This is the third post in our series about evolving student opportunity. You can read the first post on Access here, and the second post on Engagement here.
Extending access is the necessary first step toward empowering students. Necessary, yet insufficient. The second post in this series explored how improving pedagogy to enhance student engagement is the next step in driving this evolution. And it doesn’t end there.
Pedagogy is not the only thing that needs to evolve. Formal instruction is central to teaching and learning in schools and universities of all types, but it does not encapsulate the entire student experience. Students spend only a portion of their time in class, and so transforming pedagogy alone accounts for only a share of the evolving student opportunity we need to drive.
From the classroom to the gym to the library to the bus, students participate in an academic community in a variety of ways and through a range of interactions.
Every student is a complex human with a unique blend of experiences and emotions, antipathies and aspirations, desires and dreams. No method of evaluation can encompass all that an individual brings to bear – much less the differentiation and diversity of an entire grade level, class year, or student body. And schools are more than just knowledge factories. Learning goes far beyond knowledge, skills, and aptitudes. Learning is a holistic experience that transcends curriculum.
How can educators impact the student experience beyond the boundaries of traditional teaching and learning? How can you bring outside perspectives and experiences into your learning environment? How can schools embed learning into the fabric of an entire campus? How can you use analytics to optimize your campus, making it intelligent and personalized?
Let’s go deeper into what you can do to impact the student experience:
- Liberate learning from the constraints of time and place – Extending the classroom beyond its physical walls means that learning can happen anytime and anywhere. Using video in the classroom along with videoconferencing and digital content tools equips students to step into the virtual classroom from wherever they are at whatever time is most convenient.
- Introduce global perspectives – Using collaboration tools to communicate with outside experts and conduct virtual field trips brings a wider range of perspectives into the learning environment, exposes students to unique experiences, and nurtures empathy in a way that only direct, visual encounters can.
- Make your campus smarter – Provide your students with enriched experiences anywhere on an intelligent campus. Connected devices, analytics, and automation combine to power services for students that do everything from helping them find open study rooms to automatically optimizing lighting to improve engagement depending on the time of the day.
Enhancing the student experience requires deeper insights into each and every element of life on campus, including both the physical and digital components of learning. Connecting campus spaces allows schools to learn more about the students they serve and gives them the ability to improve all of the elements of the environment that impact student success, from ergonomics to automated services.
Improving the experience beyond the classroom gives students an even greater degree of agency in driving their own growth. The more engaged students are, the better equipped they will be to learn and to succeed – the more they will experience success, and the more they will learn to love being a part of their learning environment.
To learn more about improving the student experience, check out our Empowered Education eBook.
To learn more about Cisco’s solutions for education, visit www.cisco.com/go/education.
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