Key Learning Resources in Education and Their Types

Learning is a dynamic process that was stifled by conventional education for too long. For this reason, modern education focuses on incorporating a variety of learning resources into the curriculum.

Diverse learning resources enable a more responsive learning environment and deliver the subject matter to the students in a way that is natural and engaging for their minds to grasp.

In this blog, you will learn about the various learning resources you can deploy to enhance teaching and engagement in your classrooms.

Table of Contents

I. 3 Key Types of Learning Resources

1. Traditional
2. Electronic and Digital
3. Advanced

II. KITABOO – Learning for Everyone

Education has evolved. What primarily used to be about textbooks and sitting through thorough examinations is now about participation and collaboration. The innovation of more engaging learning resources has incorporated diversity and inclusion in learning initiatives. Education today has become much more than going to school and learning from chalkboards.

Traditional educational resources like books, charts, and chalkboards have long been the primary knowledge acquisition and dissemination methods. Traditional resources may no longer be as prominent, but they do provide several key benefits that modern learning resources sometimes miss:

• Traditional resources involve learners physically accessing a resource and taking it home for review and internalization. This allows the learners to enhance their focus and concentrate on the learning materials.
• Traditional resources demand in-person collaboration, helping create and maintain interpersonal relationships. This aspect of conventional education materials is important for personality development in young people. Sharing the learning resources in a library helps gain different perspectives on a subject, helping students learn about diversity in approach and interpretation of a problem.
• Some learners find learning through physical media like books and papers easier and more efficient, even though their electronic counterparts do exist. In fact, a 2021 study by neuroscientist Professor Kuniyoshi Sakai at the University of Tokyo found that physically recording calendar events on paper led to increased brain activity and 25% faster recall than digital note-taking on smartphones. Digital tools may lack the unique tactile and visual memory cues that analog methods, like handwritten notes in physical textbooks, provide, making information more memorable and easier to recall.

With the rise in digital media and internet connectivity, students prefer modern methods of teaching and learning, which involve using eBooks and eLearning platforms. As such, learning resources like encyclopedias, dictionaries, seminars, etc., have now all been digitized in some way to make them more accessible for modern learners.

If you have accessed any eBook, online video, or audio for learning, you have accessed an electronic/digital learning resource. These are the resources that any learner can use through their mobile devices or laptops. There are many other types of electronic learning resources available today, for example:

• Case studies
• Practice papers
• Assignments
• eLearning modules and courses
• Online libraries and repositories
• Presentations
• Reference materials
• Quizzes
• eBooks
• Workshops and webinars
• Videos
• Infographics
• Gamified learning experiences

Education and learning evolved with the sweep of the digital revolution. Digitality made learning resources highly accessible to the masses, making learning far easier and reachable than before. In fact, statistics say that the eLearning market could rise to $375 billion value by 2026.

Electronic and digital resources are popular because they can improve student learning outcomes. Studies show that 25% of the teachers noticed better learning outcomes with students who use eLearning.

Another excellent advantage electronic and digital learning resources provide learners is customizability. Educators can leverage digital publishing platforms like KITABOO to create customizable learning modules that allow the learners to:

• Pace their course according to their learning needs.
• Interact with the media in the course to gain in-depth insight.
• Use accessibility tools such as text-to-speech if they face reading or comprehension difficulties.
• Set up the learning interface per their preferences for font size, contrast, reading speed, etc.
• Learn through assistive technologies like pronunciation assistance in language class.
• Personalize their learning through setting preferences.

Electronic and digital resources of learning have truly revolutionized how the masses access education, skill-building, training, and personal growth.

Through progressive technological innovations, several advanced pedagogies have emerged. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing in education have helped transform how students learn.

Applications

Applications and implementations of Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality have now expanded the ambit of learning resources.

Educators, trainers, and teachers can now access the vast libraries of ready-to-use AR/VR modules for standard learning applications. These can simulate game-based learning for students by enabling interaction with the elements within the simulation. According to research, this learning method can drastically enhance engagement, learning outcomes, and learner attitudes.

Benefit

In another study, PwC found that leveraging virtual reality as a learning resource helped train the learners four times faster than the classroom. Additionally, the learners were four times more focused on VR resources and were 275% more confident in applying their learnings to real life.

Educators can access VR and AR modules from the internet to distribute in the classroom as a learning resource.

Although the advanced learning resources do require an initial investment in supporting hardware and peripherals, the learning outcomes, high engagement rates, and effectiveness of the resources make it worthwhile to invest in.

With digitality, learning resources have been democratized. KITABOO is a digital textbook publishing platform that empowers educators to propagate education far and wide in a manner that is easy and feasible at scale.

KITABOO platform provides several key digital publishing features, like gamification, animation, interactivity, and customization for digital learning resources. Educators can leverage these features to enhance their course material to make it more “learnable.” In addition to digital publishing, you can utilize KITABOO’s capabilities for training solutions, learners’ analytics, and creating eBook stores.

You can use the KITABOO platform to create compelling, engaging learning resources for your audience. Try KITABOO today.

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Suggested Reads:

• Instructional Design Drives Engaging eLearning Experiences
• eBook Features
• ePub for Education
• eBooks Replace Physical Textbooks in Higher Education
• Convert Textbooks to Digital Content in Easy Steps