The Future Of Online Education & Importance of Software Testing

Education is one of the most important aspects of our life, and technology has therefore made its move into this sector for years, improving the quality and standards for learning. From dedicated learning platforms to social media channels progressing towards learning, Education has completely transformed.   

However, the efforts made on driving online education platforms proved to be extremely fruitful during the recent times of pandemic. When the entire world was hit by the extensive effects of the contagion, EdTech turned to be a savior raising the user signup on these platforms to grow by 600 percent during the initial phase of COVID-19. And when it is still 200 percent higher than what it used to be before COVID-19, it is vital to recognize major technology trends that have the potential to redefine Education in 2021 and beyond.   

Nevertheless, the rapid development of education-based technology platforms even paved the way for increased demand for the testing of online educational apps. Since the software development communities around the world are progressively moving towards advanced technologies like AI and IoT to meet educational objectives, the future holds much intensive action fostering innovation. More importantly, all these trends are oriented towards engagement, creative learning, connectivity, and better collaboration.   

Let’s dig into the detail and explore what the future is likely to hold for learning enthusiasts.  

Major Upcoming Technological Trends in Education:   

1. Interactive Learning Through Gamification  

Learning and Education have no longer stayed to be an intense business. Rather it is now defined as a process that should be engaging and fun. To ensure that students or anybody who is associated with the learning process should get optimum experience, gamification is meant to incorporate gaming elements into the learning process. This is usually divided into two broad categories – Structural Gamification & Content Gamification.   

Though both have their own benefits, the two types of processes are helpful in their own ways. One of the most common benefits of these two types of gamification is the fun of playing games and learning simultaneously. Also, games can help young learners to practice and check their performance.   

As long as it is concerned to adults who are involved in gamified learning, they get the chance to socialize more and develop their abilities within a competitive environment. This means nurturing a society with positive behavioral patterns and the ability to self-educate them on different learning platforms or formats.  

Moreover, the business aspect of gamification is all about offering something unique and of value to the customers who expect very little from the EdTech industry. However, the process needs you to have the best developers and, of course, a team of the best software testing services providers to ensure the best outcomes when it comes to market response.   

2. Bringing Big Data Into Business  

Learning needs to be a very personalized experience since 100 people trying to learn the same thing have a different approach to anything taught. However, offering a personalized learning experience to all can be made possible through big data. Incorporating big data into Education is all about accommodating more and more information with the participation of learners.   

Since manually, it is not feasible to take account of the learning curve for every student, big data empowers the process allowing volumes of data to flow inside and help create more personalized learning experiences. For instance, performance graphs created for a student throughout the year for different types of test conditions and processes could help identify the practices that are most convenient for teaching students from a particular group.   

Moreover, the same data could be used by learning institutions to locate possible drops and falls for any strategies enrolled. Also, the data can be used to reflect on the mental state of students allowing you to plan the perfect solutions for effortless teaching. The collected data can even be used for testing online educational apps to create a pleasing end-user experience for every new product launched into the market.  

3. E-Learning For The Future  

The demand for distance learning has grown over time, especially after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the trend has shifted even more rapidly. Moreover, attending workshops and lectures has turned to be an adventure with students as well as business enthusiasts turning towards online learning or collaboration tools. This is one of the most important reasons why eLearning is growing so quickly, making the global eLearning market reach a projected value of $336.98 billion by 2026.  

In a nutshell, eLearning has the potential to deliver improved academic performance, better engagements, and of course, advanced learning outcomes. Moreover, eLearning could even help the students to interact in a more open manner since it is easier to reach their peers using online platforms. Similarly, the peers could plan for quizzes, visual elements, or any games that can help with interactive and collaborative sessions.   

For now, the EdTech industry is likely to reach the $1 trillion mark by 2027, and therefore, eLearning in the near future is likely to redefine the entire concept of learning, education, and the way interactions.  

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4. VR-Based and AR-Based Learning  

Though the traditional approach to learning has proven to be very sustainable for a long time, the introduction of the latest technologies has completely changed the scene. With people more rapidly moving to digital platforms, learning has become the most interactive process these days. This is why VR and AR technologies are making their way to the EdTech industry so that classrooms could be made a lively place. This is more of an experimental learning process that is meant to make learning an entertaining process.   

Virtual reality can be used to make people immerse in the learning environment, while Augmented Reality could help them to facilitate objective and visual learning. This can make students work on complex subjects like physics or chemistry in a more interactive manner. Moreover, these technologies have the potential to understand abstract notions and implement a more effective form of learning.  

5. AI in Education  

Artificial Intelligence is the technology of the future that is already ruling every industry. The human-like capabilities possessed by AI have the potential to offer pleasing and effortless learning. Moreover, AI in learning or educational processes could help both teachers and students since students can have the advantage of advantage AI-based assistance while making access to the technology to clarify instructions, check performance, and even take online test questions based on their abilities.   

