Across STEM classrooms, educators are increasingly confronting a challenge that has little to do with students’ ability or motivation: cognitive overload.

Many instructors report that students are not necessarily struggling because concepts are too difficult, but because they are faced with too much dense information delivered too quickly. Traditional teaching formats—long lectures paired with complex textbooks—can make it difficult for students to absorb, revisit, and retain foundational scientific concepts.

As a result, universities are beginning to experiment with new instructional models designed to reduce cognitive load and improve learning outcomes.

The Cognitive Load Challenge in STEM Education

STEM subjects often require students to process large volumes of information while simultaneously developing problem-solving skills and conceptual understanding. When material is presented in rapid succession without opportunities to revisit or visualize complex processes, students can quickly become overwhelmed.

Educational researchers describe this as cognitive load—the amount of mental effort required to process new information.

When cognitive load becomes too high, students may struggle to:

• retain key concepts

• connect theoretical ideas to practical applications

• prepare effectively for laboratory work

• participate actively in discussions

For many universities, the challenge has become finding ways to deliver complex information more clearly without sacrificing academic depth.

Flipped Classrooms and Visual Learning

One approach gaining traction across higher education is the flipped classroom model. In this format, students review core instructional materials before class, allowing in-person time to focus on discussion, problem-solving, and deeper conceptual exploration.

Visual learning tools are increasingly playing a role in this shift.

Platforms such as JoVE provide structured video explanations of scientific concepts that students can revisit outside the classroom. The idea is to make complex processes easier to understand through step-by-step visual demonstrations, rather than relying solely on written descriptions.

Supporters of this approach argue that visual explanations can help students grasp abstract scientific ideas more quickly and arrive in class better prepared.

Faculty Feedback on Visual Teaching Tools

A recent faculty review of JoVE Core Chemistry involved 22 instructors from U.S. institutions, including universities such as Cornell University and University of Florida.

According to the review:

• 86% of faculty rated the scientific clarity of the material 4 or 5 out of 5

• 82% highlighted visual representation as a key strength

• 77% said the material was more useful than traditional learning resources

• 59% planned to use the videos for pre-class or pre-lab preparation

• 100% expected improved student engagement and confidence

Faculty involved in the evaluation noted that visual explanations can help students understand abstract chemical processes more quickly, particularly when preparing for laboratory work or reviewing complex topics outside of lecture time.

A Broader Shift in Higher Education

The growing interest in visual learning tools reflects a broader shift in how universities are thinking about teaching efficiency and student engagement.

Rather than relying exclusively on lectures and textbooks, many institutions are experimenting with blended teaching methods that combine:

• visual explanations

• pre-class preparation

• interactive classroom discussion

• applied problem-solving

For educators, the goal is not to simplify science but to present it in ways that reduce unnecessary cognitive friction, allowing students to focus on understanding concepts rather than struggling with how information is delivered.

As universities continue to explore new teaching models, reducing cognitive overload may become a central consideration in the design of future STEM education.

The post Rethinking STEM Teaching to Reduce Student Cognitive Overload appeared first on Tech Trends.

MOOCs are now mainstream, but online courses need to leverage new technologies if they are to truly democratise access to knowledge 

There’s little doubt that online courses are proving popular with students all over the world. Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) providers such as EdX and Futurelearn have been lauded with democratising higher education and making knowledge more accessible.

Coursera – which to date attracted over $210 million investment – has over 20 million registered learners who access courses from over 140 institutions worldwide, and most major universities – From Harvard to Imperial and Princeton – have jumped on the online learning bandwagon.

Take-up and offer of online courses in the UK has risen dramatically
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Research published by Ashton University and Keypath Education (who have just announced a partnership to deliver Masters degrees in Accounting, Finance and Management) show there has been a dramatic rise in both the offer and take-up of courses from major UK universities in the past year.

