2020 saw learners flock to remote learning en mass. Although unenthusiastic at first, many learners, like their parents who unexpectedly fell in love with remote work, actually found greater success in a flexible learning environment.

Although plenty of parents were anticipating the return of their children to their classrooms, many also saw the benefit a new flexible environment had for their students. Many who became remote learners wish to stay that way. 

As schools around the country return to their regular, in classroom learning this fall, one issue is more relevant than ever – is there an option for enabling hybrid learning?

Could Hybrid Learning Be the Answer?

A term that’s making its rounds in the world of work is something called “hybrid work”. In fact, many argue that in the very same way that remote work was the buzzword for enterprise IT in 2020, enabling hybrid work will be the rallying call in 2021. 

Many of the same benefits of hybrid work – greater flexibility, enhanced worker experience, are similar for learners. However, given the impressionable age of learners, these benefits could be even greater. 

Hybrid learning could help bridge the gap between attending an impersonalized and regimented public school, and the joys and advantages of flexible learning. 

The Advantages of Flexible Learning

Although homeschooling has had something of a publicity problem in the past, especially in popular culture, 2021 made something that was once before relatively on the fringe of society take center stage. However, what many don’t realize is that there are incredible advantages intrinsic to homeschooling – ones that cannot be gained from attending traditional public school. In fact, many elite programs express an interest and even preference for homeschoolers in their programs. They site an increase in confidence, and greater individuality as key differentiators of homeschoolers vs. their traditionally schooled counterparts. 

The reason for this is clear – the highly individualized, personalized instruction made possible from flexible learning can benefit students.

However, flexible learning without school support also comes at a cost. Typically it requires at least one parent to be home at least most of the time – something that can easily be a burden on modern households, the majority of which rely on both parents working. Hybrid work, however, could help those who would benefit from homeschooling who do not have the financial means to do it otherwise.

Hybrid Learning – Democratizing Personalized Learning

In 2021, hybrid learning has a better chance of becoming a reality for students around the country than ever before. If taken seriously, not only could it hep with dealing with the pandemic, it could give new options to students everywhere. Students from lower income families, for example, could suddenly gain access to the materials and funding necessary for individualized, flexible learning. All of a sudden, students would not need to rely solely on the funding of their own families to take advantage of learning opportunities – their independent learning could be bolstered by their local learning institutions. 

In addition to those students who might benefit from a personalized, flexible approach to learning, additionally those particularly advanced students who are often bored by the regimented and slower pace of daily school life, could be given the chance they need to succeed more rapdily. 

Hybrid Learning Comes to Higher Education 

Another scenario where hybrid learning can have a massive impact is in the higher education sphere. 

Already, fully online learning has grown in the last several years. And it’s no wonder. Take public higher learning universities, for example – they are so impacted that gone is the traditional and previously expected 4 years to complete a Bachelors. With overstuffed classrooms and waitlists to get into them, taking that extra “super senior” year has become quite common. 

Of course there are immediate benefits to overcoming the pandemic when switching to hybrid learning, but additional ways hybrid learning could help overcome challenges facing college students is to enable low residency programs, and help both students and colleges save money. 

Can Stratodesk NoTouch Enable Hybrid Learning?

One of the things our customers are most excited about in 2021 is the ability of Stratodesk software to enable hybrid work. But what many may not realize is that Stratodesk NoTouch is just as affective at enabling hybrid learning as it is at enabling hybrid work.

Already, universities around the world have leveraged a combination of Stratodesk software, leading VDI/DaaS solution providers and affordable, high performance endpoints to do the impossible – to make hybrid learning a reality. How does it do this?

First and foremost, Stratodesk NoTouch enables something called PC Conversion, or PC Repurposing. With PC Conversion, educational institutions are able to convert new and existing devices into highly secure thin clients. Once converted, IT connects those thin endpoints with their virtual desktops in the cloud.

PC Conversion saves institutions money – diverting precious budgetary resources towards other ventures – like making sure students have everything they need to succeed in school and beyond.

Stratodesk Powers x86 and Raspberry Pi

During the pandemic, educational institution have turned to untraditional devices in order to meet the demands of remote learning. The Raspberry Pi, for example, emerged as the device of choice during the pandemic thanks to its low cost and applicability to a multitude of use cases.

Originally perceived as an educational device, the Raspberry Pi continues to be an excellent way to continue learning from anywhere. Schools can quickly deploy Raspberry Pis to their families’ homes. This is an excellent way to continue education for any home. For starters, the Raspberry Pi is a great way for people to learn more about coding and computer science.

Ideal for educational institutions, Stratodesk NoTouch powers both x86 and ARM/Raspberry Pi based devices in the same environment.

Deploying Stratodesk NoTouch Delivers Security to Education Endpoints

Another way Stratodesk is ensuring hybrid work for educational institutions is by delivering a vital security layer to their entire endpoint fleet. IT can safely provision, configure and secure endpoints – even school laptops that are used by students from home. Because Stratodesk NoTouch is Linux based, it is minimal footprint and ensures protection against a plethora of attack vectors that commonly target PCs, as well as unwanted third party applications.

By empowering educations with PC Conversion and Stratodesk NoTouch GO, educational institutions can also enable effective access to school applications and data to students and staff on both school devices and personal devices.

Additionally, NoTouch OS also supports browsers such as  Microsoft Edge, Firefox and Chromium for Google Apps.

Stratodesk Offers a Feasible Way Forward for Hybrid Learning

2021 may be the era of hybrid work for enterprises, but for educational institutions, it’s the time for hybrid learning. Not only can we expect to see leaps and bound made in enabling hybrid work for all students, we can also see many leveraging Stratodesk NoTouch software to do so. No matter what the future brings – accessing school applications on campus, at home or on the go – you can expect to see Stratodesk NoTouch leading the charge through innovation and agility.