Five-year-old Emma learned to recognize colors and numbers faster than her peers because she would watch her older brother playing UNO. This little incident highlights that limiting learning to rigid structures might be a disservice to learners. Traditionally, play is considered antithetical, seen as an indulgence for students. However, it is an integral part of experiential learning. Advanced digital publishing platforms arm educators to strategically include play and experiential learning to enhance academic outcomes.
Blending Learning and Play
Meaningful engagement should encourage students to learn more, retain better, and promote opportunities for social-emotional development.
For the longest time, student engagement has only been measured as a function of time spent on learning activities or academic achievement. The narrative around student engagement needs to shift. Learner engagement KPIs should include curiosity and intrinsic motivation generated by the educational materials.
Learning is the act of knowledge or skill assimilation. Play, on the other hand, is an activity done for enjoyment, irrespective of what is practical. Combining learning and play simply means making education an enjoyable experience. This involves making the process of skill and knowledge assimilation joyful, which is key to boosting engagement with learning materials.
For instance, there is no doubt that immersive storytelling is an engaging activity. Traditionally, classroom teachers used all sorts of props and voice modulations, and even lighting effects at times, to be mesmerizing storytellers. Now that instruction has moved online, engaging surround-sound-based video storytelling can do the trick. Digital publishing platforms can level this up with a podcast-based interactive storytelling mechanism, one that allows students to actively engage with and participate in the development of a story, creating opportunities for experiential education.
Meaningful Engagement: Facilitating Sticky Learning
UNICEF’s Making Digital Learning Work report, based on its initiatives across 12 countries, offers critical insights in this direction. K12 publishing solutions that facilitate interactive learning are among the most effective ways to bolster student engagement. Here’s a look at a few ways to deliver exceptional learning experiences.
Gamified Modules: Interactive Adventures
Digital publishers must leverage online publishing platforms equipped with advanced course authoring tools for this. Experiential learning needs to offer free-flowing experiences. Gamification is a powerful technique to create space for students to self-direct their learning journeys. Elements of surprise and multiple pathways to reach learning goals build curiosity and encourage exploration. Plus, opportunities to develop game strategies and decision-making stimulate the critical thinking and problem-solving centers of brains. They eliminate rigid curricular structures while promoting student-centric pathways, which lead every learner to individual and standardized learning goals through unique pathways.
Autonomous Learning: Learners Behind the Wheel
Allowing students to learn at their own pace and at their preferred time creates a sense of responsibility. Digital publishing platforms equipped with downloadable eBooks and mobile-friendly content production enable anytime-anywhere education. AI-powered content experience platforms tailor learning journeys to each learner’s unique needs. This adds to the autonomy and lowers the affective filter. This means students do not see themselves as being “forced” to learn to please others. They start to see themselves as decision-makers, who “choose” learning.
Microlearning: Snackable Education
There is no doubt that technological advances have reduced the size of screens. Another known fact is that attention spans have declined significantly. This is where learning nuggets or microlearning-based content proves beneficial. Did you know that microlearning reduces competency development time by 40%-45%? Modularity allows learners to pick and play their lessons, facilitating content reuse for digital educational publishers. This highlights the need to leverage digital publishing software that facilitates the development and distribution of modular learning content. Smart rostering tools automate subscription and access rights management, alleviating the workload of administrators.
Peer-Projects: Collective Strength and Mutual Support
Catering to the emotional and cognitive dimensions of student engagement is critical to well-rounded education. Moreover, Students’ social-emotional development is as important as academic achievement. Working with peers and in groups helps them build collaboration skills. These opportunities instill a sense of mutual consideration, decision-making, and collective progress among learners. Research has proven that co-learning improves student experiences. Legacy digitization platforms that isolate learners from one another need to be discarded. Digital publishers must adopt online publishing platforms that offer opportunities for social interaction, group work, peer assessments, and student-teacher interactions. The best online publishing platforms allow multiple means of interaction, such as discussion forums, group projects, video-based interactions, etc.
One Content Experience Platform to Achieve it All
Diversity in learning strategies, interactions with distinct learner groups, and activities that encourage the development of higher-order thinking skills significantly improve student satisfaction. A well-equipped digital publishing platform facilitates the creation and distribution of exceptional learning experiences.
MagicBox™ ‘s Unified Learning Platform is equipped with all the tools educational publishers need from a powerful digital publishing platform. Discover how it helped a renowned publisher redefine learning experiences with this case study.
The award-winning digital educational publishing software is equipped with standardization and integration tools to ease the life of publishers. The in-built DRM solution is all you need to manage, distribute, and monitor your learning materials. With diverse publishing formats and API-based design, the digital publishing platform enables seamless integration with existing technologies. Schedule a demo with the experts at MagicBox™ to learn how this gives you a competitive advantage.
