Trends that will accelerate the adoption of technology in higher education

7 February 2014 | By Chris Parr

Agile Approach to change:

Long-range trend: Driving changes in higher education in five or more years

According to the Horizon report, there is “a growing consensus among many higher education thought leaders” that institutional leadership and curricula could benefit from “agile startup models”.

Such models “use technology as a catalyst for promoting a culture of innovation in a more widespread, cost-effective manner”, and pilots that are being developed for higher education institutions include the improvements of organisational structures to “more effectively nurture entrepreneurship among both students and faculty”.

Demand from employers for graduates with “real world experience” before entering the workforce means that “more institutions are structuring learning activities that forge these opportunities early”, the report concludes.

“One well-known, low-cost model is Pennsylvania State University’s One Button Studio, which is a video recording set-up that enables users with no production experience to create high quality videos with only a flash drive and the push of a button.

“When educators are able to experiment with new technologies and approaches before implementing them in courses, they have the opportunity to evaluate them and make improvements to teaching models.”

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/6-trends-that-will-accelerate-the-adoption-of-technology-in-higher-education/6/2011131.article

Building Human Capital: Is Latin American Education Competitive?

Latin America’s ability to compete successfully in global markets depends significantly on the quality of its labor force, which in turn depends on the quality of its schools.

 

Latin America neglects its education systems at its peril. Why?

 

• · Companies can find cheap labor elsewhere.

 

• · Improving enrollment without improving learning will have only a limited impact on productivity.

 

• · Educational inequalities exacerbate the region’s income inequalities.

 

 

Education in Latin America: Steady Expansion

 

 

Latin American countries are working hard to improve schools, with some success. Not only are more children in school, they stay longer, leading to an increasingly educated labor force. Despite these significant achievements, however, student learning remains low and inadequate for the needs of modern societies.

 

 

Levels of education are rising, but remain behind competitors

 

 

 

Over the past several decades, the region has seen a steady increase in average years of schooling of its labor force.

 

Moreover, workers in Latin America have less education than their counterparts in East Asia and Eastern Europe, and the gap with East Asia may be growing.

 

 

Basic Education

 

 

More Latin American children enter school today than ever before and most of them complete primary school. Even so, four of every 10 children still do not enroll in pre-school.

 

The most noteworthy problem, however, comes at the secondary level, where enrollment and completion rates in most countries are still below those of countries with similar levels of income.

 

 

Tertiary

 

 

Enrollments are still less than half the average for high-income countries and well below rates in more successful economies, like the United States and Korea.

 

Forty percent of Argentine university students drop out in the first year, and only a quarter of those admitted goes on to graduate. Only a third of those admitted in Chile and half of those admitted in Colombia graduate (Holm-Nielsen, et. al., 2005, p.46). The situation is similar in Mexico, where only 30 percent of those that enter in any given year graduate (Oppenheimer, 2005,p.318). This has tremendous ramifications both in terms of overall skill levels and for education finance, where large sums of public monies support a small cadre of college students who seldom complete their degrees, at the expense of large numbers of students who never reach the tertiary level.Moreover, most Latin American university students never complete their studies.

 

 

Principal Challenges

 

  Latin America faces four major barriers to making education a more effective tool in improving competitiveness—quality, equity, science and technology, and teachers. 


LA CORPORACION DE ESTUDIOS TECNOLOGICOS DEL NORTE DEL VALLE is the institution with forty year of experience in the field of education; since 1975 its first degree was Acounting Technology in Business and administration and Technology in Agricultural Management, increasing the curriculum through every year still today.

Vision

By 2020, we will be an institution with accredited programs, recognized for the quality, diversity and innovation of our services in teaching, researching and outreaching. With professionals supporting the development process of the region and the nation, involved with the international community.

According to this information what is the way to say that this a competitve institution. They pretend get students with high proficiency not only in each degree but in English as foreing language. Is important the labor made by the institution because this porpose count them with laboratories and groups or team for speaking English (English club).
Cotecnova gets its action field in north of Valle del Cauca, giving to their people the possibility of get high education.
One question is: It is a competitive institution and the quality it makes that it gets score being high education?

Colombia’s Goal: More Success in Higher Education, More Opportunities for Youth

Investing in education and youth now can define the future of a nation. In Colombia, young people  represent almost 30% of the working age population – a huge potential and opportunity for the country’s development.

And as around 17% of young Colombians are unemployed, according to official statistics, quality education and training in skills that potential employers seek seems crucial.

The government has set a goal: by 2014, half of the young Colombians should continue their studies or training after high school. In 2010, only 37.2% did so.

  Read more....http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/01/24/colombia-more-success-in-higher-education-more-opportunities-for-youth

SEVEN SKILLS STUDENTS NEED FOR THEIR FUTURE

What skills do our university and college students need for their future?

Once upon a time people earn their living using their hands, but is not the case anymore. Societal trends and ways of living have changed and now people need to have certain skills in order to be successful nowadays. 

