1. Higher Education
in the New Century:
Themes, Challenges,
and Opportunities
Dr. Jim Jeffery
Dean of SED, AU

2. A Social Transformation
The 20th Century
Transportation
Cars, planes, trains
Energy, materials
Nation-states
Public Policy
The 21st Century
Communications
Computers, networks
Knowledge, bits
Nationalism
Markets

3. The Age of Knowledge
Educated people and ideas
Educated people are the most valuable resource
for 21st societies and their institutions!!!
Prosperity
Security
Social well-being

4. The Forces of Change
The Knowledge Explosion
Globalization
The High Performance Workplace
Diversity
Accelerating Technological Change
Nonlinear Knowledge Transfer
The Age of Knowledge
Changing Societal Needs
Financial Imperatives
Technology Drivers
Market Forces

5. The Themes of Our Times
 The exponential growth of new knowledge.
 The globalization of commerce and culture.
 The lifelong educational needs of citizens in a
knowledge-driven, global economy.
 The increasing diversity of our population and
the growing needs of under served
communities.
 The impact of new technologies that evolve
at exponential rates (e.g., info, bio, and
nanotechnology).

6. Exponential Growth of New Knowledge
 Buckminster Fuller created the
“Knowledge Doubling Curve”;
 He noticed that until 1900 human
knowledge doubled approximately every
century. By the end of World War II
knowledge was doubling every 25
years.:

7. The Exponential Growth of New
Knowledge
 But on average human knowledge is
doubling every 13 months.
 According to futurists at IBM, because of
the “Internet” and the build out of the
Internet, it will be possible for knowledge
to double every 12 hours.

8. Exponential Growth of New Knowledge
 There is an ancient Persian tale of the
inventor of the game of chess. When
the ruler of the land was presented with
the chessboard he was so pleased, he
offered a gift.
 Upon reflection, the inventor asked for
rice. He put a single grain of rice on the
first square, and his request was simple:

9. The Exponential Growth of New
Knowledge
 He asked that the rice double for each
square. The emperor readily agreed,
believing he had gotten off easy.
 The net result?
 For the final square alone, the king owed
2 to the 64th power, or
18,446,744,073,709,551,616 grains of
rice. The entire country’s wealth was
forfeited to keep the promise.

10. The Exponential Growth of New
Knowledge
 The smartphone in your pocket provides
a better communication tool than the
President of the United States had
access to just 25 years ago,
 And provides access to more
data than he had access to just
10 years ago.

11. Exponential Growth of New Knowledge
 Technology impacts the shape of our
lives – it influences the people we stay in
contact with,
 the people our students date (and
marry), the type of information we
consume, the way we consume it, and
what we do with it.
 What do the next 50 years hold?

12. Exponential Growth of New Knowledge
 Technology’s exponential growth rate
means we are now accomplishing in
one year what took centuries in
ancient history.
 The degree of innovation that is
occurring – even at this moment as you
read this article – is truly staggering.
 We are truly in the midst of an explosion
of technology.

13. Exponential Growth of New Knowledge
 For those of us tasked with running any
school organization, it can be daunting,
even overwhelming, to consider all the
technology available today – to say
nothing of what’s coming tomorrow.
 It’s easy to be too conservative. It’s also
easy to focus on new innovations and
neglect the important fundamentals.

14. Exponential Growth of New Knowledge
 The question to ask is: Are you taking
active steps to harness the staggering
power of technology?
 Are you budgeting for innovation?
 Are you asking questions and exploring
ways to disrupt “business as usual”
through new technology?

15. Exponential Growth of New Knowledge
 Are you paying attention to the
foundation and solidifying your current
technology, to be able to grow?
 Are you having the conversation,
pursuing the knowledge, and doing what
you can to position your school to take
advantage of the growth of technology?
 Exponential growth. It’s scary, and it’s
exhilarating.

