Students sitting in front of computers wearing headsets have become a common picture in many homes. Video conferencing software connects teachers and students over the Internet. In fact, the quality of online lecture delivery and absorption is often affected by technologies like Internet connection, video cameras, video conferencing software, microphone, and also a speaker. Of course, smartphones are also used as a replacement for the computer. Despite many advantages, there is also a long list of disadvantages. However, eLearning has large legroom to exploit emerging technology possibilities. Such possibilities affect Innovation opportunities for technology companies. On the other hand, online education service providers should synchronize their technology adoption with unfolding innovation. The unfolding of some of these technologies will keep affecting both advantages and disadvantages of eLearning. Therefore, for both technology companies and education service providers, its worth to keep track and predicting technologies affecting the benefits of eLearning.
Historical trend of eLearning technologies
Here is a historical snapshot of eLearning technologies and contents. It all started in the 1980s with the emergence of affordable personal computers. Since then, both technology and online content are advancing simultaneously. For example, some of the emerging technologies are AI, AR, VR, and eye-tracking. This technology progression has also driven the evolution of content. First, it began with the sharing of text. Subsequently, it has been evolving from passive text, graphics, and video to immersion in an augmented reality environment. Moreover, in addition to past developments as shown below, emerging technologies affecting the benefits of eLearning are opening a new window of online education. In fact, some of these emerging technologies will address burning issues affecting the benefits of eLearning. Particularly, smartphone addiction undermining the possibilities of online education could be partly addressed with AR and VR-based innovations.
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Technology progression:
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Evolution of content and engagement:
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Big data and data analytic technologies affecting benefits of eLearning
During the eLearning exercise, learners keep producing data. Analysis of these data reveals valuable insights about effectiveness, learner preferences, and usage patterns. Such insights are vital to adapt learning materials and strategies in tune with what is more likely to work for the audience we are looking to address. Particularly, it becomes useful to have a sense of what change has to be made to avoid likely future situations. For example, data analytics about students’ performance-related data provided insights to the American public university system to take some remedial actions. This led to reducing student dropout rates by as much as 17%.
In eLearning, detailed data about students’ real-time learning performances, such as how quickly they are picking up some concepts, could be generated. In fact, the analysis of these data reveals hidden learning patterns. Subsequently, professionals can make good use of these patterns to detect areas where learners are struggling with their courses. Accordingly, teaching methods and content could be adjusted during the delivery of lectures as opposed to waiting for the end of the semester or course duration. Instead of focusing on collecting data, it’s wise to have purposes, to begin with. Subsequently, the focus should be on the collection and analysis of data. Some of the common tools for collecting eLearning data are learning management systems, social media, and assessment tools. However, the accumulation of detailed data about the learning processes demands data privacy and security.
AI for Personalised Learning
In our campus-based education system, students follow teachers. In fact, it should have been the other way around. Among many challenges, disengaged students, high dropout rates, and low knowledge retention are notable ones. Due to cost, it has not been impossible to assign multiple teachers to follow each student’s learning behavior and adapt learning approaches as well as the content. Despite many signs of progress of our educational service delivery capacity, this limitation has yet to solve. Fortunately, artificial intelligence, with the support of big data analytics, offers us help to offer personalized learning experiences.
In eLearning or online education, it’s quite feasible to collect detailed data about each student’s learning behavior. Based on the insights gathered from these data, AI features of the learning management system will be providing valuable intelligence. Some of them are Individual students’ learning styles, abilities, and progress. I will also be able to provide suggestions for how to customize teaching methods and contents to students’ individual needs. For example, insights about how each student is making progress would be useful to provide tailed assistance. Slow movers could be given extra tutoring help. On the other hand, those advancing very rapidly could be offered additional study materials and assignments.
AI and personalized learning sound like an ideal solution. It sounds like a miracle drug to address key limitations, which are unbeatable for existing methods. However, the technology has yet to make it feasible. One of the major challenges is to collect data in a way that is ethical, secure, and transparent. Most importantly, it should not create interruption.
AI and Chatbot
Once we make progress in collecting learning behavioral data about each student, the door of AI assistance opens. For example, chatbots will be able to take over teachers’ roles to provide personalized help and guidance. This transition will have multifaced benefits, starting from cost reduction to making assistance available anytime. The early-stage demonstration has already started. For example, the University of Murcia in Spain began testing an AI-enabled chatbot. This chatbot showed 91 percent accuracy in answering 38,708 questions related to the campus and areas of study. Other universities like Georgia Tech in the USA, and Staffordshire University in the UK have started testing chatbots for repetitive tasks that would normally require a faculty member to perform.
By delegating repetitive tasks to chatbots, we would be to offer teachers more time to focus on educating their students or to engage in research pursuits. Moreover, we should target to develop advanced chatbots for higher value-added tasks, like intelligent mode tracking and offering tutoring services. Of course, taking assistance from chatbots is not free from risk. First of all, students’ personal data should be protected. On top of it, there is a need for human oversight to monitor the advice that chatbots give students.
Education in the immersive world
Distraction is a major issue in eLearning. For example, frequent checking of smartphones, as high as 10 times every hour, causes significant distraction. One of the ways to cope with it is through immersive learning. Moreover, it also offers the window of gaining knowledge about abstract concepts through experience. Of course, it takes place in the virtual environment. Nonetheless, the immersive environment makes it easier to explain concepts like how blood circulates in the human body or how atoms form bonds in molecules. Some studies indicate that education in the immersive world has a positive effect on knowledge retention, particularly about invisible phenomena.
In certain cases, Knowledge retention up to 80 percent one year after training, compared to 20 percent just one week after traditional training, appears to be a remarkable outcome. Some of the benefits of eLearning in the immersive world are distraction-free, emotionally connected increased motivation. Subsequently, it leads to higher knowledge absorption and retention. By the way, immersion takes effect in four different forms, as explained below.
Virtual reality (VR)
You need to wear a Virtual Reality (VR) headset to immerse yourself in a replicated or imagined world. The graphics world is created through the projection of each frame of stereo image alternatively to two eyes. It offers a number of benefits, starting from immersion to visual feedback. Some of the limitations are cost, dedicated learning space, and also VR sickness. For professional training, VR is facing high attractiveness. For example, Intel estimated a 300% return on investment for adopting VR in technical training. Some studies are indicating as high as 24% higher satisfaction and a 127% increase in confidence. The adoption of VR technology in online education, particularly for Schools, Colleges, and Universities, is very much in the demonstration phase.
On the one hand, decreasing the cost of VR gears, higher visualization performance, and low latency are sharpening the technology edge. On the other hand, there have been R&D activities to innovate learning materials and teaching methodology around this technology core. There is a possibility that increasing the integration of VR-based innovations will improve the effectiveness and efficiency of knowledge delivery, absorption, and retention in eLearning.
Augmented reality (AR)
Augmented reality offers the opportunity of having animated video, text, and images, all overlaying existing real-world elements. In addition to immersion experience, it addresses a key limitation of online education. Offering the scope of performing laboratory exercises, particularly for STEM education, in online education is not a feasible option. But AR offers the window to address it. Appropriately augmented reality training app, which overlays the piece of real-life equipment, has the possibility to let learners experiment on that equipment remotely over the net. Such examples are already in action in space and underwater explorations. It’s expected that online education will keep benefiting from such possibilities of AR.
Mixed Reality (MR)
Unlike AR and VR, MR deals with the mixing of the real world with a virtual one. In mixed reality, physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real-time. The formation of mixed reality opens another dimension in eLearning. Already, commercial products are responding to tap into this potential. For example, Microsoft’s HoloLens is a market leader in this space. The projection of computer-simulated objects in a shared view of the real world differentiates it from AR. Such developments are indicatng that the future will be witnessing emerging technologies affecting the benefits of eLearning
3D immersive learning (3D)
It makes use of simulation, 3D visualizations, and interactivity to provide an immersive experience to learners. Particularly for STEM education, this is a very useful technology. It offers educators the means to let students explore the inside of a human cell or fly through a black hole. It turns abstract looks like real. Three-dimensional visualization and the option of interactivity make abstract concepts like gravity and the Big Bang Theory a real-life experience to explore. Moreover, high-bandwidth internet connectivity offers students the opportunity to collaborate in real-time to explore as a team endeavor. How to leverage this opportunity to maximize benefits from eLearning is an unfolding issue.
Eye-tracking for attention monitoring
In online lecture delivery, it’s often difficult to supervise students’ attention. Eye-tracking technology could be a useful means. Particularly, innovations around this technology could be very useful in discouraging frequent smartphone checking, while lecture delivery is in progress. It adopts infrared and other types of sensors to detect and track where a user looks while working with the computer screen. It could even be mounted underneath the screen, making it invisible. Moreover, computer vision algorithms can also reveal eye-tracking information by processing images produced by an embedded webcam. In addition to establishing discipline in online lecture delivery, eye-tracking data will help figure out which part of the slides drew the most learners’ attention.
Remote Proctoring
Conducting assessment at a remote location while ensuring the exam’s integrity has been a major issue for adopting online education. Asking students to show up in a physical test center is not often an option. To address it, innovations are being developed, often as a combination between humans and technology. Through preinstalled software, human proctors open the cameras of test seekers’ computers to verify ID and keep an eye while the exam keeps progressing. Eye tracking, other computer vision, and AI-based algorithms are also being developed to make remote proctoring a technologically feasible and economically viable option for conducting exams remotely. Already, a growing number of US universities have started adopting such solutions.
Online education not only offers us to deal with crises or special situations. In addition to cost reduction and improved access, online education has the potential to improve effectiveness from emerging technological innovations. In some instances, it has the potential to surpass conventional methods. There are also challenges. The trend indicates that online education will increasingly befit from emerging technologies to increase advantages and decrease disadvantages. Does it mean emerging technologies affecting the benefits of eLearning make online education a better substitute? Will it cause Creative Destruction to the conventional mode of education service delivery? Subsequently, it raises another question. Will the existing campus-rich instructions tumble with the growth of lean or campus-free online educational service providers? In fact, emerging technologies affecting the benefits of eLearning will keep influencing answers to these questions.
