Preparing for the Future

Now, the economy and society has shifted - our donuts have become "day old" and "week old" - they just don't sell or satisfy the "customer" (both students and employers)

It is the employer and the student (the payer) who now are choosing what they want; when and how they want it

Increasingly, that is online, just-in-time to keep up with the changing technologies, while not ignoring the basic soft skills

Employers are increasingly tired of higher ed not providing what they need in entry level applicants and are dropping requirements for degrees or creating their own certificates (and soon degrees)

Competition

Coursera is offering both baccalaureates and master's degrees

edX promises to offer more degrees (imagine MIT and Harvard degrees offered in your town)

Google now is offering their own certificate through 25 community colleges and Northeastern (imagine Google University offering Computer Science degrees)

Amazon has hired Candice Thille (imagine Amazon offering self-paced MBA and Marketing degrees)

Smart speaker assistants (e.g. Google Home, Amazon Echo) providing more and more services (Imagine at 8:00 am a student says to his speaker: "compose a ten page paper with ten source annotated bibliography on the parallels between the agricultural and industrial revolutions in America" -- the speaker replies "MLA or APP style?" -- the student adds to send it both to printer and email for his 8:30 class}

Readings

Coursera Degree Programs

UPenn LPS Online

edX Online Masters

Google Launches IT Certificate Online

Amazon is Quietly Becoming Its Own University

Will Alternative Credentials Replace College Degrees?

Be agile & flexible - constantly reviewing and updating

Harvard Hosts 60-Year Curriculum Symposium

The 60 Year Curriculum: Developing New Educational Models to Serve the Agile Labor Market

Newsom's cradle-to-career plan for education is ambitious — and expensive

GeorgiaTech: Deliberate Innovation, Lifetime Education

Do all of our students leave the program with a Personal Learning Network that is active and relevant?

Questions for Reflection and Action:

What are we doing to assure that what we are teaching - and how we are teaching - will be relevant to graduates in five years?

Equally important with the technology, is our pedagogy advancing and adapting to self-directed learning?

Are we sure that the career path that we are preparing will be there in five years, or will machine learning bots and other technologies overtake that role?

How are we preparing our colleagues and students to keep up with the incredible rate of change?

How are we preparing our students to transition throughout their careers to the changing workforce needs?

Are we engaging business and industry in collaborating to develop curricula that is most relevant?

Are we engaging students in the teaching and learning process?

Readings:

15 More Employers NOT Requiring a Degree

Top Blockchain Jobs You Need to Know About

Colleges Pivot to Prep Students for High Demand Careers

Employment Outcomes of Bachelor's Students

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