opportunities for jobseekers that might not be willing or able to relocate. But there is a downside, and that is that it increases competition for available jobs.
The labor pool is no longer limited to those with skills and experience in a metro area, so those seeking a job are no longer just up against other locals anymore. This means those on the job market might have a more difficult job finding ways to set themselves apart. I think it means more opportunities, potentially, but greater challenges getting hired and a need to find ways to make themselves more marketable than they may have needed to be when labor pools were shallower.
Jacqueline Abernathy: I think this piggybacks a little bit on what I said above on finding a way to distinguish oneself from the competition. Anything done during a gap year would hopefully yield some knowledge, skill, or ability that can be listed as a bullet point on their resume that others may not have. Suppose a student just wants to travel to China for a while and see the Great Wall. To a lesser extent, “Cultural competency with Chinese colleagues and associates” would be, and if asked, the student could explain their familiarity with Chinese customs and etiquette came from extensive time abroad.
That might give the students an advantage in certain jobs, but just being able to speak another language could be a job in itself, like as a translator. Whatever a student does during a gap year, ideally, they should walk away with a skill that someone will pay for. Unfortunately, because of economic realities, a lot of students just take the year off to work and they work in a job where a year of experience won’t necessarily count for much if anything when they graduate with their expected degree.
This goes for both high school graduates and college graduates taking a break before their next degree. I’ve read the arguments about the benefits of taking a gap year, but aside from students that are on a waiting list for a prestigious program who just have time to kill, I personally find the concept of a gap year to be ill-advised as a general rule, more so between an undergraduate degree and masters or masters and doctorate. Often times the pitfalls outweigh the benefits at any stage.
It just presents an opportunity for life to get in the way of something a student knows they want to do, or it delays it. Someone fresh out of high school taking a gap year to get a skill that they think will benefit them in their career after graduation might find themselves in a completely different career by the time they graduate. And university graduates who plan to further their education- taking a break or just working for a while before graduate school can put them at a disadvantage.
Taking a break makes graduate school potentially harder once they have gotten used to living without that stress, the transition back to a student can be unnecessarily difficult than if they went straight through.
Those who start their career with a bachelor’s degree when they know they need more than can make life choices and financial commitments that are very difficult to keep in grad school. Perhaps they financed a car or became invested in a project they don’t want to abandon but would have easier with a master’s degree. Or they start a family and now have to juggle caring for and providing for their family with getting the next degree they need when caring for family would have likely been easier if they had an advanced degree.
My bachelor’s degree was in social work and many of my classmates decided that they just wanted to work for a while before attending grad school, only to find their return to school delayed and all of the experience they gain with that license not translating into an advantage after they graduated and were looking for a job with the higher license.
Essentially many of them just had to play catch-up to those that went straight through and started their career at a higher level.
Starting at one level when you know that you need the next level can just be lost time, especially since starting with a bang would only put off working for two years to get the next degree.
I had classmates that intended to go back after a year or two, but by the time they intended to return, they fell in love, got married, had beautiful babies, and all of these blessings meant that they couldn’t walk away from a job and health insurance to study full-time. This meant it was harder and took far longer and increased their time working for lower pay, whereas if they hadn’t taken a break, they would be working full-time at a higher pay with no classes to juggle.
I’m not suggesting that people put off life until school is done or delay marriage, children, or buying a home in favor of going back to school if that is their next step in life, only that they can’t assume that it’ll be easy to just pick up where they left off if they choose to wait. Less fortunate things can happen as well, like health crises and caregiving, developing an illness, or having to care for aging parents.
These things would have been easier if they have chosen to go straight through. These are some reasons why I think taking a gap year is risky. But if anybody wants to take a gap year, I would be conscientious not to commit to anything that would delay returning to school or not make up for that time by giving them a competitive edge. Otherwise, a year off can easily turn into a decade and it can just add up to lost time. Jacqueline Abernathy: My advice to graduates would be this: do not sell yourself short by taking a job at a lower level than you have to or a job that does not fully utilize your education.
Otherwise, why did you spend the time and money, and effort to get your degree? I think many graduates assume that having a degree in a job where it is not required but preferred makes them more valuable as employees.
I think the opposite is true. I think it devalues their worth to an organization and just makes them cheaper and more replaceable, especially when employers know that they can pay someone less to do the same job if they run into a budget crunch. If having a degree is considered a plus for a job rather than a necessity, it actually makes their degree less valuable as a perk than if it were a requirement.
If a degree is necessary to do a job, then the time, effort, and expense obtaining it was worthwhile because it was necessary to do that job, and also, the employer knows that they have to compensate employees for those costs.
There is nothing wrong with working your way up, paying your dues, etc. They may have upward mobility more than somebody without a degree, but they will be compensated less than they are worthwhile waiting for something better to manifest. I would exhort graduates to start as high as they can and not settle for underemployment. Find a job where your knowledge, skills, and abilities are put to complete use, and the degree you earned to get those assets is not wasted or unfairly compensated.
Eileen Cyr Ed. This could potentially trickle down to personnel cuts. Even with this possibility, I believe that there will be an abundance of job opportunities related to early retirement and the predicted exodus from the profession.
In one form or another, virtual teaching is here to stay. I live in New England and believe that we will never have another “snow day.
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