Education thrives on a healthy community that is safe and inclusive. COVID exposed how vulnerable institutions of higher education are to disruption in how we go about teaching, learning and research. Students who struggle economically were hampered in their ability to participate remotely. They left the standardized dorm and classroom experience and attempted to contribute to discussions from homes that lack food, internet connectivity, study space and more. As teachers we could see the students through Zoom and the inequities of our lives were put on display. If we believe education is the great equalizer, we need to develop ways for people to contribute when their circumstances are not equal. Our campuses need to transform how they can support students living on campus even in the face of a pandemic.
Institutions of higher education need to have long-term financial health and a balanced portfolio. Tuition is paid by parents, students, donors, grants and the government with offsets by the institutions. In the last few years, increased numbers of international students chose countries other than the US to study, and institutions saw how vulnerable their revenue stream was. When COVID forced schools to close and moved students to online learning, the funding sources began to ask for refunds since an online degree was not in their service contract. Education is a core industry in the US and draws talent from around the world to study, live and contribute to our society and economy. Our institutions need to transform their service model to generate new sources of revenue because they cannot keep raising prices.
Students and educators need support to improve instruction and degree completion. Our classrooms need to flip so that lectures are watched from home and homework assignments are completed in the classroom. Students need to be able to log questions at points in the lecture through tools like Facebook Live “likes” and these questions can be answered in a facilitated classroom. The professors no longer lecture to students… they deliver the content by video. The professors connect with the students in groups as they work through assignments that reinforce concepts in the video lecture. This is a more authentic experience where students work together solving problems and exploring concepts. Our instruction needs to transform to align with how we live and work today – less reliant on facts we can look up in an instant and more reliant on critical thinking and our ability to solve problems together.
Naturally, technology enables all of these transformations. We can create healthy, safe and inclusive virtual classrooms that reduce the distractions and inequities through augmented and virtual reality. New forms of revenue can come from digitization of education and the use of technologies to scale and reach new customers/students in a new form of MOOCs utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning. Changing how we instruct students by flipping the classroom to allow for more practice in creative solutioning and collaboration can be accomplished with recording lectures and facilitated group work. I am a recent doctoral student, a parent of a college freshman, and a professor in a college engineering program, and I can see how technology will disrupt higher education – are they ready for it?
Blue Cairn 