How COVID-19 Will Change HigherEd For The Better - If We Allow It.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many businesses to shut down while creating new ones. Small businesses that rely on physical customers such as the restaurant industry have been hit hard. The education industry, in particular, has had its world turned upside down and we have not seen the real damage yet.

Financial losses have not been fully realized, nor the extent of the outcomes of the most prized customers of them all... students. Higher Education has been in the news every day since full campuses were shuttered because of the pandemic last spring. Solutions however have been discussed way before 2020 even began.

Singularity University is a global learning and innovation community using technologies to tackle the world's biggest challenges and build a better future. In a 2017 post, Raya Bidsharhi discusses, "Why Education Is The Hardest Sector To Automate". She begins with what most have feared about artificial intelligence in general.

We’ve all heard the warning cries: automation will disrupt entire industries and put millions of people out of jobs. In fact, up to 45% existing jobs an be automated using current technology.

McKinsey reported in 2016 that of all the sectors examined, “…the technical feasibility of automation is lowest in education.”

I can confidently say that robots and artificial intelligence will never fully replace teachers. Effective education involves more than just the transfer of information from a teacher to a student. Good teaching requires social interactions and adaptation to the individual student’s learning needs. An effective teacher is not just responsive to each student’s strengths and weaknesses but is also empathetic towards their state of mind.

It’s about maximizing human potential.

Some gains over the last few years in Higher Education:

• MOOCs have allowed valuable courses to become available to millions of students. But not all participants can receive customized feedback for their work.
• OERs give students with day-one access to course materials and studies show that 93% of students who use OER do as well or better than those using traditional materials.
• Pedagogy, or the theory and practice of teaching, has been around as long as Socrates, but since 2004 the role of instructional designers has risen by more than 20%, and thankfully so.

Education Technology is not something new, neither is artificial intelligence nor machine learning. And despite most of the population using AI and ML as synonyms, there are distinct differences.

“Machine learning is the study of computer algorithms that allow computer programs to automatically improve through experience.” - Tom Mitchell, Carnegie Mellon University

“Artificial intelligence is the science and engineering of making computers behave in ways that, we thought required human intelligence.” - Andrew Moore, Carnegie Mellon University

Another McKinsey article in January 2020 focused on using technology such as AI to help teachers save time—time that could be redirected toward student learning. