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How the pandemic fueled Ed Tech adoption
The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lynchpin of online learning in higher education have increased general adoption of many educational technology tools, according to the 2021 Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) report. The fastest-growing technology: video conferencing, which is expected to reach 87 percent mainstream by the end of 2021, compared to 51 percent in 2019.
CHLOE is an annual survey of Chief Online Officers on the structure and organization of online learning in higher education in the United States, conducted by Quality Matters and Eduventures Research. The 2021 survey asked representatives from 422 U.S. colleges and universities to examine the impact of the pandemic on the future of online learning.
Other technologies that will see a significant boost in 2021 compared to 2019:
- Video recording and distribution tools, which have grown from 44 percent mainstream in 2019 to an expected 60 percent in 2021 (entering “majority” for the first time, the report found);
- Accessibility Tools, from 42 percent to 51 percent;
- Assessment Integrity (including e-proctoring) from 29 percent to 49 percent;
- Student support (including retention tools) from 32 to 43 percent;
- Open educational resources, from 15 to 25 percent; and
- Virtual labs and simulations from 11 percent to 28 percent (“the only category that more than doubles its mainstream adoption rate,” according to the report).
While learning management systems are expected to reach 96 percent mainstream adoption this year, 93 percent of institutions were using them before the pandemic.
The report also analyzed the proportion of institutions that reported “little or no investment” in each Ed-Tech segment in 2019 compared to the projections for 2021. Across the board, all Ed-Tech segments saw “a significant decrease in institutional non-participation, ”the report says. For most segments, post-pandemic non-adoption is expected to drop below 20 percent. In other words, virtual laboratories, open educational resources, integrity assessment technologies, accessibility tools, video recording and distribution tools, video conferencing, textbooks / materials, and learning management systems are expected to be at least partially adopted by 80 percent or more of the respondents institutions by the end of 2021. And both video conferencing as well the LMS will achieve almost 100 percent mainstream or partial acceptance.
“The pandemic has spurred schools of all kinds to invest in new technology or reinvest in existing skills,” the report said. “COVID-19 has closed gaps in the introduction of technologies faster and more decisively than anything else before.”
The full report, covering trends in enrollment, attitudes towards online learning, quality assurance in online learning and more, is available for download on the Quality Matters site (registration required).
About the author
About the author: Rhea Kelly is the editor-in-chief of Campus Technology. She can be reached at [email protected].
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