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where physical interaction is limited. Instructors who embrace a shift away from traditional pedagogy and use an immersive technology to deliver their lectures will need to evolve their learning and academic outcomes. Business Schools that offer hybrid and virtual learning environments are regarded as pioneers in the sector and can attract new students who are keen to be the first to participate and access the knowledge of academic experts. Implementing a new standard for remote teaching and learning eliminates geographical barriers allowing participants from around the world to engage in an unparalleled experience while enhancing interactions between the students and teacher.The same technology can be used to invite distinguished and renowned speakers to participate in the School’s executive programmes and forge new partnerships with key enterprises. How can blended learning become more immersive, interactive and responsive to students’ needs? Edtech promotes an interactive forum for participants to work together and engage in discussions using a suite of collaborative tools with features that include breakout groups, hand-raising, polls, and integrated interactive whiteboards. To ensure student engagement and deliver a true face-to-face interaction, the use of directional audio coupled with an assigned seat ‘in the class’ and use of a dedicated camera makes students feel together and produces a more conducive learning environment. Blended learning can also evolve by enhancing the quality of relevant assets which are integrated into a session. This is in addition to providing breakout sessions for collaboration and the opportunity for remote professors to participate in the delivery of a lesson. How can technology be used to understand how each student learns best and adapt to them? Using edtech that recognises visual cues which can check when a student is distracted or looking at alternative content during a session is invaluable. In addition, the key to understanding how
students learn is to create a forum where they can express their feedback and share ideas to help shape the way they learn. The best way to understand participation and engagement is to use data analytics provided by some educational technology solutions. From understanding the best learning method for each student based on a professor’s teaching style and the student’s level of interactivity within a session, to the teaching assets they engage with, analysis of the relevant data offers important insights into how best to adapt and maintain effective pedagogical delivery. What is the role of experiential or action learning in online environments? With experiential learning, students rely on hands-on experiences to learn and that can be harder to support with online learning, but not impossible. With an effective use of cameras and audio, the right environment can be set up for students to join sessions and participate by collaborating with their peers and sharing ideas. We have seen this with one of our clients who offer DJing and music production classes online to groups of students. They also use an overhead camera to demonstrate how to use controls and make music which students can then replicate from the comfort of their own home using physical kit or online music solutions. The same application can be applied to a laboratory or engineering
student engagement and tracking the quality. As technology evolves, so must measurement, analytics and feedback to further evolve learning design and pedagogical delivery, and maximise learning outcomes.
How can Business Schools strike the right balance in delivering the ‘ideal’ offering to students?
Offering a teaching solution that combines synchronous and asynchronous environments helps to strike the balance of providing an ideal learning situation. Business Schools can use a blend of solutions to deliver a mix of pedagogy.The key is to limit the number of platforms and tools used to avoid confusion and to maintain the best possible engagement with both students and professors.
‘The key is to limit the number of platforms and tools used to avoid confusion and to maintain the best possible engagement with both students and professors’
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environment where a kinaesthetic teaching style may be required.
X2O Media, part of the STRATACACHE family of technology companies, provides virtual classroom solutions for higher education and corporate learning centres around the globe. The X2O Virtual Classroom offers both a blended synchronous learning environment and asynchronous learning, and offers an immersive, engaging experience for both students and teachers. www.x2omedia.com
How are Business Schools measuring the impact of blended learning and edtech? Are they going further than attendance to measure engagement and interest among students, and what are your thoughts on this type of measurement? The impact of blended learning and the use of edtech should be evaluated using both quantitative and qualitative data. This ensures that the evaluation not only assesses the achievement of the course outcome with attendance and grades, but also considers a student’s engagement level from a behavioural, cognitive, and emotional perspective. I think using this type of measurement provides a good foundation for measuring
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