16. Globalization

17. Implications for your students
“Suddenly more people from more different places could
collaborate with more other people on more different kinds of
work and share more different kinds of knowledge than ever
before.”
—Thomas Friedman (2005)
“Highly skilled people with roughly the same qualifications are
competing directly with each other, no matter where they are
located on the globe.”
—the New Commission on the Skills of the American workforce (2007)
Sources: 1) National Center on Education and the Economy. (2007). Tough choices or tough times: The report of the New Commission on
the Skills of the American workforce. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. (p. 19)
2) Friedman, T. L. (2005). The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (p. 81)

18. Workplace change

19. Major shifts in the workplace
 Companies focusing more on providing information
than “things.”
 Companies are “flatter,” with less hierarchy and
less direct supervision.
 Employees have more autonomy and responsibility.
 Work is much more collaborative.
 Jobs are less routine, predictable, and stable.

20. 64%
66%
67%
67%
74%
74%
75%
75%
63%
64%
64%
64%
50% 75%
Foreign languages
Self-direction/Lifelong learning
Written communications
Ethics
Work ethic
Oral communications
Leadership
Handling diversity
Creativity/Innovation
Teamwork/Collaboration
Information technology application
Critical thinking/Problem solving
Percent of employers who believe skill will become more important over next five years
Broad competencies: Employers expect
them to become more important
Source: Conference Board. (2006). Are they really ready to work? (p. 49, Table 12)

21. Forces of Change
A Changing World
The Knowledge
Explosion
Globalization
High Performance
Workplace
Diversity
Technological Change
Knowledge Transfer
Forces on the
University
Economics
Societal Needs
Technology
Markets
Evolution?
Revolution?
Extinction?

22. The Forces of Change

23. Forces of Change
A Changing World
The Knowledge
Explosion
Globalization
High Performance
Workplace
Diversity
Technological Change
Knowledge Transfer
Forces on the
University
Societal Needs
Economics
Technology
Markets
Brave New World?
Society of Learning?

24. Forces on the University
 Changing Societal Needs
 Financial Imperatives
 Technology
 Market forces

25. Changing Societal Needs
 Increasing population of “traditional” students
 The “plug and play” generation
 Education needs of adults in the high-performance workplace
(lifelong learning)
 Passive student to active learner to demanding consumer
 “Just-in-case” to “just-in-time” to “just-for-you” learning
 Diversity (gender, race, nationality, socioeconomic,…)
 Global needs for higher education
Concern: There are many signs that the current
paradigms are no longer adequate for meeting
growing and changing societal needs.

26. Global Needs
Half of the world’s population is under 20 years old.
Today, there are over 30 million people who are fully qualified to
enter a university, but there is no place available. This number will
grow to over 100 million during the next decade.
To meet the staggering global demand for advanced education, a
major university would need to be created every week.
“In most of the world, higher education is mired in a crisis of access,
cost, and flexibility. The dominant forms of higher education in
developed nations–campus based, high cost, limited use of
technology–seem ill-suited to addressing global education needs of
the billions of young people who will require it in the decades
ahead.”
Sir John Daniels

27. Technology
Since universities are knowledge-driven organizations,
it is logical that they would be greatly affected by the
rapid advances in information and communications
technologies
We have already seen this in administration and
research.
But the most profound impact could be on education, as
technology removes the constraints of space, time,
reality (and perhaps monopoly … )
Concern: The current paradigm of the university
may not be capable of responding to the
opportunities or the challenges of the digital age.

28. Information Technology
and the
Future of the University

29. The Key Themes of the Digital Age
 The exponential pace of the evolution of digital technology.
 The ubiquitous/pervasive character of the Internet.
 The relaxation (or obliteration) of the conventional constraints of
space, time, and monopoly.
 The pervasive character of information (universal access to
information, education, and research).
 The changing ways we handle digital data, information, and
knowledge.
 The growing important of intellectual capital relative to physical
or financial capital in the “new economy”.

