Latin America. Today, the challenge of education is composed of an interesting combination of the natural evolution of new and traditional teaching methods, and a type of student with higher expectations: having technology and social commitment as common ground.
Not only do educational institutions need to properly give this new generation modern tools and skills, but they also have the arduous task of identifying future trends in order to prepare students for emerging jobs or those that have not even been invented yet.
In this context, the learning experience of students is extremely important for colleges and universities in Latin America. According to the Noel-Levitz study, the first steps to improving student satisfaction are to develop a welcoming climate on campus, an engaging classroom experience, providing faculty and advisors with new methods through technology. This research showed that these elements can be responsible for nearly 20% of student retention.
So how can technology improve the experience within classrooms to keep students engaged?
Collaboration through video
In learning environments where students are spread across campuses, online, and around the world, adding video technologies can offer a more enriching and interactive experience for those students who are not in the classroom or who simply want to follow an on-screen presentation with audio.
In addition, instructors can use video to bring students face-to-face with industry experts collaborating in companies and in students' focus areas. Whether these experts are located in the same city or in another country; adding a visual element can significantly broaden classroom horizons and expand students' minds.
In both use cases, the benefits of video technology are tangible, as students are more willing to ask questions, collaborate, have tutorials, and have lively discussions with their peers or experts through video. This type of collaboration is also convenient with the variety of mobile devices that permeate the daily lives of modern students.
Teacher-student collaboration
In addition to transcending geographic boundaries, technology can also help lay the groundwork for student retention by increasing student interaction with faculty. The technology allows students to participate directly in the content, for example, solving formulas in front of a classroom, but from the comfort of their own device, or adding their group's comments and modifications in real time to an engineering design that their teacher is projecting. The sense of instant interaction and collaboration that technology provides is not only a return on investment for higher education, it also makes students invest more in their own academic experience.
Students take the helm of their learning
Taking student and faculty dynamics even beyond the spectrum of collaboration, subverting the traditional instructor-led class structure, and empowering students to take charge of the learning process has become a growing trend. Also replacing lectures with group discussions, problem solving, and brainstorming can increase student engagement and provide them with personalized guidance. Real-time voting on the questions used to empower learning, and student-led sessions will help them stay satisfied with new styles within classrooms.
What solutions does RICOH have?
Ricoh Steam Lab: Integrates curricula with projects where students learn by doing and use technologies to understand the application of science, arts, and mathematics as they develop their understanding of engineering and technology and their application to solve real-world problems.
Ricoh Creator Lab: Additive manufacturing is a transformation technology with a direct impact on different industries – from medical applications, arts, logistics, architecture and engineering to the food, design and fashion industries.
Ricoh Virtual Classroom: Video, audio, and screen sharing solution that allows the teacher and student to connect virtually in a class, no matter where they are physically.
Text written by Camilo Barrera, Vertical Director of Education at Ricoh Latin America.
