Don’t wait for the future: learning disruption is already here

A new State Services Commission report, The Blueprint for Education System Stewardship, is a brief but ambitious document describing how government agencies will work together to ensure better outcomes for learners and for the country.

The Blueprint maps out a long-term vision, based on the premise that any good education system should be driven first by the needs of learners. As part of this thinking, it identifies a number of future megatrends.

Key among these is technology disruption, including easy connectivity and access to information, the importance of digital learning analytics, and the "unbundling" of traditional teaching and learning, including digital delivery and blended learning.

Perhaps this will surprise the traditionalists, but it is worth saying that online and blended learning is already here. Further, there is much evidence showing online, blended and digitally-enhanced learning is highly successful and effective for learners who have as much success than their in-person classmates.

We know too, that when students have access to well-designed and personalised courses, they tend to have higher engagement and better outcomes. And we know too that where teachers can create a real sense of belonging in their class, through online personalised learning, students experience greater satisfaction and are much less inclined to disengage and withdraw.

The practical benefits of online education for tertiary students are clear. Students living at a distance from the institution can access learning and those juggling work and other commitments can study at their own pace and in their own homes. Online learning reaches talented students with potential who would normally be excluded from accessing education via traditional means.

Challenges and opportunities
For teaching academics, online education offers both challenges and opportunities. In an environment where learners can readily access information from anywhere, teachers can no longer rely on simply filming lectures and posting chapters of a book to a website and call this a course.

Instead, engaged learning experiences need to be re-conceptualised to optimise the benefits that new digital media affords. This is where the value of well-designed learning comes into play and where student interaction is encouraged, supported and developed.

New digital technology plays a role, supporting and backing up good teaching. From a teaching perspective, this means placing more emphasis on interactive learning and adaptive learning.

While good teaching and engagement should drive good learning, and technology should not be the tail that wags the dog, adaptive and tailored learning technologies are, whether we admit to this or not, leading us towards an increased emphasis on personalised student learning.

This is where students can monitor their own learning progress and receive fast, customised feedback as they develop, which reinforces their learning.

Adaptive online learning tools can, through the use of data analytics, help students when they hit a roadblock and give them just-in-time advice. Far from making the role of the teacher redundant, adaptive online learning also allows teachers to see exactly how and where their advice is needed.

Universities are re-thinking their priorities around investing in traditional assets and looking to further develop digital learning spaces. They are also increasingly employing data analytics to help improve student engagement and learning outcomes.

Tip of the iceberg
This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of change, not just for university teachers and administrators, but also for the way in which these institutions are structured, the people they employ and how they will position themselves in the future.

An increased investment in learning design is leading to the establishment of new roles. These include learning and teaching consultants, curriculum developers and savvy multi-media specialists. They will not replace teachers, but will help them re-frame courses to provide the best learning experiences for students, personalised as much as possible.

This is not a zero-sum game. Teaching online does not and will not erode the quality of learning on campus and in person.

Evidence shows that many campus-based students already access their learning online in a blended mode. Better design and more personalised learning experiences will benefit them too, as well as their teachers.

The Productivity Commission is exploring a range of new models for tertiary education. In many respects, universities as we knew them – in terms of being the ivory towers on the hill – are already outmoded.

Online teaching and learning is challenging traditional campus-based education, not by diluting the quality of the experience, but by forcing us to re-think and radically improve the nature and value of education – to educators, funders and students alike.

The message is clear: those who fail to seize the opportunities of digitally enhanced online learning and combine this with the passion that comes with great teaching, will, like the dinosaurs, become obsolete. Blended and online learning is here to stay. Roll on more disruption, more learner-centred flexibility and let’s shift the policy drivers to allow for real unbundling to occur.

[Editor's note: An earlier version of this article appears in the print edition, Sept 9.]

Professor Giselle Byrnes is Assistant Vice-Chancellor, Research, Academic and Enterprise at Massey University

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