How Education is Embracing Video

Society has had to bestow a great dependence on online channels over the last few months. The way we keep in touch with loved ones, the way we collaborate with colleagues and the way our children get to class have all hinged on digital media. With video content being utilized in new ways, media companies have had to venture into new verticals to ensure that these evolving needs are met.

Recent events have caused turmoil in every crevice of society, but none more so than in the area of education. Across the globe, classrooms have had to be abandoned overnight, and even though children are now returning to schools, further lockdowns will likely impact the way they are taught going forward.

It’s the view of many that the education system was due for a shakeup even before the COVID-19 outbreak, with calls to revolutionize the antiquated lecture-based approach. The global pandemic may be the catalyst that causes education to be overhauled for the first time in centuries.

According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, 92% of teens use the internet daily, and 24% say they go online almost constantly. Projections show that the e-learning market worldwide is set to surpass $243 billion by 2022. This was before Covid-19, though it is thought that its impact will only inflate these figures further. Faculties worldwide are open to supporting less traditional educational models with support for open educational resources standing at 65% and support for gamification at 39%. Rather than opposing this trend, educators are wise to embrace it and ensure that digital learning is put to the fore of their syllabuses.

With the technology sector’s conveyor belt of innovations coming thick and fast, education institutions are not short of choices for engaging with digital methods. Here are a few emerging technologies that, if implemented intuitively, will revolutionize teaching in the classroom and lecture hall, as well as in your living room.

5G

5G has the capacity to completely revolutionize every sector of society, and its emergence is exciting for broadcasters across the globe. Its increased bandwidth is going to drastically reduce latency and increase interactive possibilities. This means that remote learning, regardless of the student’s location or situation, will become a tangible reality very soon. People will have increased access to connected devices across the globe, and if the education sector fails to utilize this it could lead to children missing out on engaging, interactive, and immersive teaching content.

In terms of engaging content, the increased bandwidth powered by 5G offers endless possibilities. We are very likely to see Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Holographic technology benefit from it, and though these may seem like novelties to some, they are exactly the type of content that immerse children through gaming, apps, and social media. If these technologies help capture the imagination of learners, then they are well worth incorporating into the education system.

Gamification

Most children and teenagers would likely agree: games make it much easier (not to mention more exciting) to learn a difficult subject. In the near future, educators will likely be able to build game worlds in which students will have to use a specific skill set to solve problems, tasks, and challenges in a virtual setting. Such innovation could eventually develop into virtual field trips where, instead of reading from a textbook, pupils will be engaging with immersive and engaging media mimicking a real-world situation.

AI

AI has already been implemented into education with great effect, and it is likely to become increasingly prevalent in the coming years. Deaken University created a student advisory service that was available 24/7 – which subsequently allowed actual advisors to handle more advanced issues in person. The method is both effective and innovative - it ultimately allows students to ask questions and interact with teachers around the clock, from anywhere in the world. Similarly, Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa AI systems are both becoming widely used for a variety of use cases throughout society.

OTT

OTT video services could be utilized as vehicles that contain educational content on an easy-to-navigate platform, accessible to students, teachers, and other faculty. These solutions provide quick and cost-effective content delivery while allowing for versatility of use across different devices. This means that pupils can switch from TV to tablet to phone without sacrificing quality, features, and accessibility.

Using a virtual platform also adds an element of trackability that physical teaching methods will be hard-pressed to replicate. Views, downloads, and clicks are but a few ways educators will be able to monitor student engagement. By analyzing data, institutions will know what works and engages students, as well as, which techniques have failed to effectively reach their target audience. As educators better understand the needs of students through this data, they will be able to better tailor their courses to each pupil’s needs, making their education more personalized.

The future of education

As education becomes increasingly digitized, it must have measures in place to deal with newfound demands from students. It is for this reason that implementing a strategy for online learning is becoming more central to the plans of many educational institutions. The adoption of video-on-demand methods will not spell the end for traditional modes of learning, as only 60% of the world’s population has access to online channels. These ground-breaking and innovative teaching techniques will likely merge with traditional conventional learning methods to cater to all audiences going forward.