Report Features Advancements in Digital Content Adoption, Adaptive Learning, Next Generation Learning Platforms and Learning Analytics
LAKE MARY, Florida, 15 November 2016– IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS Global), the world leader in EdTech interoperability and innovation, announced the availability of the 2016 Learning Impact Report. The annual Learning Impact Awards, a global competition created in 2007 by IMS Global for the purpose of recognizing outstanding, innovative applications of educational technology to address the most significant challenges facing education, and subsequent report are designed to help the education community assess the landscape of technology innovations and potential for learning impact.
At the core of the report is the IMS Global Learning Impact Trend Framework, a leading indicator of emerging education technology trends that offers planning guidance for education institutions. Each technology project in the competition aligns with at least one framework category as identified in the report. In addition, the report provides an analysis of the Learning Impact Award medalists and honorable mentions and highlights several pragmatic solution themes.
The 2016 report recognizes the increasing shift toward digital curriculum and associated tools that enable teachers to easily and dynamically customize content delivery to support learner needs. Platinum medal winner Florida Virtual School created unLOck to open access to tens of thousands of online FLVS K-12 standards-aligned lessons in a way that districts and teachers can adapt content to specific curriculum and student learning needs. Santillana USA, a silver medalist, created Español Santillana, an e-learning resource that enables teachers to customize their class experience within an easy to use single environment. And opting for a cloud-based solution that delivers standards-based content for students to use in a variety of learning situations, bronze medal recipient, QuaverMusic.com/Paradise Valley Unified School District illustrates a way for teachers to customize their lessons to respond to specific learner needs.
Addressing learner needs in a classroom situation can be a challenging proposition, especially when knowledge levels vary significantly. While “self-contained” adaptive learning software continues to grow, the use of third-party formative assessment addresses this issue by sequencing each learner’s course content based upon performance information. Gold medalist McGraw Hill Education/Lone Star College - North Harris offers an example demonstrating improved learner performance by creating self-paced, mastery-based learning environments with adaptive learning and assessment. Universitat Oberta de Cataluna introduced a Mobile App Ecosystem that works across different classrooms and subjects allowing students and teachers to perform their continuous assessment related tasks from any mobile device. University of Texas at Austin - Learning Sciences Department and D2L's Brightspace LeaP created Pharmacy Adaptive Learning, an adaptive learning engine that assesses students’ knowledge and gears them to appropriate content.
Other 2016 finalists demonstrate how learning analytics can be used to understand student behavior and evaluate resource effectiveness. KERIS, University of Seoul, and Intercode aims to tackle the problem of learning analytics interoperability through independent Lego-like blocks of processes. LearnMeter and Northern Beaches Secondary College’s SchoolViewer provides a “bottom up” refinement of teaching, where teachers access real time class learning analytics, such as student engagement, attention span, distractibility, and resource use. Echo360 and University of Kentucky created an integrated teaching and learning platform over an analytic backbone measuring behaviors and enabling the optimization of teaching and learning experiences.
Additional entries demonstrate that K-12 continues to intensely pursue personalized learning. With Kennisnet's Personalized Learning Lab, students conduct a self-assessment of their learning progress. Maryland’s Montgomery Public Schools implemented McGraw Hill Education's Engrade is a learning management and assessment solution that provides a real-time view of student achievement, helping instructors to make informed decisions about the effectiveness of curriculum and assessment strategies. Learning.com and North East Florida Educational Consortium implemented a web-based solution that provides school districts with curriculum building tools to access, organize, and share digital curriculum resources with the entire district or select campuses. SAFARI Montage and Newton Public Schools created a best-in-breed, standards-based learning platform.
Another notable observation is that we are now experiencing a new generation of platforms that integrate applications at the institutional level. Silver medal winner Classlink/Jeff Davis County Schools demonstrates the time and cost benefits derived from the integration of institution-wide apps into the learning infrastructure. Deakin University developed DeakinSync, a personalized digital learning hub, provides 15,000 Deakin off-campus students convenient and seamless access to all university services and content whenever they need them.
Education technology continues to evolve traditional delivery models, supporting effective combinations of online, classroom, and in-context learning. Platinum medalist Western Sydney University, School of Nursing and Midwifery implemented the largest blended learning program and iPad rollout by an Australian university, involving seven campuses and serving 45,000 students and staff, which resulted in increased student accessibility. Gold medalist Career Education Corporation developed a single digital learning platform to address the need to integrate with third-party tools to provide an intuitive and personalized learning environment. DET Victoria, a bronze medalist, teamed up with schools in South Korea, Japan, and China to create Global LYNCs, a project that provides global learning experiences via telecommunications and virtual learning that helps students gain skills that will help them in a 21st century workplace. Other notable entries illustrating new student learning experiences include: SkillsCommons and Colorado Community College System, SuiteC - UC Berkeley, University of Texas at Austin - Learning Sciences Department, WeDu communications Co., Ltd, College voor Toetsen en Examens, National Institute for Digital Learning, Dublin City University, and Learning Objects and University of Maryland University College (UMUC).
“The future of education technology is clearly demonstrated by the innovative ideas coming out of the Learning Impact Awards program,” said Dr. Rob Abel, CEO of IMS Global. “The nominations we receive have high value impact because they are ahead of the mainstream adoption of educational technology trends thereby offering inspiration and direction for future education technology planning.”
The submission period for the 2017 Learning Impact Awards will begin in early January 2017. Award winners will be recognized at the annual IMS Global Learning Impact Leadership Institute.
About IMS Global Learning Consortium
IMS Global is a nonprofit organization that advances technology to affordably scale and improve educational participation and attainment. IMS members are leading suppliers, institutions and government organizations that are enabling the future of education by collaborating on interoperability and adoption initiatives. IMS sponsors the Learning Impact Leadership Institute, a global program focused on recognizing the impact of innovative technology on educational access, affordability, and quality while developing the people and ideas to help shape the future of educational technology.