How Learning Management Systems Help Teachers Enhance Digital Andragogy and Drive Innovation

In a constantly evolving digital world, teachers need a learning management system (LMS) that helps them take their instruction to the next level. Meanwhile, learners are continuously being exposed to technology in all aspects of their lives. For higher education institutions to remain competitive, educational technologies need to keep pace with students’ expectations. Instructors need to have access to tools that enhance or improve their digital andragogy so learners can achieve the best possible results. Read on to find out how!

What Is Digital Andragogy?

Broadly speaking, andragogy is known as the science of teaching adult learners. It’s based on the five pillars of adult learning theory. Digital andragogy takes this science into the tech-savvy present. It focuses on how instructors use digital technologies to teach adult learners.

While it’s easy to think of this as a new phenomenon in education, digital andragogy isn’t a novel concept. Rolling TV carts and overhead projectors were innovative technologies for their time, and schools incorporated them into their instructional practices to enhance teaching programs. Although these tools weren’t digital, they were the beginnings of advancing technologies. Instructors and schools embracing these innovations laid the groundwork for continual enhancement and digital andragogy.

A key aspect of digital andragogy is embracing a culture of learning that leverages technology while meeting learners at their level of digital literacy. Although learners are exposed to technology all the time, they don’t all come to higher education institutions with the same degree of background knowledge about how digital tools work. Instructors can use digital andragogy to understand what prior knowledge their learners have. The teachers then use that knowledge to increase their students’ understanding of technology and improve their digital skills.

LEARN MORE ABOUT ANDRAGOGY | ‘The Student-Centric Approach: Applying Adult Learning Theory to Your Content Design’

The Impact of Digital Technologies on Adult Learning

When higher education institutions incorporate technology into their teaching environments, it has a direct impact on how their students learn and the quality of that education. We explore three examples of these impacts below.

1) Improve Efficiencies for Teachers and Institutions

Digital tools in the classroom help educators and institutions become more efficient. A modern LMS allows institutions to save on resources like paper and ink because syllabi and materials can be uploaded to online courses rather than physically printed. Eliminating the need for paper copies also saves instructors and teaching assistants time since they no longer need to print and bind copies for hundreds of students.

Digital content also makes it easier for teachers to update their courses for future use. They don’t need to recreate lessons or materials. Instead, they can use the “copy course” function in their LMS to duplicate a course for new learners. Some LMS platforms also include a function that lets instructors leave notes throughout the course that only they can see. Teachers can use their digital notes later to edit the content that needs to be updated without starting completely from scratch. This gives them more time to focus on enhancing their content and practices rather than building the basics of their courses.

Technology also makes grading much faster. Feedback is essential for successful learning outcomes, and an LMS can help rapidly grade students’ assignments. This frees up time for teachers to offer more meaningful feedback about students’ strengths and weaknesses, which can help deepen learners’ understanding of course concepts.

Institutions can also leverage technology to provide more meaningful professional development opportunities for their staff. Learning platforms can accommodate on-demand professional development content to improve teaching and learning practices, as well as required compliance training courses. Institutions can offer asynchronous content that helps educators improve their craft while meeting the regulatory needs of the college or university.

DIG DEEPER | ‘How to Empower Your Educational Decisions With Learning Analytics’

2) Enhance the Quality of Education

Embracing digital andragogy leads to enhancing the quality of an institution’s education programs. This is because digital learning tools give educators and institutions deeper insights into which practices work and which are ineffective.

Many platforms include detailed reports about students’ learning outcomes and engagement levels. Instructors can use these reports to understand which activities have the most positive impact on learning results. This information can be generated within moments using the most current data available in the LMS. This means teachers can be much more agile in how they adapt to their learners’ educational needs.

Technology also makes it easier for institutions to capitalize on students’ most impactful learning windows. While traditional courses are still the norm, microlearning content is gaining in popularity. This style of learning involves offering small bits of easily digestible content that learners can quickly understand and apply to real-life situations. Learners already use microlearning content in their personal lives, such as watching online videos to learn how to change a tire on their car. By embracing digital andragogy, institutions can incorporate this content delivery method into their educational programs.

