Educational institutions worldwide have made important investments in education technology (edtech) during the last three years to ensure the continuity of education.
However, in the postpandemic era, adopting the right learning management system (LMS) and integrated applications has become an essential strategy to provide learning experience consistency for students as they find themselves navigating different educational models.
Instructure’s 2022 global study on the State of Higher Education revealed that 76 percent of the participants in the Philippines want to take some of their courses as a combination of in-person and online, and 68 percent want more technology use in fully in-person courses.
For higher education institutions (HEIs), adapting to evolving technological demands is no longer an option but a necessity. Nowadays, ensuring all lectures are available as recorded videos or assignments and educational resources are available online are just some of the things that students are expecting.
Technology complements the classroom environment and pedagogy and can make learning more inclusive and engaging. Moving into a new face-to-face model means that institutions and teachers must innovate how they deliver classroom instruction in person and adopt robust and secure technology to meet expectations for accessibility and flexibility and, more importantly, to enhance their learning experience.
Evolving from using collaboration or videoconferencing software to a fully-featured LMS such as Canvas allows teachers to keep engaging this new generation of students. They can also customize learning experiences for students based on performance and offer more personalized learning experiences.
Online access to instructional content helps students gain autonomy to move ahead or go back in their learning and ensures the continuity of education, whether students need to be absent because of disruptions caused by weather, social unrest, strikes or natural disasters.
With an LMS, teachers can personalize instruction, include gamification, manage multiple classrooms through a personalized dashboard, schedule assignments, evaluate student performance, and most importantly, access data and analytics that empower them to make informed decisions to impact student success.
More than ever, universities are using edtech in the classroom and adopting their LMS to increase performance, foster inclusivity, make teachers’ lives easier and offer more personalized learning experiences to students.
By adopting fully featured LMS solutions integrated with robust microcredentialing options, HEIs can also offer skill-based courses that provide more opportunities for students to meet employers’ needs faster.
Through the strategic deployment of innovative educational technologies to ensure a coherent, consistent, and captivating learning experience, HEIs in the Philippines hold the power to dramatically propel student achievements to new heights, while simultaneously nurturing an environment that fuels an enduring passion for lifelong learning and intellectual exploration.
—CONTRIBUTED
Harrison Kelly is regional vice president for Asia-Pacific at Instructure, a US-based edtech company.