With a brand new decade upon us, it’s exciting to think of the possibilities the 2020s will bring to the way we teach and the way our students learn. 

These possibilities will be the focus of Thursday’s Educating for Success: 2020 event, which will bring Macquarie staff together to explore ways we can enhance learning and teaching to drive student success. The event will focus on three key themes:

1. Learner Engagement
2. Technology Enhanced Learning
3. Feedback/Assessment 

Among the speakers will be Associate Professor Jana Bowden from the Macquarie Business School, who has been recognised with multiple awards for teaching excellence, at both the University and national levels.  Here, Associate Professor Bowden shares her personal vision for learner engagement in the new decade.

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The future of work is rapidly changing, and with it, the nature and purpose of universities in educating students for success. We have entered what is widely accepted as the fourth Industrial Revolution, which brings with it fundamental shifts in how we learn, work and educate.

Despite these destabilising changes in the digital economy, learner engagement will be key to educating for success in the new decade.

Future-proofing workers in an era of disruption

“Human skills such as creativity, innovation and leadership – alongside technology – will be essential for navigating the changes ahead.”

McKinsey recently reported that up to 375 million employees will be required to switch occupational categories and learn new skills by 2030, with adaptability and enabling skills such as problem solving, and collaboration identified as the most important skills of the future.

The future for our graduates is disruptive and governed by a gig economy, skills transformation, innovation and agility.  Careers will be redefined, with blocks of skills combined over time and linear and predictable career trajectories no longer the norm.

What does this mean for education and how we teach for the future?

Forecasts predict that 91 per cent of new jobs in Australia will require skills produced by the higher education sector. Universities are critical to future-proofing learners – embedding essential skills that will enable graduates to thrive in an era of flexibility and reinvention. To ensure the continued delivery of world-class education – and the success of our graduates – universities will need to be agile.

Our students need to be offered an educational experience which provides not only discipline-specific skills, but also growth experiences that develop their global awareness, and appreciation of social behaviour and diversity. Increased opportunities focused on work placements, experiential learning programs, community co-op programs, and local, domestic and international transfers promote meta-cognitive learning whilst also fostering success through enhanced citizenship.

Importantly, future-proofing learners ensures that the purpose of universities remains squarely on engaging and empowering learners to realise their potential amidst a rapidly changing economy.

The future is flexible

“Relevancy and continuous development of knowledge is central to work in the digital economy.”

According to the World Economic Forum, emerging areas of job growth revolve around roles which are cognitive-intensive such as data analytics, machine learning, app and software development and tech specialism. These roles complement, rather than compete, with technological innovation, but they also mean that the education-work interface is changing.

AlphaBeta report that by 2040 the average Australian will spend an additional three hours per week in education, with re-skilling and up-skilling becoming an increasing focus of adult workers.

Educating for success in the future will require students to have access to seamless learning opportunities delivered in different ways, at different times, and for different purposes, throughout their careers.

Innovative pathways for entry to tertiary education, as well as diverse and inventive learning formats, will be required to cater for rapidly changing learner demographics.

Students need to be offered educational formats which blend the prestige, credibility and security of the traditional degree structures with value-add micro-credentialing and badging courses. These ‘lifelong degree’ structures can offer both upskilling in key competency areas, and credentials that are transferable moving with the learner. The one-size-fits-all approach to skill delivery is a relic of the past – the concept of lifelong learning has become a career necessity.

The architecture of our education models for the future will need to account for learners’ lifelong engagement with education, and we will need to foster a culture that upholds and promotes this.

Out with the chalk-and-talk 

“The learner experience is becoming increasingly important for the future of education”. 

Digitisation has empowered learners to engage with universities in new modes of learning, and with it, learner expectations are rapidly changing. Chalk-and-talk approaches to education are outdated. Learning spaces are now free of boundaries and are no longer confined to face-to-face versus online modes. Learners are increasingly demanding voice, dialogue and an interactive exchange within their educational experience.

Our learners of the future will progressively seek out experiences that enable interconnectedness and deep partnership in educational delivery. To maximise the potential for success, future learners should be integrated as active participants in learning and teaching.

Learners bring with them valuable expertise that can be harnessed and leveraged by university staff. Co-developed, learner-led alliances with universities can deliver a powerful and valuable learner experience whilst also fostering ownership and belonging.

Collaborative learning synergies that occur in real-time between the higher education sector, peers, and industry will provide learners with a competitive edge to thrive in the future economy. Co-creation of content, curriculum and assessment, but also of social and professional networks between learners supports educational success.

Importantly, authentic partnership can foster transformative growth and development setting our learners up for achievement and success beyond university.

Education, transformed

Universities are not only in the business of educating they are in the business of transforming.

Focusing on three pillars of learner engagement ­– future-proofing learners, committing to lifelong learning, and designing authentic, collaborative learner partnerships ­_­– will support the delivery of an innovative, aspirational and world-class learning experience. Through this we can continue to educate for success.

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