3) Move the Learning Practice Forward

Embracing digital tools in the classroom means preparing learners for their everyday lives. Part of digital andragogy is meeting learners where they are in terms of their digital literacy and enhancing their skills and knowledge. Technology changes rapidly, and learners need to understand how to leverage digital tools to think critically in both their professional and personal lives. Institutions must incorporate modern technology into their learning programs for instructors to prepare learners adequately.

Incorporating modern technology into teaching also means updating how instructors teach some of their content. For example, it’s still important for people to understand currency and the various denominations of bills and coins. Still, many young adult learners rarely use physical money in their daily lives. They swipe cards, use apps on their phones, or simply order online. If their finance and accounting classes aren’t discussing money in cashless, digital terms, then the learning activities are outdated.

Teaching methods and learning activities must adapt to keep up with students’ lives outside of classroom environments. Embracing technology helps educators and institutions get there.

KEEP READING | ‘The Top 4 Current Education Trends and How to Stay Ahead’

Driving Innovation and Change With an LMS

Technology drives innovation in every aspect of life. Embracing digital andragogy and educational technology allows higher education institutions to improve more than just their teaching methods. An LMS can reduce barriers to learning and enhance student outcomes in ways a traditional classroom environment never could. Below are two examples of how to enhance learning with an LMS.

1) Personalize and Differentiate Learning Experiences

With the right LMS, teachers can make their lessons more innovative and impactful. Tools like H5P make passive learning experiences more engaging by changing how students interact with PDFs, videos, and other content. An LMS also makes it easier to differentiate instruction. Teachers can use the LMS to give students access to additional learning materials based on how they perform on their quizzes.

Tools like the Personal Learning Designer (PLD), exclusive to Open LMS, can take innovative personalization a step further. With the PLD, instructors can pre-program various triggers throughout their course that automatically send communications to learners based on different criteria. For example, when a student scores below a specific threshold, the PLD automatically emails the learner appropriate feedback and, when enabled, resources to assist the learner with the task or skill. The PLD can also recommend related courses based on students’ interests and previously completed learning. The tool helps teachers and higher learning institutions design learning environments that are unique to each student.

2) Improve Access to Equitable Education

Personalized learning and differentiation are also crucial components of equity in education. LMS tools and functions make it easier to differentiate learning and provide more equitable experiences than in traditional classroom environments. With an LMS, students have the autonomy to enlarge font sizes, turn on closed captions, or watch videos at an increased speed (among other things). They can access the learning resources in a way that best serves them.

Learners can even change the language settings in the LMS, which translates the hardcoded content of the platform. The translate function in most web browsers can then translate much of the course content. With these features, second language learners can more easily access the content they need to be successful. Translating emails and other communications also gives second language learners more equitable access to support from their instructors and institution. Although the translations might not be perfect, the technology reduces barriers between the learners and their instructors.

An LMS is also designed for mobile and desktop use. This means students can access the same content and experience the same course layout (more or less) whether they’re using a computer or mobile device. This improves learning equity because students can access the content from nearly anywhere and with varying degrees of internet connectivity. Students aren’t bound to classrooms or learning environments with high-speed internet. They can access their courses on a bus or train with their mobile phones or while sitting with their laptops on the couch. They can even complete work without internet access, and the assignments will automatically update once the students reconnect to the internet. This levels the playing field for learners who don’t have reliable internet access.

DISCOVER MORE | ‘6 Tried-and-Tested Techniques to Ensure Learner Engagement in Virtual Education’

Give Educators Digital Teaching Tools to Thrive

Learning software and digital technologies aren’t magical problem-solving tools, but they can drastically improve educational outcomes for students (and make life easier for teachers). With an LMS, higher education institutions can empower instructors to be more efficient, improve their teaching practices, and be more agile in their response to students’ needs. An LMS makes it easier to personalize learning for students and make education more equitable. To stay competitive in the digital age, an LMS isn’t just a useful tool—it’s a necessity.