“We live in an increasingly global and technology-driven world, where online degrees are quickly becoming a natural option for students and universities alike,” agrees Professor Alex Cameron, Vice Chancellor of Aston University. “We have been able to attract a diverse and impressive student body to our online programmes, students who would otherwise not have been able to study at Aston.”

The growth in online degrees is also being powered by greater digital connectivity in emerging markets such as Nigeria as well as a demand for flexible working and learning in developed economies like the US, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Analysis of the latest data from the Higher Education Statistical Authority (HESA) revealed that since 2011 the numbers of American students studying at UK universities entirely via online degrees has increased by 26%, while Australian and South African numbers have soared a staggering 125% and 135% respectively.

“We are experiencing a global boom in the number of students studying online degrees, but with Brexit on the horizon, it is more important than ever that British institutions are taking the lead on innovation as we are in a very competitive race to attract the world’s best and brightest students to study with British Universities,” says Keypath Education CEO Rajay Naik.

Online learning is big business. While such courses are comparatively more affordable than their traditional campus-based counterparts, fees for Aston’s MBA and MSc programmes start at £11,050 for UK students and £16,050 for international students.

We are experiencing a global boom in the number of people studying online degrees
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With six intakes per year and no physical restrictions as to the number of students that can be admitted, it is easy to see why this is such an attractive booming market, specially in the global climate of increased competitiveness where academic qualifications can still make a huge difference to a person’s long-term earning prospects.

Most online course providers stopped offering free certification years ago, which reflects the real value that is now attached to online qualifications. The unfortunate consequence of this is that there is a rising problem of fake accreditation, where many online courses faced criticism for not offering sufficient identity checks to make sure people receiving course certification are the same ones who actually did the coursework.

Most online course providers stopped offering free certification years ago
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And while it is difficult to see the problem being completely eradicated – the “fake qualifications industry” was already worth over $1bn a decade ago before the popularisation of MOOCs ever became a phenomenon – there are significant moves being made in the industry to effectively address this.

One example is the recently announced partnership between VSF Global and Oxademy to offer online postgraduate and business management courses. VSF are experts in identification and security, being the world’s largest visa application contractor, working for more than 50 governments processing visa applications in 127 countries across the globe.

VSF will apply visa-level identity check standards to their MOOCs
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VSF They are now proposing to bring the rigorous identity check standards routinely required for visa applications to their MOOCs (which will offer MBAs starting at £7000), in addition to requiring the student to be physically present at one of its locations for a final exam before issuing the certificate.

Another trend that will undoubtedly affect the sector is that as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies improve at an ever-faster pace it will enable much better provisions for personalized learning.

A huge problem with online courses – which accounts for their higher drop-out rates where compared to their traditional counterparts – is that the lack of personal interaction with a tutor can lead to a one-size-fits-all approach, which can be demotivating.

This is something VSF-Oxademy courses will offer students in their blended learning courses, leveraging AI to identify each learner’s strengths and weaknesses and generate teaching paths based on the individual learner’s behaviour, personalising the learning to each student through real-time analysis of performance data.

“A unique feature of the VFS-Oxademy programmes is that they can be customised to individual needs of students, irrespective of location or background,” agrees Bernard Martyris, Chief of Human Resources at VFS Global.

Developing software that understands how you learn best and where you need to focus is a main area of investment not only for commercial enterprises, but in the burgeoning “venture philanthropy” sector.

The Gates foundation has given more than $300 million to personalised learning initiatives
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Since 2009, for example, the Gates foundation has given more than $300 million to support research and development on personalised learning, and they recently partnered with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to set aside a $12 million grant to support research and development into new ways of tailoring classroom instruction to individual students.

There’s no doubt that we’ve come a very long way with online learning, and are getting ever closer to fulfilling Isaac Asimov’s great vision – which he set out at a time when most of us could not conceive of having computers in our home, never-mind the Internet.

VFS-Oxademy programmes customise learning to student needs
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The future of learning might look like Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One
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Looking to the not-too-distant future, we can already envisage how Virtual and Mixed Reality technologies will increasingly be incorporated into the online learning strategy of major Universities institutions help to make such distance courses more immersive and engaging, blending the real and virtual world seamlessly and thus vastly increasing our ability to learn.

