E-Learning: To Infinity and Beyond

It is thrilling to observe a real change in the attitudes of educators towards what learning should look like. While there is no definitive right or wrong answer, the marketplace is flooded with tips, products and techniques to help improve the learning sphere. What we have yet to truly realize is the impact of changes and innovations that are being implemented in the North Western hemisphere, on countries that are developing their economy and working to educate their youth as a promise for a sustained future.

Mobile Learning

While eliciting a fair range of differing opinions from eLearning specialist, much to no one’s surprise, the general consensus seems to be that while mobile learning can potentially be beneficial, few people are actually implementing it in any respect. It is difficult to wrap the mind around relaying content in small chunks when in a more traditional setting; information is accessed in larger amounts and in a more conducive learning environment.

What we must consider is how education experts and governments are using mobile learning to address issues of international youth education and proficiency around the world. According to the World Wide Web Foundation, 90% of the world population has access to a mobile telephone device, with over five billion subscribers. This is an incredible figure to consider the implications of increasing literacy rates and making education more accessible.

Game Learning

How is gamification relevant to learning? The ideas that games are fun, engaging and exciting are all adjectives that are rarely used to describe eLearning but behold- there can be a common thread! Effective learning must provide one thing if it will at all be successful, engagement. Much of what is used to build engagement in games can also be applied to other interactive material such as eLearning.

There is certainly the science behind the way the brain processes and perceives what engagement is that largely affects how successful an application can be. In order to develop engaging eLearning, the key is to understand how learner’s brains are being rewarded and use that as an incentive for learners to want to work on the material. It is then the responsibility of the instructional designer and the rest of the team to work on developing systems that learners will like. An additional application that can be added to an eLearning program is to allow users to see how others are responding to the material as an incentive to keep mastering the game and therefore, the content.

This is less challenging to see being implemented in classrooms of affluent schools across the globe however, even in classrooms and communities that don’t have access to advanced interactive learning materials, the same approach to engagement can be used to stimulate learners.

Consider how the methods and products we are implementing in our own learning and training environments can be used to help every learner in the world. Improving quality of education is a worldwide initiative and it is imperative that we recognize the larger impacts it has on the global community.

Genele Rose