On the other hand, teachers could manage all the extra tasks using AI technology for effortless teaching and interactions. It can be used to analyze the individual performance of the students while they can even measure the learning graph of the students. Besides, AI-based Chatbots could be used by teachers to work on defined or projected goals while making it easier for students to learn about schedules, answer common queries, and other routine tasks.  

Must-have Features For An Online Education Platform   

Either it comes to the present age educational platforms or anything that involves futuristic ed-tech trends, it is vital that users get to have a perfect learning experience. Since driving such an experience needs access to the right testing features, software testing for educational platforms could help embed all the necessary functionalities that can help users have the best of learning. Here we have a quick list of must-have features that online education platforms should offer when it comes to leading the ed-tech industry:  

• The Right Interface: The most important feature that developers and educational testing services need to be sure of is designing the perfect interface. The application or software must be designed to run smoothly as the user navigates through the different functions.  

• Offline Reading: The next big feature that you must necessarily accommodate to your online education software is offline reading benefits. This would help users to enjoy learning even when they are away from the network or if they need to download some content for the future.   

• Cloud-hosted Platform: When you need the users to have all-time access to educational content, developing software that runs on a cloud-based platform could help users to access content without any interruptions.   

• Interactive Elements: Make sure the software should embed interactive elements for engaging learning. Though this might need extensive testing for educational platforms, leveraging gamification, make notes, bookmarking, quizzes, etc., could help the tool to be people’s favorite.  

• Assessment Tools: Learning along with immediate assessment could catch the attention of users. Therefore, offering assessment options like multiple choice answers, labeling, drag & drop, and more could help aid the learning process.   

• Analytics: There can be two different models of analytics tools that can be implemented through the right approach of developers and testers. One can be used by students to assess the percentage of courses completed, while the other should allow teachers to analyze the performance of the students.  

• License, Access, & Validity: There should be a proper license and access arrangement on the website that must help teachers or the organization using the software to keep control on who can view content and for what validity.   

• Compatibility: Another important feature or rather a functionality that must be implemented and tester well across the software should be meeting the compatibility goals. The software should be designed to run well across any device and operating system allowing a pleasing user experience.  

• Content Security: Last but not least, make sure the software should be designed for the highest standards of content security. This would help any unauthorized use of content either for learning or making others learn.  

Importance of Software Testing for Optimizing End-User Experience  

When we talk about Ed-tech or educational software technology, it is meant to objectify the process of knowledge-building. Since a learner could be anybody from a teen to a college graduate or a 50-year-old business person, software testing ensures that a balanced experience should be offered to all.   

Besides, software testing helps users measure the learning process as well as any chances of achievement that could help leverage education programs for maximum effectiveness. Especially when online learning has turned to be an important part of the modern education system, software testing should be fostered to align with the latest education trends in 2021. Here are few software testing practices that must be followed when aiming to create a perfect online learning software or application:  

Functionality: When developers need to overcome errors, provide quality, and meet the specified expectations of the online learning platform, functionality testing could be used to test all the functions that are made to create a pleasing user experience.  

Performance: When you need to meet the performance goals related to loading time, battery consumption, and updates, performance testing could help you create an educational application that is easy to install and works well with the software and hardware configurations of the device in use.  

Usability: Usability testing of educational apps usually covers the aspects related to font color, text size, button placements, page zoom, and any other features that add convenience to the application.  

Security: The next big factor that software testing helps to tame is the safety and security of the application. This usually involves check on SSL certificates, password options, and strong authentication features that makes the app safe for use.    

Localization: When you need to capture the user’s attention across international markets, localization testing allows you to check the localized version of the educational app. This usually involves the use of content, language, subjects, and features that aligns well with the cultural aspect of the targeted region.  

Compatibility: Last but not least, software testing services, when working on the compatibility factor of your education app, could help ensure that the software, website, or app version of the learning platform should work well across different devices, operating systems, and screen sizes.   

All in all, effective software testing could turn out to be the essence of ed-tech platforms when you need to offer the best services to your users. Right from the features and operations to security, compatibility, and demographic aspects of the content, software testing could help nurture the learning process for maximum engagements.   

Conclusion  

With time, the entire concept of technology has evolved, and it is going to be an even better landscape in the coming years. From teachers to students, technology has helped motivating people towards valuable learning with more of an interactive approach. However, the only thing that makes the difference is the right implementation of these technologies for EdTech platforms.   

Since we all need to leverage the flexibility and adaptiveness of the aforementioned technologies, it is necessary to understand what we need to yield from these solutions. And this might need users to have a strong grip on testing online educational apps to simplify the implementation and usage process.   

Suggested Read: Case Study on Localization Testing of an Educational App

Good Luck!  

  If you are looking for a software testing company that could help you work on the quality, security, and performance of your Ed Tech software involving the advanced tech trends, we at BugRaptors bring you a clear vision to move further and rule the market.   

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