Five key requirements for successful EdTech digital transformation

Digital transformation is a term used frequently and often suggests quick, almost instantaneous changes.  This can happen, but of course it isn’t what occurs in the majority of cases.  Changes materialise over time and require careful thought and perseverance.

Where higher education is concerned technology offers huge opportunities. It can improve learning for students, make institutions more efficient as well as collaborative and provides information upon which to deliver a truly student-centric engaging experience. Here are five critical requirements for EdTech digital transformation.

1. Make it personal

Education technology has the ability to personalise the learning experience like never before. Students should be able to ‘graze’ on the information they need around the clock, from any location, and in their chosen format. Learning is no longer a ‘push’ activity where teaching is delivered when and how the institution dictates but is instead ‘pull’ – where students find the information they need in multiple formats to be learned when they require – thus making the experience more engaging and wholly student-centric.

2. Make it dynamic

The apps and technology tools available to students continue to gain pace and are added to the digital campus as it matures over time. The learning environment is dynamic – video content, gamification, online quizzes, and tests mean the classroom can be flipped allowing students to do their own studies before they enter the classroom and leaving face to face time in lectures and tutorials for digging deeper into their understanding. Technology delivers new levels of peer to peer and student/lecturer collaboration, opening higher education up to new learners, providing digital resources from which to learn from and even make campus buildings ‘smarter’ and more efficient driving down costs.

3. Make it data-driven

As the digital campus matures, ever more data is produced to help decision making and tailor the learning experience. From being able to predict grades, successes, failures (identifying potential drop-out enabling prevention) to easy-to-use tools that will help gauge progress and improve both teaching and learning techniques. Education benefits hugely from evidence-based decision making brought about by the vast data lakes created as more students and devices are plugged in.

4. Make it life-long

We don’t know what we haven’t experienced yet – there is always much more to come in the future with the development of new technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning. Technology makes mundane standard actions, like taking attendance or marking basic tests, much easier allowing educators to be re-deployed to undertake tasks that add value to the student learning process – things like forming arguments, having compelling discussions or writing critical documents. It’s a constant adaptation by students to be open to learning new things at not just every point in their formal education, but ongoing in their lives as a whole – and it’s a constant adaptation for the institution to remain relevant.

5. Make it real-life

Education and therefore EdTech should prepare students for the world outside the institution’s gates. Technology is fundamental to the world we now live in and is demanded by students to help them develop essential skills that make them employable. Make sure that whatever systems are implemented on the digital campus equip students for the world of work and support their ongoing professional development.

Do you want to know more about implementing a digital campus at your institution?