If we learned anything from the past two years is that the pandemic has changed the landscape of almost every industry. Education is no exception to this trend, where remote learning facilitated with tools like Zoom and Google Meet provided outreach to home bound students around the world. In the post pandemic world, which I hope we are in right now, things will be different. The trend of moving back to classrooms is often times outlived by occasional spikes in infections, group or individual quarantines or just an individual preference for learning at home. We can almost certainly state that the future is in hybrid education. Education that can seamlessly transition from in person learning to remote learning or a combination of the two forms conducted simultaneously without significant effort put on already overworked educators.

Technology can make this happen in a way that is easy for educators to launch and operate and for students to participate in. IdeaNova’s Intouch makes it easy for teachers to launch a web learning experience with multiple cameras projecting various parts of the classroom simultaneously. This gives remote students an opportunity to focus their attention on exactly the type of material that corresponds to the natural flow of the teaching process. It might be the face of the teacher during the verbal time of the lecture and whiteboard or presentation at the time when a graphical explanation is more suitable for better comprehension of the learning material. With a click of a button, teachers can choose to split the class into several study groups to work on individual projects. All these features provide a more immersive learning experience for remote students. Teachers can choose to display the view of the classroom for remote students to see their Intouch peers or display the remote students on an in classroom monitor for the in-person students to see their remote peers. None of these scenarios have been possible today without significant effort and investment in hardware, software, and extensive classroom setup. Intouch has changed it by allowing high quality (up to 4K video) to be streamed directly in browser – avoiding difficult software installation and support/troubleshooting associated with it.

While the education curriculum is the same across all schools, each school is different, priding itself on their special learning objectives, accomplishments, diversity or sports achievements. Extensive customization options of Intouch allows each school to configure their remote learning user interface or even workflow the way that best represents their brand. Everything from custom controls, background images, logos or the classroom access process can be configured to leverage the school colors, symbols, mascots or access to the classroom. Teachers can choose to decorate their classroom experience with instructional material, fun facts or even quick question/answer quizzes that best represent their learning style.

Let us know what you think about the future of learning and if your school is embracing hybrid learning. What other features would you like to see in remote learning tools that are not available today?

Looking forward to hearing from you!