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Online education will take over teachers by 2025

Gayathri | Saturday, September 24, 2016 11:14 AM IST

Online education and online courses are taking over schools,colleges and its education system.More than half of education professionals believe teachers will no longer perform the leading role in delivering education by 2025, according to Polycom’s ‘Education in 2025 – Technology Innovation’ survey. Instead they believe online learning will lead education in less than 10 years time.

When faced with a list of priorities for the near future, the majority of education professionals feel the primary focus should be on improving the quality of teacher-learning (34%). Other factors that respondents feel need attention are personalising the student-learning experience (17%) and taking advantage of new technology (13%).

•         72% of education professionals believe teachers are performing the leading role in education today, but only 40% believe this will still be the case in 2025
•         53% of education professionals believe real-time video collaboration and mobile devices will be the primary ways students engage with content by 2025
•         36% of EMEA education professionals feel funding is the biggest inhibitor to a more positive future for education
•         30% say making education accessible to anyone who wants to learn is most important for the future of education

Andrew Graley, Polycom’s Director of Healthcare, Education and Government for EMEA, believes that technology is the catalyst for improving the education landscape: 'By allowing an engaging, accessible, and cost-effective approach to education, technology opens up the prospect of higher education, personalised courses, and teacher-training to a much broader population.'

When looking into the future of education, the respondents predict that the learning environment will break free from the classroom: 64% of respondents believe students in 2015 primarily engage with content in the classroom, but only 25% predict it will still be the leading way for learning in 2025. Alongside this, the use of remote learning technologies in teaching is expected to rise significantly: 53% of education professionals believe real-time video collaboration and mobile devices will be the primary way students engage with content by 2025. 

58% of EMEA respondents expect to see greater collaboration between schools and corporations by 2025, and the majority of respondents believe there will be a more defined career pathway through the schooling process. Furthermore, the majority of EMEA respondents predict that the role a teacher plays in education will become less important in coming years, with the role of thought leaders and educational outreach programmes becoming increasingly important to education.

The use of laptops in classroom environment is likely to drastically decline: 66% of those surveyed think laptops are how students currently engage with content, but only 29% think this will stay the same by 2025.
Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are predicted to be the number one investment in coming years, closely followed by physical creative learning environments.

“There is clearly a trend for integrating technology with physical teaching; it’s about finding a balance and doing what is best for the pupils. It’s important that we don’t lose that face-to-face practical teaching environment, but make sure we maximise the potential that technology can bring to the education landscape” explains Graley.