The future of learning will probably look a lot like Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One world, which will be brought to life for the big screen by Steven Spielberg. Bring on “Ready Player Learn”.

Now that MOOCs are mainstream, where does online learning go next? https://t.co/UZ5CY9TLIQ

— TNW Contributors (@TNWcontributors) July 19, 2017

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Imagining the Future of Online Learning appeared first on Tech Trends.

Virtual Reality world-building skills are in high demand, and that trend is only going to increase over the next few years as VR matures and reaches critical mass market adoption.

Universities are catering for the demand in #VR skills with new degree courses
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Universities are starting to cater for that demand with courses tailored to equip students with the broad skillset they will need to get some of the industry’s coolest jobs. In this article for UploadVR I look at some of the options already available, which combine technical and creative elements to train the VR storytellers and experience-builders of the future.

These university courses are teaching students the skills to work in VR – https://t.co/CmOH0B3rBT pic.twitter.com/FPBqjSO3ia

— Upload (@UploadVR) March 7, 2017

The post How Going to Virtual Reality University is a Smart Career Move appeared first on Tech Trends.

Content is still catching up with technology when it comes to education. While classrooms are increasingly integrated with digital learning platforms and tools such as computers, tablets and smartboards, they still lack the appropriate content to fill those screens.

Students are getting increasingly used to accessing information through video in their day-to-day lives, so are naturally eager to use similar resources in the classroom
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That is the problem that Knowledgemotion, a cloud-based video aggregation platform for education, is looking to solve.

“In terms of video, this deficiency seems to stem from a lack of understand between the worlds of education publishing and video production, where the former is unable to search through many different content providers and the latter is accustomed to pricing and marketing video for the advertising industry rather than for education,” Says Knowledgemotion CEO David Bainbridge. “We’re seeking to knit together these two industries by making video acquisition easy for education providers.”

 

Those sorts of technologies were just emerging as he moved into middle school, Bainbridge recalls: “Much of this technology was not put to the best use, partly due to the lack of good-quality content to use on these new digital platforms. Certainly, as far as video is concerned, documentaries were used to fill space or to entertain at the end of term, and were often too long-winded and unengaging to hold everyone’s attention.”

Students are getting increasingly used to accessing information through video in their day-to-day lives, so are naturally eager to use similar resources in the classroom. A recent Kaltura report The State of Video in Education 2015, reflects this trend, suggesting that video usage in the classroom is growing year on year (from 76% in 2014 to 84% last year).

Knowledgemotion targets the entire education market from primary through to Secondary, Higher Education, Corporate learning, English Language learning and lifelong learning
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Knowledgemotion targets the entire education market from primary through to Secondary, Higher Education, Corporate learning, English Language learning and lifelong learning. OECD research suggests that the global educational video market will be worth over $1 billion in the next decade, and by 2010 Knowledgemotion is looking to grab a 10% share of that market. Their main competitors in that space are Getty and ITN source, but these are generalist resources not geared specifically towards education, and this is where Knowledgemotion believes it holds the edge, as over $30 billion is pent annually on instructional materials in primary, secondary and higher education, and 43% of teachers now report using video regularly in lessons, with 70% of US higher education institutions including videos in the classroom and supplementary course materials.

Though arguably a few years behind the entertainment world in tech innovation, teachers and learners alike understand the significant educational value of rich, relevant and engaging content
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“We have an established in-house team with several decades of combined experience in the media industry and the world of education publishing,” says Bainbridge. “We’re aiming to become teacher’s one-stop shop for video resources by providing a simplified licensing agreement and pricing structure together with the most comprehensive library of videos where they can easily and quickly find relevant materials for their lessons.”

