Emerging Tech Could Impact Higher Education In 2015
By Ally Kutz, contributing writer
Even though the year has just begun, there are already technologies on the rise set to influence higher education. According to an Education Dive article, online learning, holograms, and virtual reality are ready to take the stage in 2015, providing new opportunities to IT solutions providers who can help schools deploy them.
Online Learning
Although it has been around for more than a decade, online learning is just now beginning to make its impression on higher education. A more recent form of online learning comes to us in the form of massive open online courses, or MOOCs. These courses allow for better availability of information, essentially allowing students to learn anything from any institution.
Your education IT clients need the right infrastructure and the right software solutions for MOOCs to succeed. According to the Business Solutions article, “Universities Embrace Technology To Deliver MOOCs,” the software platform your clients choose will be the “switchboard” that enables integration with other solutions such as gamification, adaptive learning, and e-books. IT solutions providers can support MOOCs with cloud-based technology, security, e-commerce support, and data capture and analytics to assist colleges in integrating MOOCs and other types of educational technology into the learning environment.
Holograms
Rather than being something from science fiction, holograms are enhancing higher education. Interactive whiteboards and projectors allow for virtual, 3D guests in the classroom, letting instructors lecture to multiple classes at the same time. These technologies are also being tested for distance education in order to facilitate communication between students from different places around the globe via a more lifelike experience with 3D technologies.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality could generate the biggest buzz for universities — particularly with regard to reaching potential students. With solutions like Oculus Rift and Morpheus on the market, universities are exploring ways to offer virtual campus tours.
Virtual reality is also being tested at the University of Michigan to provide instruction and the virtual experience of dissecting a cadaver.