Digital learning has disrupted the traditional education sector, even in the Offline Learning environment and have gone beyond expectations, especially amid this untimely and sudden lockdown all over the world.
This online mode of learning has the potential to seamlessly and securely deliver content to the learners without needing them to be physically present to acquire the said knowledge. Its facet gained serious ubiquity given the extensive use of mobiles, and hence, more and more courses have started becoming mobile-friendly. But what if a student doesn’t have access to a strong internet connectivity. Considering that there is absence of network connectivity as well as power cut issues in remote areas, it becomes difficult for learners to gain access to quality courses and content. Hence, the only solution is to have the provision of offline functionality, where the content can be set up ahead of time when access to internet connection is present. Such learning feature is available and it has become a hit for those who don’t have an internet connection at home or while travelling.
Education and learning systems that exhibits offline learning capabilities can be a blessing for those who are unlikely to have continuous internet connectivity, faculty members, especially who aren’t gadget freaks and live in rural areas.
The teaching/teacher’s cost gets reduced due to reduction in dependency on the traditional ways of learning like the face to face or classroom setting. Also, the learning process becomes easier as the learners do not have to travel to attend the classes every day. Consequently, the dropout rate reduces, while the company experiences a better return on the invested time and money, in terms of well-informed employees or students.
If an organization, who engages on-field staff on a regular basis, opt for the traditional way of learning, it’d jeopardize their entire operation. It will have to set a time every day when the entire staff would gather at one place to learn, and that would halt productivity and ultimately revenue.
However, the offline learning mode of the LMS solves this issue. It helps the learners download the courseware whenever network connectivity is available, and then engage in self-paced offline learning at their own time convenience.
To help, learners and educators continue with their learning in any circumstances, we bring you some learning resources that are functional even offline.
Ustad Mobile gives learners and educators access and allow them to share educational content offline. Learners are having access to their coursework, complete assignments, and allow to choose eBooks, interactive exercises or videos from the library to learn. Everything is present in both online or offline mode. But scores and submissions get updated automatically when connects to internet. On other hand educators can easily add, remove, and edit educational content. Create class assignments, track student progress, and record their feedback and grades for students, manage class details, calendars, and record attendance. Also, provides built-in support for their existing content including video, audio, EPUB, PDF, and Experience API files. Organizations can have efficient, streamlined reporting direct from teachers and students. Raw data and API is also accessible.
SolarSPELL (solar-powered educational learning library)
SolarSPELL is an offline digital library that offers access to education to students without internet connection. It consists of a small, low-cost computer, called raspberry pi, and battery where a personally curated chip of relevant, localized, educational content is inserted and devices located close to the SolarSPELL connect like a Wi-Fi hotspot even though it’s offline. Currently, this offline learning library is being used in five countries in the South Pacific and three countries in Africa. U.S. Peace Corps volunteers use SolarSPELL to train teachers, and teachers use it to teach students. SolarSPELL mimics online learning experience.
DreamBuilder is an online free tutorial, available in two languages: English and Spanish. It allows students to answer a series of questions about all aspects of their small business, and the program designs a blueprint tailored to their situation. And helps them foresee their future. Basically, it is an example of an informal education program.
Although DreamBuilder is available online, it is often made available to students without a proper online connection when they take basic computer skills classes. It’s primarily used in Latin America, and approximately 60,000 students from 94 countries have enrolled in.
KA LITE is an offline version of Khan Academy that offers high-quality education by bringing the online learning accessible to the offline users. It is open-source software that runs on the local server and users can watch Khan Academy videos and do exercises as well as track student’s progress, etc, everything with no Internet requirement.
Kolibri, also known as Learning Equality, is committed to enabling every person in the world to realize their right to a quality education, by supporting the creation, adaptation and distribution of open educational resources, and creating supportive tools for innovative pedagogy. Kolibri was officially launched in December 2012, sparking an enthusiastic global response that led to a flood of requests for support, features, and partnerships. We already know, the “online learning revolution” has generated excitement about the potential for broad, free access to educational resources but it is estimated that 4.5 billion people still lack Internet access which eventually means, the least access to quality education in general, including fewer qualified teachers per student and fewer educational materials. so, this platform builds solutions for distributing and hosting open educational resources via low-bandwidth and offline channels, taking advantage of existing infrastructure or low-cost and low-power hardware solutions.
Rumie is an offline learning platform removes barriers to learning through innovative technologies. As already mentioned not everyone have access to internet connectivity. So, Rumie gives the right opportunities to such learners to improve their learning even in such circumstances. To do so, Rumie creates and shares free digital learning resources and deliver it to learners in underserved communities with the most to gain.
Pocket is an extremely useful tool for educators who always read to make the perfect lesson resource. While you browse the internet and find an article that you want to read later, you can easily save that resource on pocket and access it when you need to without depending on the availability of internet. All you need is to simply press the Pocket web extension and it automatically syncs to all your devices that have the Pocket app. In actuality, it is your go to resource bucket that allows you to read wherever and whenever. Just open the Pocket app and read offline content at your own leisure.
Do you know more tools with offline capability? Do share in the comment section below!
