“Crisis creates opportunity. Will we seize it?” interview with Jal Mehta, on the Learning Forward blog

“William Bridges, who does work on transitions of all sorts, including organizational changes but also divorce or death of a family member, is pretty clear that there needs to be a period where you grieve what has passed. Then there’s a period of uncertainty. Finally, something new emerges in its place. But you have to go through a period of ‘hospicing’ — letting go of the things that have been important to you but which the current reality doesn’t create space for. And if you try to rush that process and don’t allow for some grieving, it’s really difficult to move into a new space.

“The challenge with the pandemic is that, for a lot of people, there has been this sense of, ‘When can we get back to what we had before?’ But in the case of schools, it’s pretty clear that schools weren’t working that well for a lot of students and teachers even pre-pandemic. So we want some things to go back to the way they were before, but we want some things to be different. The takes time, and there’s an emotional aspect to it.”

Why does this matter to the future of learning?

The pandemic forced us to try new things. Some of them will stick.

But only if we “hospice” other things.

What needs mourning before your community can move on?

How might you facilitate that “hospicing”? That’s a heck of a design challenge.

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“Southern New Hampshire buys Kenzie Academy to grow alternative credentials,” by Hallie Busta, in Higher Ed Dive

“The pandemic accelerated partnerships between colleges and boot camps, which give institutions access to companies that can quickly launch and deliver programs — often in fast-changing technical fields. These were on pace to more than double in count worldwide from 2019 to 2020, according to market research firm HolonIQ.

“Such pairings are often between institutions and online program managers, which have been buying boot camps to differentiate their offerings as enrollment swells in the short-term programs. But SNHU's scale has enabled it to take a different approach.

“ ‘We've come full circle here’ with an accredited university ‘cutting out the middleman’ and buying a boot camp itself, said Ryan Craig, managing director at ed tech investment firm Achieve Partners. Craig expects there are only a handful of institutions positioned to follow a similar path.”

Why does this matter to the future of learning?

As we have discussed several times recently, refactoring time, space, and assessment can lead to transformation.

Bootcamps refactor time and assessment. For colleges that treat bootcamp acquisitions as more than just a menu offering, those innovations should flow back into the way the regular undergraduate program operates.

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“Google Just Made a Huge Announcement and Its a Game Changer for Job Seekers and Employers,” by Justin Bariso, on Inc.com

“One of the complaints about traditional higher education is that while universities teach critical thinking skills, they often leave graduates unprepared for the working world. To help combat that problem, Google partnered with other employers to vet the respective curriculums and to make sure they provided job-ready skills.

“ ‘We received feedback and input from employers like Accenture and Deloitte, including real-world exercises to reference when building our curriculum,’ Gevelber says. As an example, for the Data Analytics Certificate, Google referenced case-study templates Deloitte uses with its own data analysts, as an exemplar for a capstone project.

“The plan includes:

• The release of three new Google Career Certificates on Coursera in project management, data analytics, and user experience (UX) design

• A new Associate Android Developer Certification course

• Over 100,000 need-based scholarships

• Partnerships with more than 130 employers working with Google to hire graduates of its certificate program

• A new Google Search feature that makes it easier for people to find jobs for their education level, including no degree and no experience

• Most enrollees will finish in six months or less, putting the cost at about $240 for U.S. students. Some may need only three months, cutting that cost in half. Google is offering 100,000 need-based scholarships in the U.S.”

Why does this matter to the future of learning?

In the future, some highly skilled professionals won’t be college graduates.

In the future, some highly skilled professionals will be college graduates who supplemented their degree with alternative credentials like Google Career Certificates.

We don’t have to like it or seek to copy it. But we do need to understand why it’s happening and how it will reshape the learning landscape.

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