How can professors use technology to boost learning?

An overview on how much technology professors use while delivering education, and how they can mitigate their unsolved needs using available product solutions.

Last week I paid a visit to my engineering college, just so that I could reminisce about the good old days. It had been a decade since I had last visited my alma-mater. I expected things to have changed – both inside and outside the classroom.

Outside the classroom, new structures had been built where the old buildings stood. There were new amenities in the campus, the likes of which I would have only dreamt of as a student. Expecting teaching methodologies to have changed as well, I sat through a couple of lectures. Strangely, the classroom continues to function the way it used to.

In the age of mobile learning and eLearning, professors continue to follow head to head classroom learning using pen and paper. In today’s world that runs on technology, where an assessment can be conducted through online courses, I saw students writing assessments on paper and submit them offline. Instead of using a learning management system (LMS), professors only depend on the content that they deliver offline. Instead of using mobile instructional design principles, they use chalks and blackboards.

What do professors need?

Let’s put down a simple list of features/facilities that would bolster their teaching process.

A platform or LMS that will enable them to transform existing offline learning into eLearning modules, to enable them to deliver content from any place in the world, to a student who is located at even a remote location
A mobile learning system that will enable them to deliver the content on not just the desktops, but via mobile learning. This need not be different from the aforementioned LMS
A system that will enable them to incorporate gamification and game-based learning to enhance the student’s experience – provide a fun to do way of learning.
A system that will enable easy creation or upload of content eliminating dependencies on third party software products for content authoring.

Is there a solution available? Yes, there are multiple platforms available that professors can use – Docebo, QuoDeck, etc. Some of these are available for free on the internet. Give them a try today to see how