Lifelong learning is already the new normal - can your VLE deliver?

Can you imagine your skills slowly becoming more and more redundant in your day-to-day role? It’s a confronting thought, but according to recent findings from the World Economic Forum, workers can expect about 40% of their skill sets to become outdated in the next five years. 

The pace of digital innovation is quickly outrunning the shelf life of skills, and as such, continued upskilling is set to become the new normal for many working adults. Tellingly, the European Union aims for 60% of adults to participate in learning activities annually by 2030.

As educational institutions rise to meet this demand, however, many will find themselves held back, not by ambition or pedagogy, but by their technology. To be specific, certain Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are failing to meet the needs of today’s lifelong learners 

"I get asked to come in and talk to institutional leaders about how they can embrace lifelong learning. It's not long in the conversation before I learn how their VLE is inhibiting them.”

- Martin Bean CBE, Former Vice Chancellor at the Open University and RMIT, a Canvas customer

So how can you tell if your VLE is hitting the mark? In this blog we’ll outline the warning signs that your VLE isn’t ready to cater the lifelong learner of tomorrow, and what you can do about it. 

1.  Can your VLE deliver different course types?

Legacy systems were built with traditional degrees in mind. They don’t always support the bitesized courses, competency-based learning pathways and microcredentials that lifelong learners demand. 

“A lot of VLEs will hold you back from embracing lifelong learning. They often lack flexibility and scalability to fully embrace diverse learning pathways. A lot of legacy VLEs never contemplated that we would offer anything other than traditional awards in the work that we do.”

- Martin Bean CBE, Former Vice Chancellor at the Open University and RMIT, a Canvas customer

Canvas VLE, on the other hand supports all types of learning, whether it's a degree program, a badge, a microcredential, or informal professional development. Its modular design and scalability allow institutions to deliver learning in any format, for any duration, to any learner. What’s more, Canvas Catalog provides institutions with a shopfront for courses, where existing and prospective students can shop around and self-enrol. 

“We’ve launched courses in Canvas VLE that deliver the skills needed to thrive in the job markets of today and tomorrow whilst enabling learners to tackle world challenges, and we’ll continue to develop our offering in line with evolving needs. Canvas is helping Oxford Saïd to deliver our mission of  lifelong learning.”

- Jyotveer Gill Associate Director of Education Technology, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford  

“Catalog would enable people to find courses that interested them, sign up online, and within just a few minutes they’d be right in there within the Canvas department. It’s a very simple and straightforward platform from the perspective of the learner.”

- Tim O’Donovan, Head of Digital Services, University College Cork, Ireland

 2. Can your VLE cater to the life of a lifelong learner?

The lifelong learner could be juggling work, family commitments, and oftentimes both. They need to be able to learn from a place and at a pace that works for them - so a reliable remote connection to their VLE is critical.

Many older platforms were not designed with mobile in mind. Technically, the VLE works on mobile devices, but it’s a far cry from the experience you’d get on a laptop, and there’s no offline functionality for when the learner is in low or no WiFi areas. What’s more, these platforms are managed on multiple, high-maintenance servers meaning uptime is not guaranteed. 

“Uptime is important because most of the students interacting with your institutions won't be constrained to neat little nine to five, eight to four, twelve to five brackets of time. In fact, when you look at the usage patterns of virtual learning environments, some of the peak times are actually between 5 PM and 11 PM at night. There is no such thing as five days a week. It's 24/7.”

- Martin Bean CBE, Former Vice Chancellor at the Open University and RMIT, a Canvas customer

Canvas VLE, however, is:

• Cloud-based and mobile optimised, meaning that learners can engage with content, communicate with peers, and track their progress anytime, anywhere. 
• The mobile app allows students to access pre-selected course content without an internet connection - whether that’s on the commute to work, travelling overseas, or just somewhere off the beaten track.
• Because we’re cloud-hosted by AWS and can maintain 99.9% uptime, lifelong learners can experience a reliable experience from their Canvas VLE, even during peak times.

“Reliability is critical, especially during peak assessment periods when any downtime impacts student engagement and satisfaction. Canvas’s AWS-backed cloud solution, with world-class uptime and redundancy, ensures consistent access, a game-changer compared to the sporadic outages we experienced with our old VLE platform.”

- Steven Wilkinson, Dean of Digital Education, BIMM

3. Would a lifelong learner actually enjoy using your VLE?

Putting hygiene factors such as course delivery and reliability aside, ask yourself, do your lifelong learners actually want to use your VLE?

User experience (UX) is important for lifelong learners no matter where they are on the digital literacy continuum. The less literate learners need something simple, intuitive and self-updating. And the learner who lives and breathes technology has grown to expect all of the above. Either way, institutions need to be able to deliver a good UX to all learners.

Legacy VLEs are often purely open-source software (OSS). And while OSS is highly customisable, these customisations can be complicated, cumbersome, and prone to bugs - all of which impact the UX. What’s more, these VLEs can struggle to integrate with other tools leading to lots of different solutions in lots of different places, and ultimately, tech fatigue.

“When I walk into an institution that’s on a legacy VLE, they're running what could be literally hundreds of different tools and systems, but there's no way to integrate them all together. This creates a really fragmented learning experience - or what we call in Australia, a dog's breakfast!”

- Martin Bean CBE, Former Vice Chancellor at the Open University and RMIT, a Canvas customer

Canvas VLE is the best blend of out-the-box and customisable. The core VLE is maintained by our dedicated engineers, meaning it works smoothly and brings everything together in one intuitive platform - from assignments and course materials, to native collaboration and communication features. However we also integrate seamlessly with your custom LTIs and hundreds of third party tools, allowing you to cater your VLE to the specific needs of your institution. As a result, learners don’t get lost in the platform or need to switch between multiple systems.

“During my Undergraduate Degree, we used an on-premise open-source VLE and I found the platform disorganised and difficult to use. Using Canvas for my Master’s Degree is a much better experience.”

- Shreyas Gawande, Master’s Student, University of Liverpool

In short, legacy VLEs can be a deterrent, whereas a modern, flexible, intuitive and reliable platform like Canvas can act as a magnet for the lifelong learner of today and tomorrow. Want to see how Canvas VLE can help you to attract lifelong learners to your institution? Request a demo.