Keeping Distance Learners Engaged
Most of us associate learning with attending in-person lectures or seminars, whether students studying the life processes and PEMDAS or professionals completing mandatory compliance training. However, many organizations find that they have learners who cannot commute to a physical classroom due to COVID-19, the global reach of many businesses, or simply a learner’s lifestyle choices. These remote learners deserve the same educational experience as their peers and colleagues, and that means investing in distance learning technology.
At Echo360 and Echo360, we have been involved with education for the past 20 years, and our experience tells us that distance learning engagement is the key to successful remote learning. Our learning engagement platform, EchoPoll, is built on our e³ philosophy of equity, evidence, and engagement to bring online learning to the next level for synchronous and asynchronous learners alike. Continue reading to find out more about how our platform can help your organization drive distance learning engagement.
How Can Distance Learning Technology Improve Learner Engagement?
You cannot take in-person courses and expect them to work online without modification, but remote learning environments offer numerous advantages that can make learning more effective if utilized correctly. Here are five great EchoPoll features that can enhance distance learning engagement:
- Collaboration Tools
Remote learners often feel isolated from their instructors and colleagues, so helping them feel like part of the group is a key aspect of distance learning engagement. EchoPoll supports screen-sharing, native video chat, and virtual breakout rooms to help learners communicate during live classes as if they were attending in person. Meanwhile, tools such as threaded message boards and live leaderboards help ensure that asynchronous learners can connect with their peers. Our platform also records live classes automatically, ensuring equity in information access for synchronous and asynchronous learners. - Reporting Tools
Teachers in traditional settings often don’t realize that a learner is falling behind until they fail an assessment, at which point it can feel too late to intervene. Distance learning technology such as EchoPoll allows course creators to incorporate inline quizzes to ensure that all learners are keeping up with the material. If you’re looking for even more data, our suite of Point Solutions products supports Anywhere Polling so that instructors can collect real-time information on learner performance. If the evidence suggests that a learner needs a helping hand, they can be enrolled in remedial courses by simply copying and pasting their email address via an intuitive admin dashboard. - Video Transcription
Students waste a lot of class time note-taking instead of participating, but Echo360 changes that paradigm through ASR technology that automatically transcribes video content. Learners can read along with the transcript as they watch a video, promoting multimodal learning that leads to superior information retention. Captioning also makes video content more searchable. Best of all, instructors can add video from platforms such as YouTube by simply typing in a URL on EchoPoll’s course creation screen. - Personalization
It is easy for distance learners to feel like numbers as opposed to individuals when learning online, but EchoPoll offers personalization tools to counteract this phenomenon. For example, you can set up personalized learning paths to help learners enroll in courses that interest them, increasing distance learning engagement by ensuring that learners can directly benefit from what they’re studying. Likewise, our platform enables two-way feedback, allowing even shy learners to share their thoughts with instructors. - Fairness
EchoPoll meets or exceeds all WCAG 2.0 guidelines, ensuring that all learners have an equal chance to succeed in your organization. Formative assessments aren’t the only way to evaluate student performance, but they are still important. Our test creation software, EchoExam, can randomly generate up to 26 versions of a single test to reduce cheating while ensuring that all learners are tested on the same concepts.
How Can My Organization Benefit from Increasing Distance Learning Engagement?
Studies indicate that an effective online learning program can boost a company’s revenues by up to 42 percent, increase employee retention rates, and contribute to a broader company culture of learning and development. If you’re ready to see what distance learning technology could do for your organization, book a EchoPoll demo right now! You’ll be glad you did.