Students flock to STEM and creative online activities, Nord Anglia data shows

Students flock to STEM and creative online activities, Nord Anglia data shows Nord Anglia Education released global figures today showing how its 67,000 students are using online learning to further develop critical skills centred on problem-solving, creativity, well-being and global citizenship.

Nord Anglia Education released global figures today showing how its 67,000 students are using online learning to further develop critical skills centred on problem-solving, creativity, well-being and global citizenship.

A record number of students accessed Global Campus, Nord Anglia’s online learning platform, between September 2020 and April 2021.  Nord Anglia’s analysis of a sample of 2.8m online learning sessions from over 400 activities shows how students from its 73 schools are also engaging in a wide variety of co-curricular activities.

With schools based in North America, Latin America, China, Southeast Asia, Middle-East, India and Europe, Nord Anglia’s analysis shows:

• 1 in 2 (50%) students selected STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Mathematics) activities, making it the most sought-after online activity globally for Nord Anglia’s students.
• STEM activities were the most popular with students studying in North America and Latin America, and China respectively, closely followed by students studying in South-East Asia, Europe, India and the Middle-East.
• Two in five students (43%) were attracted to courses centred on developing creativity, with students studying in North America and Latin America, and South-East Asia engaging most frequently with creative arts activities.
• A third of students (34%) opted for global citizenship activities to learn more about sustainable social impact, attracting scores of students across schools in the Americas, China and India.
• One in four students (24%) engaged in wellbeing courses, which proved the most popular activity among students in China, closely followed by students studying in Southeast Asia and India.

Dr Elise Ecoff, Group Director of Education, Nord Anglia Education, said: “Our study highlights how education technology can be a powerful tool to enhance student learning and drive the development of critical skills from problem solving to creative thinking. It has an especially important role to play in the classroom enabling teachers to bring learning to life.

“For education technology to be truly effective, it needs to be designed with teachers at the heart of the learning experience. This has been one of the biggest factors in seeing online engagement in Global Campus continue to grow, even with the majority of our schools resuming classroom learning.”