30. A Detour:
The Evolution of Computers
Mainframes (Big Iron)
…IBM, CDC, Amdahl
…Proprietary software
…FORTRAN, COBOL
…Batch, time-sharing
Minicomputers
…DEC, Data Gen, HP
…PDP, Vax
…C, Unix
Microcomputers
…Hand calculators
…TRS, Apple, IBM
…Hobby kits -> PCs
Supercomputers
…Vector processors
…Cray, IBM, Fujitsu
…Parallel processors
…Massively parallel Networking
…LANs, Ethernet
…Client-server systems
…Arpanet, NSFnet, Internet
Batch Time-sharing Personal Collaborative

32. The Impact of Information Technology
on the Future of
the College/University
A Study by
the National Academy of Sciences

33. Early Conclusions
 The extraordinary evolutionary pace of
information technology is likely to continue
for the next several decades.
 The impact of information technology on
the university will likely be profound,
rapid, and will affect all of its activities
(teaching, research, service

34. Conclusions (continued)
 In summary, for the near term (meaning a decade or
less), we anticipate that information technology will
drive comprehensible if rapid, profound, and
significant change in the university. It is a disruptive
technology.
 For the longer term (two decades and beyond), the
future is less clear. The implications of a million-fold
or billion-fold increase in the power of information
technology are difficult to even imagine, much less
predict for our world and even more so for our
institutions.

35. Another Perspective …
The impact of information technology will be
even more radical than the harnessing of
steam and electricity in the 19th century.
Rather it will be more akin to the discovery
of fire by early ancestors, since it will
prepare the way for a revolutionary leap into
a new age that will profoundly transform
human culture.
–Jacques Attali, Millennium

36. The future of Higher Education: How
Technology will Affect Learning
 Technological innovation, long a hallmark of
academic research, may now be changing the
very way that universities teach and students
learn.
 For academic institutions, charged with
equipping graduates to compete in today’s
knowledge economy, the possibilities are
great.
 The Economist - Intelligence Unit, 2008: The
future of higher education: How technology
will shape learning

37. The Major Findings
 Technology has had—and will continue to have—
a significant impact on higher education.
 Nearly two-thirds (63%) of survey respondents
from both the public and private sectors say that
technological innovation will have a major
influence on teaching methodologies over the
next five years.
 In fact, technology will become a core
differentiator in attracting students

38. The Major Findings
 Online learning is gaining a firm foothold in
universities around the world.
 More than two-thirds of respondents from
academia say that their institutions offer online
courses.
 Many of them, especially those with a public-
service mandate, consider online learning key to
advancing their mission,

39. The Major Findings
 University respondents view technology as
having a largely positive impact on their
campuses, but acknowledge that operational
challenges may hinder the full benefits from being
realised (for example, tenure, promotions and
other organisational practices may need
adjustment to encourage faculty members to
adopt new technologies).

40. The Major Findings
 In addition, technology may be disruptive in ways
not intended: respondents note a rise in student
plagiarism, cheating and distractability, which
they attribute to easy and ready access to mobile
technologies.
 l Higher education is responding to globalisation.
Respondents

41. The Major Findings
 Higher education is responding to globalisation.
Respondents say that having an overseas
presence will be the norm for the majority of
universities over the coming years, and 54% of
academic respondents say their institutions either
already have foreign locations or plan to open
them in the next three years.

42. The Major Findings
 Distance education is also
becoming increasingly global,
with universities in the US and
overseas leveraging advanced
technologies to put education
within reach of many more
individuals around the world.

43. So, what does all this mean for you?
 The Top 10 Tech Skills You, Your Faculty and
Your Students Need Right Now?
 In order to determine the most essential
computer skills for today’s job market, we
(education.com,2013) polled a group of
professionals from leading Silicon Valley
corporations like Genentech, Hewlett
Packard, Cisco, and Oracle.
 The group recommended 5 basic tech skills

44. Typing
 The keyboard is the tool that drives all other
technology.
 There is no more important skill than being
able to type well.
 College classrooms are now filled with
students using laptops to take lecture notes;
 Hunt-and-peck typing isn’t fast enough to
keep up with today’s world.

