Education Technology Trends 2024

Growing up we loved reading children’s books (and still do)! Stories by Enid Blyton, Ruskin Bond, the tales of Peter Pan, the Famous Five and stories like Matilda filled our days and fueled our imagination with happiness.

The story of “Matilda” by Roald Dahl especially had a lasting impact as it was so magical. Matilda Wormwood was an exceptionally gifted child with unpleasant parents. Matilda yearned to learn and daily walked across the town all by herself to read books from the library. She carried a wheelbarrow full of books and swiftly went through the children’s section in the library. When given school admission, she was so exceptionally brilliant that Miss Honey – the only person who recognized Matilda’s value insisted she be promoted to a higher class.

Matilda crossed several bridges to gain knowledge and if she lived in today’s world, she would probably have more than telekinetic abilities. In today’s tech-infused world of solutions, anyone with a thirst for knowledge can log onto the web and visually understand complicated concepts, attend Harvard lectures sitting at home, complete their education and even get a doctorate through online courses.

As we move into the future, technology has always had a huge impact on every industry and the education industry is no exception. Last year, technology reshaped the education industry with trends such as nano learning, big data analytics, personalized learning and gamification.

Let’s uncover everything that’s trending right now, or will be trending, in 2024. So, dive into these top 5 Education Technology Trends of 2024!
 

Trend 1: E-learning Will Enable Learning For Everyone!

The online learning industry has since its birth grown by 900% globally with 80% of companies and 50% of institutes today using an EdTech platform. This consists of mobile learning, digital content platforms, cloud technology, video-assisted learning and much more. So, it’s not surprising to see this trend gain steam in 2024!

E-learning platforms will let you deliver educational content through smartphones, laptops, computers and other mobile devices. Yet, why are business leaders and organizations leveraging this trend in Education Technology? In a nutshell: for networking opportunities and career development! The future of education lies in E-learning as it will eventually take over physical forms of education and allow even the remotest professional to access a wealth of data.

Amazon, for instance, has ambitious L&D plans and has announced to retrain 100,000 workers—almost one-third of its U.S. workforce—by 2025. They leverage eLearning platforms like Amazon Technical Academy, to prepare nontechnical employees with skills to move into software engineering careers. Associate2Tech will train front-line employees who fulfill customers' orders to move into technical roles regardless of previous IT experience. Similarly, we expect businesses to focus on E-learning initiatives in 2024.

TechDogs’ Takeaway: Are you looking to leverage EdTech for your employees? Here are some tips because we believe a one-size-fits-all strategy is not effective! Identify your audience and L&D goals, so you can tackle common staff struggles and motivate them with effective management and attention. Leverage AI to enhance E-learning by customizing training programs for each member so they can hone skills and complete courses at their own pace and liking. Apart from this, create content that can be easily grasped using microlearning in consumable formats such as videos, infographics and interactive information sharing. Finally, and often overlooked but vitally important – keep your E-learning courses mobile-friendly so staff can listen to them while driving to work, or when they have a free minute and it’s accessible for them wherever they go.
 

Trend 2: Learners, Are You Ready For Gamification In EdTech?

As you know, gamification is applying game-like mechanics to daily activities to increase student engagement and has several benefits, including aiding in cognitive development. Today more than 80% of US workers believe game-based learning is more engaging and informative than other methods. This will be another major trend in EdTech circles in 2024.

In such approaches, learners are rewarded for achievements and are persuaded to complete the courses and feel a sense of accomplishment. Implementing gamification will be a complicated task and only the combination of the right mechanics and narrative will be successful. Learners will also need to be provided with content that is engaging with specific time constraints for quizzes and other gamified tests.

For instance, Duolingo has mastered this trend and is a leading pioneer in gamification in EdTech. Learners keep coming back for more to Duolingo as it embraces the trusty Gamification Octalysis Framework. The Octalysis framework, created by gamification guru Yu-kai Chou, analyses what drives human motivation and displays how these drives can be harnessed to build engaging and rewarding experiences for a user.

This approach will include development and accomplishment, empowerment of creativity, curiosity, feelings of avoidance, etc., to drive better training outcomes. Utilizing the eight pillars of the Octalysis Framework, Duolingo provides a sense of purpose, challenge and clear feedback along the way and creates a fun, voluntary way to learn for those busy language learners out there. If you want the same for your workforce, heed this trend!

TechDogs’ Takeaway: To incorporate the latest trends in your L&D programs, gamification is definitely a great bet! As always, no trend can be implemented without understanding your goal, audience and strategy. There are different techniques to incorporate gamification like quizzes and puzzles, badges and rewards, leaderboards, progress tracking, interactive elements and collaborative activities. Make sure you convert business goals and then add gamification layers to them to unleash more engagement, interest and competitive spirit. For further impact, combine these gamification techniques with the VARK (visual, auditory, read/write and kinesthetic) learning style within enterprise training modules.
 

Trend 3: Immersive Learning With AR and VR-Infused EdTech

Taking visualization to the next level is the name of the game! With Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, businesses can help to create immersive and engaging learning experiences, regardless of the environment. They are increasingly being used as a tool for immersive and experiential learning in the EdTech industry, something we will see in 2024.

Organizations will soon implement VR and AR immersive training that allows room for mistakes without having to face real-life consequences. With advancements in technology and more importantly accessibility to AR and VR gadgets, we are discovering more and more ways to leverage this. For instance, Pearson, a leading educational publisher, has developed a VR Nursing Experience that allows nursing students to practice on simulations of tasks such as wound care, IV insertion and medication administration.

