Top six education trends you need to jump on in 2022

Trends, buzzwords, buzz phrases — you find them in every industry. For an evolving sector like education, trends are the new methods and techniques that improve the learning experience. Since the global pandemic in 2020, traditional learning methods have not remained the same. The social restrictions created by COVID-19 prohibited physical classroom meetings, among others, thereby causing a major migration to remote learning on digital platforms.

Education trends that existed in the past

Online learning was present before the pandemic but on a much smaller scale. The most common modes of learning were traditional classroom settings with digital features such as PowerPoint slides, internet resource materials, etc. Video-learning resources also existed to a large degree but were not frequently used in the teaching process. Online education was perceived as a merely tolerable alternative to traditional educational methods.

The shutdown of schools, colleges, and universities at the pandemic's peak forced teachers and learners to explore other learning modes. Thus, online education has become accepted across many parts of the world as an effective way to teach and learn.

Although COVID-19 is almost a thing of the past, its impact has influenced recent online education trends. 

Latest online education trends

Whereas online education transcends time and space barriers, traditional education methods are subject to several limitations.

Online education's ease, flexibility, and access allow enthusiasts to kickstart their careers in any desired field and professionals to expand their knowledge or make a career change.

The popularity of online education trends majorly lies in the fact that they give individuals control of their learning trajectory — what, how, and when they learn. Many current educational trends have been birthed by the dynamic nature of the online education industry. A few of them are examined below:

Personalized learning

This is one of the foremost education trends. It involves new, adaptive software programs enabling educators to interact with a student based on their unique behavioral characteristics, profile, abilities, and performance.

Pros: These personalized learning pathways are powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, and they help create a more inclusive learning experience for students, increase engagement, and thus reduce the dropout rate.

Cons: A major disadvantage is that it can be very time-consuming to have to plan for many different students.

Video-based learning

Video-based learning is a relatively new trend in online education. This online education trend is predicted to rise even higher as organizations and educational institutions use video technology to provide main or supplementary learning material.  An iteration called interactive video-based learning is a newer educational trend that is fast increasing in popularity. Interactive video-based learning comprises learning video tools that require the learner to do some form of participatory activity.

Pros: Interactive Video-Based learning combats many setbacks inherent in ordinary video learning. For instance, it helps tutors eliminate the problem of passive viewing by providing embedded questions, menus, module quizzes, pointer phrases, etc.

Cons: Video-based learning often requires tutors and learners to spend more money procuring the required technological equipment.

Gamification

A quick study on how much time young persons spend on gaming activities will quickly reveal why the gamification strategy is fast becoming one of the top global education trends. Gamification is the process of adding game-like elements to non-game activities. In education, gamification incorporates game entities such as friendly competition and incentives. This increases learner engagement and aids social interaction among peers.

Pros: Learning games such as scorecards, leaderboards, badges, and others have been proven to increase motivation and learning retention.

Cons: Gamification techniques are costly to develop and need to be reviewed periodically to maintain student interest. This may be tasking for many tutors.

Increased subscription to MOOCs and OERs

MOOC is an acronym for Massive Open Online Courses.  Since the pandemic, MOOC institutions have reported a staggering increase in subscription rates. OERs or Open Educational Resources are free learning materials in any format within the public domain. They are intentionally created to be used, adapted, redistributed, and even modified by the learner at no cost. These are current educational trends that will likely stay for a long time.

Pros: MOOCs and OERs are not just a lower-cost alternative to traditional educational courses; they are more relevant in terms of micro-skills, not to mention the flexibility they afford.

Cons: With MOOCs, there is always the problem of the lack of direct contact with tutors. Also, due to the absence of quality control, OER materials may be lacking in standard.

Project-based learning

Also known as applied or experiential learning, PBL is one of the major trends in education. It thrives on the notion that practice is more important than theory. Project-based learning is a student-centered learning approach that teaches through activities set around real-life problems. In reality, problem-solving abilities are valued higher than mere book smartness, so one current trend in education is the concept of project-based learning.

Pros: The advantage of project-based learning is that it significantly eliminates passive learning. It increases learning engagement and establishes a personal connection with the learning experience. It accelerates higher-thinking abilities.

Cons: Project-based learning consumes a large amount of time and resources.

Online communities

This is the virtual equivalent of a school campus. Online learning communities take a step beyond ordinary teaching and learning. They reinforce learning and foster engagement and interaction among like-minded individuals on the same learning path.

Pros: Online communities create great opportunities for learners to network with peers and tutors through shared learning activities.

Cons: While online communities keep one connected with other virtual learners, this trend can adversely affect natural human interactions.

Notwithstanding, you need an efficient Client relationship management tool to help manage your community or students from one place. Doing this ensures you are not overwhelmed with work and unintentionally forget to reach out to some of your clients. 

According to a reported survey, 89% of respondents believe good communication is very important for business relationships.

So if you’re looking for a good CRM tool to adopt, think Workee!

Workee helps tutors to better grow and manage their online communities through the customer relationship management tool, which helps you to keep in touch with your clients and keep track of your working history with them.

Workee is not just any CRM tool. It’s business management feautures make it an efficient solution for every online tutor. Workee's integrated workspace provides tutors and teachers an efficient work management solution. It includes virtually everything you need to manage your business efficiently. Here's how Workee can help you as a tutor:

• Free Website: You can own your personal website for your tutoring services in a matter of minutes and at no cost.

• Booking and Scheduling: Workee includes features to help you schedule appointments with learners from anywhere in the world.

• Video Calls: Workee supports the video-based learning approach through its video call features. A shared video link can connect you with learners across the world.

• Automated Payments: Workee's automated billing services save tutors the negotiation stress and avoid needing third-party payment processors.

• Workee collaborates with other work tools to integrate your workspace experience.

All of Workee's benefits are provided for free.

Conclusion

Current educational trends leverage technology's opportunities to create more inclusive online learning experiences. Education trends keep changing, and it is important to stay up-to-date with them to provide relevant education quality in today's world.