Innovation provides the key for higher education to reform and change

Why is technological change so resisted in the academy, and what we can do about it?

Over the years I have grappled with the deeper reasons of why this is. My most recent book aims to identify the drivers for change and to outline a vision for future learning that will inspire tutors and learning practitioners, as well as students to get on board and help us to deliver more engaging experiences for all our students - regardless of their background, learning preferences or mode of delivery.

Future learning

A key concept in the book is a traversal from traditional learning to new learning and on to future learning. Traditional learning we understand and know well, but new learning is based upon the work and thinking of John Dewey and outlines learning as experiences. Teaching here is not didactic, the teacher does not know everything - instead the teacher is a mentor or choreographer of learning experiences, based upon a problem, inquiry, a challenge or an exploration that is guided and reflected upon using the experiential model.

Future learning, which is coming soon takes us a step further away from traditional learning, promoting a hidden curriculum, seamless experiences between work and learning and a greater focus upon personalised learning with AI scaffolded support, data analytics and a full digitization of learning with unique learning patterns.

The move in pedagogy from didactic to dialogic to personalized represents a significant change in the way that education is delivered and conceptualised, so it is not surprising that practitioners are a little wary of the changes and might resist it. But the changes must be embraced as a matter of survival. We hear every day about how the university system is not working, does not prepare students for work and is too expensive - but if we really believe in university education and its power to transform lives and meet the needs of industry, we need to lead and innovate not shy away and refrain from any change at all.

Industry comparisons

As such it is clear that other industries that have been timid are now paying the price of not adapting to digitization. Public libraries, music publishing companies and the postal service are all examples of where digitization has transformed the sector. In higher education we still have time to make the necessary changes, but we are running out of road, and the changes to how Generation Z students (born after 1995) think about university education and interact socially pose us with the first major challenge to the limits of traditional and even ‘new learning’ modes.

Practitioners are keen to transform learning if it means more engaged students, greater creative control for practitioners and better outcomes for students in terms of employment. They also like to feel in control of development of their own content. But we are in a tricky place right now, where corporate players are waiting to take up the slack and offer low cost education via online and blended modes. Fortune does favour the brave, and there will be winners and losers in the university sector - losing universities will be characterised by inability or a reduced capability to change and adapt.

Responding to the world we are in

Instead of resisting, we need to work together to innovate our teaching practices continuously, open up our minds to blended and online, and lead the way for future learning via promotion of ‘new learning’. Many agree with me that learning design and pedagogy lie at the heart of these challenges, but if we work together, learn from current research and student experience, we can adapt our system of education to be even more effective for students and employers, provide greater engagement of students, and bring work and learning together to guide and propel the next phase in education.

Let us not follow the example of public libraries, the music publishing industry and the postal service, instead let’s bravely walk towards our future where student and employer engagement drive learning experiences, where our students are engaged and enthused, where student success, health and wellbeing is at the heart of what we do and where innovation and research guide our communities to growth and influence in the challenging world we now find ourselves in.