Another example is Walmart, which launched a training module called ‘The Pickup Tower’ where over a million associates were training using VR technology, taking the time down from 8 hours to a mere 15 minutes resulting in time and money saved. From corporate environments to schools, this year organizations are expected to leverage AR/VR/MR for better and more personalized learning.

TechDogs’ Takeaway: This is a great way to impart training by enhancing plain old online training. Businesses should explore the use of AR/VR for online compliance safety training simulations, an especially effective tool for high-risk jobs like firefighters, police trainees, medical students, etc. Educational institutes can leverage immersive technologies for customized learning paths in web-based courses, allowing teachers to make real-life scenarios come to life and help learners directly experience rather than take notes. Finally, businesses will look to immersive learning to help enhance the learning experience without compromising on user data safety or on-premises training limitations.
 

Trend 4: Social Listening Will Listen And Respond To The Learners Needs!

Social learning is active learning! Using social media for education is not a new concept – yet, today, it goes beyond the classrooms and workspace as it helps educators shape a modern holistic learning experience, build community and establish authority. Social media as an EdTech tool will soon help boost the brand identity of organizations and connect with learners.

In this day and age where remote jobs, online courses and training are more popular than ever, social media presence is important. The rise of social networking and Web 2.0 has been fast and furious, fueled by two main desires: to consume information and to create information that works as both observational learning (learning through observing the behavior of others) and operant conditioning (method of learning that uses rewards and punishment to modify behavior). #BestOfBoth

A great example of this is by luxury brand Ted Baker. They are all about togetherness and inclusivity, so connectivity and social learning are at the heart of their social platform – Thrive at Ted. Employees can have conversations and be candid about their thoughts via interviews and chats, helping them feel connected to the wider business. Their social learning strategy has been so successful that it doubles as a marketing campaign and garners more organic UGC (user-generated content) at 57% compared to their L&D program at 43%.

PayPal also leverages EdTech using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter’s Periscope to create private groups and invites experts to teach their employees short-duration classes. This helped bring corporate training costs down by 25% while doubling their monthly active learners. “It’s worth investing if you want top people to stay longer and do their job better,” said Derek Hann, Chief Learning Officer at PayPal, validating that social media networks can be a major EdTech solution.

TechDogs’ Takeaway: Employees love a two-way information street! Hence, you must start by setting up a class blog or an aggregator for blogs, or social media tools can be implemented within a learning management system (LMS). Next, create a platform on your preferred choice of social media which helps make interactions easier and accessible for cross-channel learning, broadcast updates, live streaming and much more. Lastly, businesses can make educational presentations on YouTube, podcasts or other channels, enhancing the way industry-backed information is made accessible to professionals and learners.
 

Trend 5: Artificial Intelligence Will Revamp The Realm Of EdTech

Did you really think any list of Education Technology Trends would be complete without the almighty AI? AI is emerging as a critical tool to enhance learner engagement, personalize learning and optimize educational outcomes and will be a major driver in the EdTech industry in 2024.

AI-enabled technologies such as facial recognition, natural language processing and machine learning will increasingly be used in classrooms, making learning easier and more engaging. This will provide learners with personalized learning experiences and enable teachers to tailor lessons to meet individual needs. “Think about the process or solution in your area of responsibility that provides the most challenge. What is it that you need the most help with, and what from an AI perspective will allow you to do that better? Then look at what you can afford for what you’re trying to achieve.” says Robert Gibby, Chief Talent Scientist at IBM about the use of AI.

IBM has always spearheaded innovation and using AI-driven personalized alerts, the leaders receive alerts tailored to the needs of individual employees. For example, if someone has been on a team a long time, has certain skills and is ready for a promotion, the manager is alerted to these facts. When the sales team is at risk of missing their quotas, the insights help with early intervention and correction. However, most of all, they also train and educate managers on how to identify these situations in the future. What’s more? This is done in the utmost personalized way as AI analyzes how individuals respond to training and upskilling, to tailor the lessons to their tastes and preferences. AI is the teacher’s assistant that makes it better for students and teachers alike!

TechDogs’ Takeaway: To keep you ahead in the EdTech world, you can implement some common suggestions. First, use AI algorithms to analyze an individual’s behavior and preferences, then recommend courses or content that may be most relevant or interesting to them based on their needs and skill gaps. Further, deploy intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) that use AI techniques such as natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to simulate human tutors by interacting with learners directly through conversations or other media such as virtual reality (VR). Lastly, for a fully personalized learning experience, customize lesson plans, study materials and activities to the student’s strengths, weaknesses, interests and learning preferences. This will ensure the learning experience is most relevant for each learner instead of the “one-size-fits-all" approach.
 

Closing Chapter

“An organization’s ability to learn and translate that learning into action rapidly is the ultimate competitive advantage.” — Jack Welch, former CEO of GE.

Taking cues from this quote and the fact that the pace of digital transformation has accelerated immeasurably over the years, every stage can be an opportunity for education and learning. From higher education to workplace training, EdTech has undergone a massive shift and we outlined the trends that are most likely to reshape the industry. From using AR/VR for immersive experiences, AI for personalization, gamification for better engagement and social media for connecting with learners, these were the top 5 EdTech Trends of 2024!

We couldn’t have said it better than Jack Welch himself!