45. Word processing
 Every student should be able to produce work using a
program like Microsoft Word.
 Everyone I polled stressed the importance of being
able to properly format a document.
 Computer scientist Cathy Pearl cited specific skills:
“Table of Contents, page numbering, and footnotes.”
Also, learn not to depend on spell-check or grammar-
check, since “e-mail” and “e-male” both look fine to a
computer.

46. Spreadsheets
 “If you can’t do at least basic Excel, then don’t bother
applying,” said Jon Kondo, CEO of Host Analytics.
 Your student should understand how to keep track of
data in a spreadsheet, and be able to use basic
formula and graphing functions.
 One way to get your student started would be to have
him keep track of his earnings and expenditures in a
spreadsheet.

47. PowerPoint
 PowerPoint presentations have become a standard
tool for group meetings.
 You, your faculty and students should know how to
make a compelling presentation.
 As Mr. Kondo said, “Slides should be visual aids, not
just documents that you’ve copied and pasted.” He
also stressed the importance of knowing proper
grammar, because no technology can replace good
writing skills.

48. E-Mail “netiquette"
 E-mail has become essential to communication.
 Your faculty and students should know the etiquette
for writing a proper business note.
 This includes brevity, proper use of “reply all,” and
knowing that all e-mail has the potential to be
forwarded.
 Also, said Mr. Kondo, “Know when it’s time to pick up
the phone and actually speak to someone.”
 Some things are best discussed face-to-face or by
phone.

49. Electronic calendar
 Most businesses now revolve around online
calendars. “Learn how to manage time on an
electronic calendar, and be accommodating of other’s
schedules,” says Manager Katie Petrie.
 In addition, you, your faculty and your students
should use the calendar to help manage your time.
 It’s easy to lose track of the hours when we’re on the
web. Consider getting started by using a computer
calendar . It’s very easy!

50. Social networking sites
 Marketing Programs Manager Michelle Myers
stressed that online communities have become an
important method of communication.
 You, your faculty and your students should be familiar
with how to navigate these sites; in the future.
 These sites may be used to find a job or create a
current job resume.
 Many companies use these sites to check on
prospective employees. Your child’s best defense is
to put her own information out there the way she
wants to be presented.

51. Basic computer upkeep
 According to Senior Project Manager Clyde Kennedy,
not enough people are familiar with basic computer
function.
 “Know the terms for the major parts, like the monitor
and USB ports. Understand how the computer
communicates with the world around it whether, it’s
plugged into a network or using a wireless network.”
 Your student should be able to take care of their
computers by knowing how to update software, check
for viruses, and replace the printer cartridge.

52. Using Internet searches properly for
research
 EVERYONE should be a careful consumer of web
information.
 It’s VERY important to be able to use a search engine
like Yahoo or Google to find information, but it’s even
more important to learn which sites to trust.
 Faculty and students should be discerning about what
information he cites to support a claim. For instance, if
he uses Wikipedia, he should go one step farther and
check the reference articles.

53. A Few Extra Things…..
 The professionals polled mentioned other applications
that might be helpful for professionals:
 These skills included: photo and file management,
making a web page, and keeping a blog.
 But so long as you, your faculty and students are able
to master the ten skills above, you will all be ready
for the Informaiton Age and the many opportunities
that are sure to follow.

