4 E-Learning Trends to Watch Out for in 2022

The last few years have drastically changed peoples’ lives. Now, more than ever, society is influenced by technology. The accelerated digital transformation has opened doors to unlimited possibilities. Education makes no exception, leading to several growing trends that teachers need to be mindful of to engage their students no matter where teaching takes place.

Educators have tried every learning environment, from in-person to online and hybrid classes. These swift changes made them realize the importance of being prepared for unprecedented times and having a reliable strategy to count on.

While traditional teaching has its benefits, the one-size-fits-all approach is not practical for e-learning design. When teaching remotely, the most effective strategy is to personalize learning since students have much more responsibility when it comes to their learning journey. Edtech tools support teachers in providing educational content that answers their students’ needs and makes learning more accessible.

Here are the four e-learning trends that will shape e-learning design in 2022.

1. Automation

Creating lessons and grading student work are probably the most time-consuming tasks for teachers. They can automate some of these processes and save time using a learning platform.

Thanks to this feature, platforms can automatically grade quizzes, enroll students in classes in a few clicks, and send messages in bulk each time learners submit an assignment, among many other actions.

Providing instant feedback is another benefit that students enjoy. They don’t have to wait to see how well they performed in a test, and they can even get suggestions to improve their answers on the spot if it’s a formative assessment, all through automation.

Ultimately, teachers get more time to focus on what’s important: giving more attention to their students and creating engaging learning materials.

2. Learning analytics

One of the most significant benefits of using a learning platform is that it’s easier for educators to track student progress, analyze their performance, and enhance learning outcomes. Learning platforms are very good at working with data, so it’s impossible to miss important information.

For instance, progress analytics give teachers clear insights into how much time their students spend in classes. This makes it easy to identify areas that need improvement. For example, when students spend too much time on a section, the content could be too difficult to understand and needs some tweaking.

The same learning platform gives educators data through reports and graphs. For example, a chart on lesson completion tells them exactly how many students went through their lessons.

When teaching remotely through a learning platform, educators can also use competency-based learning to track how well students master new concepts. In terms of analytics, it’s easy to identify when students drop below a certain threshold established by the teacher and intervene right away, so they don’t get left behind in their studies.

3. Gamification

Gamified learning is not a new concept, considering that students are used to games in their daily lives. When learning becomes more interactive and fun instead of only being serious, students are motivated to put in more effort, no matter how difficult work gets.

The concept of gamification is simple. Educators create a game at the beginning of the class and set up different automation rules that trigger actions when students complete them. For example, when teaching a class on “Geography,” teachers can create a game called “Countries of the world” and set up different levels such as beginner, intermediate, and advanced. As students advance through these levels, they get points and badges, motivating them to continue learning.

The fun elements of gamification and the leaderboard show students how far they’ve come in their learning journeys. Consequently, they are motivated to keep up the excellent work as they know they will likely get more achievements along the way, not just at the end of the school year.

Personalized learning

Learning is a unique process. Each student learns at their own pace, has individual goals and learning preferences. Often, teachers find it difficult to differentiate instruction when creating lessons or assignments. That’s why one of the biggest trends in edtech is personalized learning.

With the help of a learning platform, teachers create individual learning paths that are based on personal goals and preferences. When creating a learning path, teachers can include video content, written lessons, and other types of documents that students will see as recommendations in the platform.

Moreover, intelligent learning platforms will provide sophisticated learning recommendations. On-demand learning is similar to what Netflix provides in terms of recommendations since the platform can suggest new learning resources based on what students need to know as it performs a knowledge gap analysis.

Back to you

E-learning design trends have been through many changes over the past few years. While they continue to improve the way people teach and learn worldwide, teachers are successfully integrating automation, gamification, personalized learning, and using analytics in their classes. All of these contribute to an individual learning experience that promotes lifelong learning and provides better learning outcomes. Are you ready to join the EdTech revolution?

Graham is the CEO of CYPHER LEARNING, a company specializing in providing e-learning platforms for organizations around the world. For more insightful articles on EdTech, visit the NEO Blog.

Written for OEB Global 2022 by Graham Glass, CEO of Cypher Learning