Over the past few years, we’ve witnessed a significant evolution in the methods used by educational institutions in order to make their classes more efficient. The CoVid-19 pandemic did not bring any substantial changes to this evolution, apart from having accelerated it. What would be a “nice to have” feature for a few more years, has become a “must have” feature much sooner than expected.
E-learning has become a priority for schools around the world, from a primary level to universities. But, where a webcam and video conference software might have suited a first step into the remote realm, that is just not the case anymore. In order to become competitive, private institutions will need to create additional value, to stand out and buff their reputation.
The live stream approach has become rapidly outdated – video cutdowns, that annoying delay, everyone trying to speak on top of each other, and a whole lot of time spent with questions like “is this showing on your screen?” or “can you all hear me?”.
The best approach is to just take a minute and plan. How does a normal class go about? What would help students in a normal class? What would be the ideal interaction situation with a student? Once we think about these questions, we quickly come to realise that being online is less about transmitting video than it is about giving the students what they need, when they need it and where they need it.
All of this seems a bit more complicated than it actually is, and it can be accomplished with some help from what is known as mobile device management technology.
WeTek has been working on this technology for quite a while, perfecting its possibilities according to real life examples such as this. Mobile Device Management allows the remote control of devices like tablets, and these devices can be student or school owned. What we mean by remote control is that (in this case) schools can distribute classes and learning material to any student across the world, sending specific content to specific students, dividing them into batches with minimum effort.
Some preparation time is needed to create and edit videos that will substitute live classes. These might take a while longer to shoot, but adding the option of multiple takes, and inserting presentations into post-production, will make every message clearer. Having these videos outside of the live format will give students more flexibility and grant teachers the opportunity to set up a one-to-one remote meeting schedule to clear any doubts.
This kind of Mobile Device Management might even turn things less time consuming, with teachers not having to give the same courses to separate classes and, instead, just deploying the same course to whoever needs it. Besides, it makes the whole process much more eco friendly, deploying documents right in the student’s device with no need for those nasty fotocopies.
WeTek’s Mobile Device Management solution is called WeBoxControl and it can present a whole new world of opportunities, such as new revenue streams. E-learning can become an opportunity for students who are physically enrolling in courses, getting all their study materials in their devices, but it can also open up educational institutions to people outside their geographical reach, turning them into global operations.
Taking into account all the benefits, maybe that whole time and money spent on planning can turn out to be a bargain.