Knowledgemotion is now looking to build more relationships with various content providers, and to build up their search algorithm that allows users to refine clip searches by curriculum, topic, and source. Having already raised £790,000 from Angel investors, they are gearing up for a Series A round of around £2 million later in the year and working on significantly expanding their library, which currently has over 1.8 million videos

“Though arguably a few years behind the entertainment world in tech innovation, teachers and learners alike understand the significant educational value of rich, relevant and engaging content. The digital re-architecture of the classroom experienced over the past five years has transformed whiteboards into smartboards, textbooks into tablets. All that is left, it seems, is the content on the screen.”

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Content is King in EdTech Too appeared first on Tech Trends.

EdAid offers an alternative to traditional student loans for those looking to fund university tuition fees.

The key issue in the debate around Higher Education fees revolves around access. The prospect of incurring ever-larger debts can be extremely daunting to young people, and those less able to afford it are also the most likely to be put off the idea of going to University altogether. We therefore risk living in a society where promising students from disadvantaged backgrounds will increasingly see higher education as something beyond their grasp. Tom Woolf, Founder and CEO of EdAid, sees it as his mission to change this, and he doesn’t mince his words:

“Higher education funding is dogmatic, bureaucratic and opaque”

His company gives students a platform to allow them to crowdfund their University costs, entirely interest-free. Yet Woolf is quick to point out this isn’t about charity:

“We are a for-profit business with a social mission. Our business model offers a fair and affordable alternative that saves the average borrower £25,000 compared to traditional funding mechanisms such as government and private loans.

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We’re empowering people to take control of their own financial future
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by eliminating the middle men and connecting students with a community of peer-to-peer lenders.”

The recent growth in crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending platforms showed that there was both the demand and potential for such a service, with many using Kickstarter and Indiegogo to finance their university tuition fees and expenses. However, this was done largely on an ad-hoc basis and lacked a credible structure. Success was mostly down to the individual’s ability to create a compelling campaign and promote it through their network of contacts.

Higher education funding is dogmatic, bureaucratic and opaque
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While that will still be true of EdAid campaigns, the site will provide specific advice and support for students who would not have considered crowdfunding as a viable option, as well as access to a community pre-disposed to support higher education through individual investment:

“We’re huge fans of what Nutmeg has done to disintermediate the Wealth Management industry, and want to bring that level of disruption to student finance.”

They now have their eye on a market worth about £30 Billion per annum, and by 2025 Woolf wants EdAid to provide 10% of all higher education loans. The biggest hurdle so far, apart from bootstrapping their private Beta (the company is entirely owned by its founders and employees) and putting together what Woolf describes as an “awesome team” has been to obtain FCA regulation. The site is now Live and the plan is for it to fund 1000 students by the end of the year.

Higher Education Funding market is worth about £30 Billion per annum
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“These are students that otherwise might not have had a chance to attend university, or that would have had much larger debts if they had, so it’s amazing to think that from the get-go we’ll already have such an impact on people’s lives.”

The key to success lies not in creating new resources in an age of austerity, but in connecting people and institutions through technology. There is huge scope for companies to engage with young people and support them in their career development at an early stage through such platforms

“I first learnt to code using BBC basic in the late 1980’s,” recalls Woolf. “There is no business or industry in the world now that is not a technology business, however, so in future all students, regardless of their subject matter, should be taught skills such as coding.”

Woolf envisages this as translating into a ‘polytechnic 2.0’ type of experience: “There will be a drastic shift to technical degrees curated by the corporate sector, and this might mean that students work in the parent company in the morning and go to campus for the afternoon. They’d graduate debt-free, with a deeper skill base, accurate market fit and a built-for-purpose work ethic.”

by 2025 Woolf wants EdAid to provide 10% of all higher education loans
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EdAid might well play an important role in enabling this type of collaborative career development, and in bridging the digital skills gap, as students are aware from the start of the skills required by their future employers, and what will make them stand out in a competitive market.

In future all students, regardless of their subject matter, should be taught skills such as coding
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Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Crowdfunding Your Education appeared first on Tech Trends.