If you are a regular reader of The EvoLLLution, you know I’ve recently written a two-part reflection on changed and unchanged aspects of education over the past 40 years (see Part 1 and Part 2). In this article, I will share my views on higher education 20 years into the future.
What follows are the five most significant changes that I hope to witness if I am around to check on progress in education at that time.
1. Personal Lifelong Learning Guides
My first hope for 2033 is for a new field of independent mentors serving individual postsecondary students and their families. These mentors will be state licensed to allow them access to each learner’s secondary education data and, more importantly, will listen to each learner’s interests and life situation. Selecting a postsecondary program will be a far more intense and interactive process taking place external to the pressures of admissions marketing or campus tours. Mentors will be akin to local financial advisors, therapists, lawyers, realtors and other licensed professionals who get to know their clients and provide personal recommendations. Once each learner selects an initial career goal, the mentor will provide recommendations for postsecondary education options to prepare for entry into that career. Recommendations may include a combination of self-study, apprenticeship, online education and onsite, instructor-led modules. Learners will continue to rely on independent mentors’ services as they change careers over time or as they progress in their initial career area.
2. Flexible and Learner-Centered Higher Education
My second hope is for a postsecondary system that is truly flexible and learner-centered. Rather than providing a specified curriculum and required courses, served like a traditional multi-course dinner, postsecondary education will be offered in a modular, à la carte fashion. Semesters will give way to courses offered at shorter lengths of time or completely self-paced. Semester exams and letter grades will be replaced by testing of module concepts and skills development and/or an option for learners to create their own demonstration of their knowledge and skills. Of course, different processes will be in place to allow learners flexibility in registering for, paying for and successfully completing modules to reach their career goal.
3. Education Spread Over a Lifetime
Third, I foresee that higher education will no longer be able to require general education courses of all learners. Institutions will not have the funds to pay their instructors to teach these courses to all postsecondary students, and learners and their families will not have the funds to devote to anything more than what is necessary to prepare for career goals. The content from required courses will be shifted into lifelong learning options, to be undertaken at a time when learners choose to study these topics and have the income to pay for them. As adult learners, they will be able to explore their interests to the depth they desire, combining instructor-recommended content with online materials, virtual tours and even travel to actual sites to enhance their understanding.
4. More Collaborative Learning Environment
Fourth, by removing the competition for letter grades, learners will be more comfortable forming lifelong bonds and relationships with others having similar career interests. Technology will make it increasingly easy to maintain these relationships, and the support from these communities will benefit learners over time as their careers develop. Throughout life, each learner will experience multiple learning communities, joining new ones as his/her knowledge and skills develop and through lifelong learning in interest areas.
5. Student-Directed Learning
Finally, even with these immense changes, postsecondary institutions will remain. They will, however, prepare learners for careers in less time by concentrating only on essential knowledge and skills, modularizing content and providing learners with control over their pace to attain knowledge and skills. Postsecondary instructors will be less involved in delivering instruction and more involved in recommending existing content for review and practice and in assessing and/or verifying learners’ acquisition of knowledge and skills. Instructors’ work will follow an individual learner’s pace rather than set semester dates. Courses now considered general education or required courses will shift to lifelong adult education. In these courses, learning goals will be more self-directed and achievement will be measured by a combination of instructor feedback and self-assessment.
These are my views of the changes ahead in postsecondary education. They reflect my hopes for the future of higher education to enable it to continue and thrive. What changes do you envision and what hopes do you have for higher education in the year 2033?
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