Dr. Tony Wagner, co-director of Harvard's Change Leadership Group has identified what he calls a "global achievement gap," which is the leap between what even our best schools are teaching, and the must-have skills of the future:

1. Critical thinking and problem-solving 
2. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence 
3. Agility and adaptability 
4. Initiative and entrepreneurialism  
5. Effective oral and written communication  
6. Accessing and analyzing information 
7. Curiosity and imagination

ONLINE EDUCATION AND ITS PRESPECTIVES

The Future of Online Learning 

Higher education is undergoing an explosive period of transformation that embraces the digital age. From tablets to smart phones to wikis and blogs, today's digital environment makes communication, collaboration and information sharing easier than ever before.

Teaching and learning now occurs on a multi-dimensional level that involves both personal instruction and cutting-edge online technologies. This paradigm shift has made advanced education considerably more accessible to current and potential students, driving increased demand for online learning opportunities.

Statistics show that higher education institutions are striving to meet this demand. The 2010 Sloan Survey of Online Learning revealed that enrollment rose by almost one million students from a year earlier, and that nearly 30 percent of all college and university students now take at least one course online. Online learning offers students easier access to education, as well as a more personalized, flexible, and customized learning experience, which explains its increasing popularity among a cross section of students including working professionals interested in lifelong learning.

Along with the benefits, the phenomenal growth of online learning also presents an uncharted set of challenges for academic institutions, most of which are much more familiar with the traditional classroom setting. Additionally, it has spurred a new set of demands and expectations from a range of stakeholders including students, instructors, regulatory institutions and advocacy groups. Given these new challenges, several factors are proving to be instrumental in shaping the way higher education institutions implement and improve upon the state of online learning.

Accountability and Transparency

Academic accountability and transparency are two of the largest catalysts in the transformation of online learning in higher education.

As more individuals enroll in online courses, certificate and degree programs, the need for a universal standard of quality is escalating in importance. Currently, online programs must adhere to specific standards, yet the level of academic rigor and quality offered may differ from one school to another or one instructor to the next. Seeking consistency and excellence government institutions, advocacy groups and students are calling for greater accountability measures.

To this end, new research has shown that online education can be just as, if not more, effective than in-classroom instruction. A recent report on online education, conducted by SRI International for the Department of Education, concluded, "On average, students in online learning conditions performed modestly better than those receiving face-to-face instruction".

Aiming to meet these distinct needs, academic institutions are eager to implement effective new tools that enable transparent academic reporting and assessment. As a result, offerings such as learning management systems are fast becoming a staple for any institution that offers, or plans to offer, online education.

Course and Content Quality

The mounting focus on accountability and transparency will naturally drive improved course and content quality—a factor that is of ultimate importance to every institution.

But what will actually facilitate this overall improvement? Many experts agree academic analytics and assessment solutions that are built into online learning environments, particularly learning management systems, will serve as valuable tools when it comes to assessing and amplifying course and content quality.

Higher education institutions will increasingly rely on learning management systems that enable "prescriptive content"—meaning the systems define appropriate content for each student, according to their measured abilities, and employ learning modalities and techniques that are proven to drive achievement. This method of online learning challenges the student while allowing them to progress at their own pace—ultimately resulting in increased academic success and satisfaction.

By evaluating students in a number of key areas—including time and task, grades, answer confidence, information retention, and satisfaction —learning management systems are eliminating the days of cookie cutter content and one-size-fits all courses. By harnessing these tools, instructors are able to continually track and evaluate students and optimize course content to help individuals overcome academic hurdles and address difficulties as they occur. As a result, the quality of course and program content will only continue to improve.

The Role of the Instructor

One of the most important factors impacting student success is the instructor. Yet, some professionals still fear that their role will become marginalized as technology becomes more deeply integrated into today's learning environments. However, the reality is technology will not replace the teacher, even in fully online learning environments. Although some instructors fear technology will increase their workload, effective education technology tools provide instructors with new ways to better engage and teach students, without additional demands on time.

Additionally, as online learning continues to progress, instructors will also be held to a higher standard of excellence, driving increased demand for quality, tech-savvy instructors. This new generation of educational leaders will be called on to use technology in the fully online and blended learning classrooms, thereby changing the way courses are taught. Instead of demanding memorization and feedback, instructors will employ tools that enable application of knowledge to real-life problems and real-time collaboration with peers.

To support instructors in these efforts, administrators can use academic analytics and assessment tools to analyze their individual performance and areas where improvement needs to be made. By employing ongoing assessment, institutions will be able to set a higher standard for teachers and cultivate an environment where quality is a norm.

Collaboration and Multi-Modal Content Delivery

The availability and adoption of student-to-student and teacher-to-student collaboration tools is already a reality—and they are making a big impact on the way teaching and learning continues to evolve. Web 2.0 collaboration tools such as social networking, user-generated content, video conferencing, wikis and blogs, are changing the way institutions educate students. These various changes include professors teaching in more than one medium; students being expected to collaborate online to complete group projects; printed textbooks being replaced by customized eBooks with multimedia content; and traditional paper-based grading methodologies changing to accommodate new ways of learning, including collaborative projects.

