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3 minute read
26 Apr 2023

Top 4 digital transformation trends in education for 2021

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The COVID-19 crisis sped up some existing trends in the digital transformation of education. The good news is, even before students went on lockdown, 60% of students felt that digital learning technology has improved their grades, with a fifth saying it “significantly” improved their grades – according to the Digital Study Trends Survey by McGrawHill

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Even before the coronavirus crisis, digital technologies were transforming education at an incredibly high pace. All stages of the learning process changed dramatically thanks to digitalization. These trends can be leveraged to help students who were suddenly pushed to remote learning.

Traditional classrooms, print books, and the “one size fit all” approaches to learning are history now. Modern universities adopt more and more innovative digital solutions to improve the students’ learning experience.

Let’s have a look at top digital transformation trends in education:

Digital transformation trends

1. Gamification & Game-based learning

What was a dream for many 10 years ago is now becoming increasingly common – playing games as a part of a learning journey. And it’s not limited to schools, you can also see how universities and corporates use games for educational purposes.

Textbook reading is often criticized as being a passive learning method that mainly requires memorization. Game elements in education are meant to foster active learning through experimentation and competition.

Gamification refers to solely adding game elements to traditional learning methods (leaderboards, badges, point-ranking systems), while game-based learning is literally learning through playing a game.

CodeCombat is a great example of game-based learning. It’s meant to teach you how to code while playing an RPG game. No surprise that this game is so popular among beginner coders in the US.

Duolingo is an example of the gamification of a learning process. Duolingo makes learning new languages fun by introducing game elements to it, that only entertain, but also motivate you to try harder.

Part of the success of Duolingo is that it relies on microlearning – another trend in education. Microlearning refers to studying in short bursts instead of long hours. This way of learning is not only effective but also fits the digital era – you decide when you want to study.

Learning a new language in public transport was beyond imagination 50 years ago, but today it’s nothing extraordinary.

2. Audiovisual Media

Text-based content is not necessarily dead, students are still expected to read a lot.

However, visual content is taking over and replaces textbook reading more and more.

Professors already show movies and YouTube videos in their lectures. And.. the lectures themselves are getting recorded.

Students during lecture with audiovisual media on display

P.s – captioning greatly benefits your video lectures and is required by the EU law.

Universities like Wageningen University already use Amberscript to create accurate captions.

3. Remote Learning

This trend has been coming for a long time and it’s becoming bigger than ever. Lectures are recorded, workshops are not mandatory, all of the homework materials are accessible online and the list goes on…

Pupil during remote classes

Flexibility is an ongoing trend in the learning and it’s not going to disappear anytime soon. Whether e-learning will entirely replace traditional learning in the future remains to be seen.

4. Peer-to-peer learning / social learning

Social elements of learning have been given a lot of attention in the last few years. Group-based projects have already become an essential component of many courses taught in Universities.

What does it have to do with digitalization? Student portals, as well as social media channels, are used to promote peer-to-peer learning and collaboration among students. This is done by means of creating specific forums, Facebook groups, and so on.

High school student and elementary student using laptop computers to attend school during peer-to-peer learning

We hope that now you’re aware of what impact digital technologies have on our current educational system. Feel free to come across our blog for more thought-provoking content!

Frequently asked questions

  • Can I burn the subtitles directly onto my video?

    If you have exported the transcript as a SRT, EBU-STL or VTT file, you can easily burn them onto your video using video-editing software.

  • Can I change the position of the subtitles?

    That needs to be done using a video editor like VLC. Go to Tools > Preferences [CTRL + P]. Under Show settings, select the option that says All to switch to the advanced preferences. Navigate to Input/Codecs > Subtitle codecs > Subtitles. Under Text subtitle decoder set, the Subtitle justification to left, right or center.

  • What subtitle file formats are supported?

    Our software allows you to export the transcript from the video or audio file as an SRT, EBU-STL or VTT file.

  • Are there mandatory working hours and do I have to work a minimum amount of hours each month?

    No. You determine when you work and how often you work. However, keep in mind that when you accept a job, it needs to be submitted before the set deadline.

  • How do I add subtitles to a YouTube video?

    To add subtitles to your Youtube video, simply add the file you have created using Amberscript to your video in the Youtube Studio. Click on “subtitles”, then “add” and finally “upload file” and select the SRT file.

  • How can transcription be used to make subtitles?

    Using Amberscript the video file can be transcribed, either by humans or our AI. We automatically create a subtitle from the text, in which you can change some parameters. The subtitles and parameters can be seen by clicking next to the text on ‘show subtitle preview’. Then the transcript can be exported in any of the popular subtitle formats, such as SRT, EBU-STL or VTT and the file can be played with the video.

  • How do I generate captions?

    You can generate captions automatically using Amberscript. Our software allows you to export transcription based on audio/video files as SRT, EBU-STL or VTT files, which can easily be inserted into a video-editor. Want to know more? Here is a step-by-step guide.

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