54. Online Learning in the United States
• States with online learning policies: 50
• 50% of employers use e-learning for training
• 1 in 4 undergraduate and graduate student enrolls in an online
course in higher education; 5.9 million college students take online
courses.
• More universities are offering K-12 courses online
– MIT open courseware for K-12 students
– Stanford, Northwestern programs for gifted
• K-12 online learning enrollments growing 30% annually (50,000 in 2000;
2 million enrollments in 2008-2009; 2.5 million in 2011).
Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning, Evergreen Education Group, www.kpk12.com

55. World Future Society
Top 10 breakthroughs transforming life over the next 20-
30 years …..Best forecast data ever assembled
1. Alternative energy
2. Desalination of water
3. Precision farming
4. Biometrics
5. Quantum computers
6. Entertainment on demand
7. Global access
8. Virtual education or distance learning
9. Nanotechnology
10. Smart Robots

56. Blended learning
A formal education program in which a student
learns at least in part through online delivery
of instruction and content, with some element
of student control over time, place, path and/or
pace
and
at least in part in a supervised brick-and-
mortar location away from home.

57. Tech-rich = blended

58. Rotation Flex Self-Blend Enriched Virtual
• Station rotation
• Lab rotation
• Flipped Classroom
• Individual rotation
Online platform with
F2F support and
fluid schedules
Students attend
physical school &
take 1 or more
courses online
Students learn
sometimes at a
physical school, other
times remotely
Emerging models of blended learning

59. Project Tomorrow Survey (2009)
• Benefits of taking a class online?
– According to students:
• 51% said it allows them to work at their own pace
• 44% said it allows them to take a class not offered
on campus
• 35% said it was to get extra help
• 19% said they took online courses to get more
attention from teachers

60. edX
What is a MOOC?

61. MOOCs

62. Massive
Open
Online
Course
• Typically free and credit-less
• Being offered by elite universities
through partnerships with MOOC
providers (such as Coursera)
• Open to anyone with an Internet
connection
• Very large and often have a student
enrollment so big (as many as
50,000 or more) that faculty cannot
respond to everyone individually
• Designed to give students automatic
or peer-generated feedback
What are MOOCS?
MOOCs are:

63.  Apple iTunesU
 Canvas
 Class2Go
 Coursera
 CourseSites
 edX
 Google Course-Builder
 Khan Academy
 Udacity
 Udemy
Sample of MOOC Providers

64. • As of September 11, 2012:
– Udacity had over 200,000
people signed up for its
courses
• As of November 2, 2012:
– EdX had 370,000 students in
its fall courses
• As of November 26, 2012:
– Coursera had reached more
than 1.7 million students
MOOCs By-the-Numbers

65. MOOC Goals
MOOC Goals
1. Offer quality education to the most
remote corners of the world.
2. Help people further their careers.
3. Help people expand intellectual and
personal networks with strong
communities.

66. MOOC Benefits & Possibilities
Recognized instructors and industry leaders have
the ability to reach large volumes of students in
ways never before possible.

67. MOOC Benefits & Possibilities
Students can make global connections.

68. MOOC Benefits & Possibilities
Sir John Daniel
MOOCs will have an
important impact in two
ways:
1. Importing teaching (global
reach of instructors and
topics).
2. Encouraging institutions to
develop distinctive missions
(incentivizing pedagogical
change).

69. MOOC Benefits & Possibilities
The Innovative University
Christensen and Eyring
Customize your
education according
to how you learn
best!
Without disrupting
traditional brick and
mortar schools!

70. What’s the Motivation?
Brand Enhancement
“They will in no way diminish the value
of a UVA degree, but rather enhance
our brand and allow others to
experience the learning environment of
Jefferson’s Academical Village.”
Teresa Sullivan
President, University of
Virginia
Improving Pedagogy
“Through this partnership, we will not
only make knowledge more available,
but we will learn more about learning.
We will refine prove teaching methods
and develop new approaches that take
full advantage of established ane
emerging technology…”
Drew Faust
President, Harvard University
Public Service
“The missions of Harvard and MIT are
to provide access to learning and
education and improve the general
quality of life of humankind. What we’re
doing is simply a continuation of the
mission.”
Anant Agarwal
President, EdX
Fear of Missing Out
“You’re known by your partners, and
this is the College of Cardinals. It’s
some of the best universities in the
country… We’re doing this in the hope
and expectation that we’ll be able to
build a financial model, but I don’t know
what it is. But we can’t be too far behind
in an area that’s growing and changing
as fast as this one.”
E. Gordon Gee
President, Ohio State
University

71. MOOC Benefits & Possibilities
MOOCs could cut the large costs of higher education, which in the
US have increased by 360% above inflation since 1986.