Given the fact that learning management systems play a key role in online learning, it is important to note that most systems already offer a variety of collaboration tools. This level of availability is helping to create new opportunities to engage students in a more accessible and flexible environment. It will also help to transform learning management systems from a platform into a true environment that enables more collaborative online learning.

In short, the institutions that are able to effectively integrate these new collaborative, multi-modal mediums into their online and blended learning environments will emerge as the pioneers of the next generation of online learning.

Conclusion

Technology is transforming education and its impact just continues to grow. By creating and embracing a solid framework for online learning and employing cutting-edge learning management systems, higher education institutions are in a position to significantly improve student outcomes today and into the future.

THE FUTURE OF ONLINE EDUCATION

What is the Future of Distance Learning?


What advancements and changes can we expect for online education?
Distance learning is not simply a contemporary trend that will fade away. When considering the future of distance learning, it is important to look at many of the trends related to learning that are already influencing current trends and planning.
The amount of knowledge and information that must be taught to tomorrow's leaders is expanding at a tremendous rate. The high school graduating class of 2014 will be exposed to more new information in one year than their grandparents were in a lifetime. Memorizing facts will have a much lower value, while utilizing information for analysis and decision making will be a critical skill for educational and professional advancement.


Continuous learning will be essential.

The typical worker will have many distinct careers in his or her lifetime. Each of these career paths or changes will require the attainment and practice of new knowledge, skills, and competencies. Lifelong learning will be something any individual must do to remain competitive.

Students will be expected to have an ability to conduct research, analyze data, adapt to changes, etc. In this way, distance learning provides a more resourceful solution for the student and working population. Its flexibility, accessibility, and program diversity better meets the immediate educational needs of individuals, making learning more meaningful, effective, and practical.


International study will not be as dependent on travel.
The world is shrinking rapidly. The Internet has brought the world together in ways that nobody could have expected. You can now attend a college halfway around the world with classmates living in any country. International education will likely gain in popularity and enrollment as demand from students increases. Travel costs, bureaucracy, and cultural barriers will impact international study less and less.


Distance learning will impact the operations of traditional schools.

Universities and colleges will likely begin to collaborate with one another in an effort to diversify their offerings to meet the ever growing need for higher education while staying competitive in the global market.

Private companies will not be excluded from the changes affecting higher education. People will telecommute to their jobs as their employers will be increasingly forced to compete on a global, rather than local, scale.


Technical familiarity will have increasing value.

The skills that distance learning will impart upon students will continue to increase in demand — skills such as an ability to learn, to adapt quickly, to communicate across a neutral medium, to analyze data, to utilize technology, an ability to conduct research, and, of course, the ability to work independently without compromising productivity.

Colleges, universities, and schools of the future will utilize technologies far more advanced than those of today. (Consider the complexity of today's technology, some of which would have been inconceivable only thirty years ago.) Learning to use the new technology will be essential to navigating modern life and advancing professionally.

Ways distance learning will have to evolve.

In order to meet the needs of the changing world noted above, future learning must be:

• Time flexible
• Independent of geography (lacking geographical barriers)
• Competitive cost/value
• Learner-centered with less emphasis on lecture-style classes
• High-technology, incorporating new media and computer applications as part of instructor presentations and course work
• Culturally diverse
• Adaptable to the needs of the global marketplace
• Growth oriented from the perspective of the individual and organization
• Contemporary material that is relevant to the times

What distance learning institutions will have to do.

Organizations that deliver distance learning will need to consider these issues and more:

• Realize what market and demographic groups they serve
• Be responsive to adult learner needs
• Prove their value to adult learners, such as quality, relevance in material, convenience, etc.
• Take direction from business organizations, and in response, anticipate and adapt to their needs
• Streamline the instruction process
• Look for partnerships with other complementary organizations
• Find creative ways to certify learning credentials
• Be prepared to compete globally with a variety of learning providers
• Stay abreast of relevant issues in education
• Understand that the paradigm of thinking in education has changed over the last fifty years and will continue to change in the future

Likely changes that will happen.

As a result of all of those factors, we may see some of the following predictions come true in the next decade:

Companies and organizations will compete directly with colleges and K-12 schools, as has already begun to happen with charter schools or schools and training websites.

• Partnerships and mergers between learning institutions, publishers, technology companies, and learning providers will consolidate the marketplace
• A greater percentage of learning (formal and informal) will take place online
• The role of the instructor will be broken down into multiple specialized positions: curriculum design, content delivery, classroom facilitator, learner support, etc.
• Demand for top instructors will grow in both the education market and in business
• Fewer students will get the traditional on-campus degree and most will get at least a portion of their formal education online and off-campus
• Adult students will become more commonplace and schools will more readily facilitate these learners
• Cultural diversity will become increasingly more integrated into formal education

Learners will complete degrees and certificates made up of courses and experiences from a wide range of learning providers private, public, traditional and online.