Future of Learning Top Reads for week of Apr 13 2020
”What's Next: Could coronavirus change the credit hour as we know it?” by Hallie Busta, in EducationDive
“A traditional three-credit course offered on campus may use assessments to gauge how much students have learned, but part of the experience that those credits account for is classroom time. Replicating that course online in short order is a challenge, she noted, because the tools and capabilities for learning in the digital domain don't match up so neatly with what's available in the classroom.
"If that's not an equal translation," Baker Stein asked, "then how do we measure what's going on here?"”
“That question dovetails with a debate occurring across higher ed prior to coronavirus: What's the best way to measure learning as more instruction moves online?”
“But even advocates of CBE say the programs aren't easy to stand up, and their uptake has been gradual. Direct assessment programs still must translate back to the credit hour format.”
“The coronavirus crisis is likely to accelerate a shift across higher ed toward better and more targeted learning outcomes, observers say.”
Why does this matter to the future of learning?
Bottom line: look for new credentials to emerge. They may represent smaller units of learning (time + scope) and / or different units of learning (new skills and content areas).
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“What the Shift to Virtual Learning Could Mean for the Future of Higher Ed” by Vijay Govindarajan and Anup Srivastava, in Harvard Business Review
“Do students really need a four-year residential experience?
“Answering this question requires an understanding of which parts of the current four-year model can be substituted, which parts can be supplemented, and which parts complemented by digital technologies.”
Why does this matter to the future of learning?
In the following additional quote, replace “four-year F2F college” with “K12 independent school” and you can see how the shift to virtual learning will affect more of the ecosystem.
“The current experiment might show that four-year F2F college education can no longer rest on its laurels. A variety of factors — most notably the continuously increasing cost of tuition, already out of reach for most families, implies that the post-secondary education market is ripe for disruption. The coronavirus crisis may just be that disruption. How we experiment, test, record, and understand our responses to it now will determine whether and how online education develops as an opportunity for the future.”
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“After Coronavirus, Colleges Worry: Will Students Come Back?” by Anemona Hartocollis, in the New York Times
“Like other administrators, Mr. Greene is hoping to reopen with classes on campus, rather than online, even if it means deferring the start of the fall semester. ‘Our whole model of education and all of its power comes from close human interaction,’ he said.”
Why does this matter to the future of learning?
If your “whole model of education and all of its power comes from close human interaction”… how will you survive a second wave of COVID-19, or the next major disruption, or the fact that every school is experimenting right now with virtual learning and some will double and triple down on that between now and September?
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