72. • Developing self-sustaining
revenue models
• Delivering valuable
signifiers of completion
• Authenticating students in
a manner to satisfy
accrediting institutions or
hiring companies
• Providing value that
enables higher course
completion rates
MOOC Challenges

73. • The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s
MITx (now a part of edX) MOOC initiative started
with one class
• Out of 154,763 registrants, only 7,157 students
successfully completed the course
• The completion rate was about 5% (compared to
a 14% completion rate for Stanford’s A.I. class).
MOOC Challenges

74. • Few typically stick through the duration of the class
• Engaging students without overwhelming them
• Student experiences and socializing are done
virtually and without real-world tangibility
• Students must be responsible for their own learning
• Students can be ill-prepared for university-level work
• Credential models are still emerging
• Grading is imperfect
• Cheating is a reality
MOOC Challenges

75. • Can learning be scaled up so
exponentially?
• Will proprietary MOOC
platforms gradually give way to
open source solutions?
• Will the administrative
components of MOOCs be too
complex for a teaching unit in a
university to operate without
huge resources?
• Will MOOCs address the
challenge of expanding
education in the developing
world?
Research Questions
• Will elite universities offer
transferable credit or full
credentials for MOOCs?
• Will traditional undergraduates
consider virtual courses an
alternative to a residential
experience?
• Will working adults see
MOOCs as an alternative to
professional education
courses?
• Will employers accept MOOC
certificates as evidence of
relevant skills?

76. • MOOCs are here to stay and evolving rapidly.
• Expectations and methods of presentation will
likely standardize over time, becoming more
consistent and predictable.
• Large classes may be used as outreach tools.
• Institutions may open their content to a wider
audience and extend their reach within the
community.
The Future of MOOCs

77. Conclusions about Technology
and Higher Education
• For all of its benefits, technology remains a disruptive
innovation—and an expensive one.
• Faculty members used to teaching in one way may be
loath to invest the time to learn new methods, and may
lack the budget for needed support.
• The next few slides examine the role of technology in
shaping the future of higher education.

78. Conclusions about Technology
and Higher Education
• Technology has had—and will continue to have—a
significant impact on higher education.
• Technological innovations will have a major influence on
teaching methodologies over the next five years.
• In fact, technology will become a core differentiator in
attracting students and corporate partners.

79. Conclusions about Technology
and Higher Education
• Technology has had—and will continue to have—a
significant impact on higher education.
• Technological innovations will have a major influence on
teaching methodologies over the next five years.
• In fact, technology will become a core differentiator in
attracting students and corporate partners.

80. Conclusions about Technology
and Higher Education
• Online learning is gaining a firm foothold in universities
around the world.
• 2/3 of of respondents from academia say that their
institutions offer online courses.
• Many of them, consider online learning key to advancing
their mission, placing advanced education within reach
of people who might otherwise not be able to access it.

81. Conclusions about Technology
and Higher Education
• University respondents view technology as having a
largely positive impact on their campuses, but
acknowledge that operational challenges may hinder the
full benefits from being realised (for example, tenure,
promotions and other organisational practices may need
adjustment to encourage faculty members to adopt new
technologies). In addition, technology may be disruptive
in ways not intended: respondents note a rise in student
plagiarism, cheating and distractability, which they
attribute to easy and ready access to mobile
technologies. The future of higher education:
• How technology will shape learning, © The Economist
Intelligence Unit 2008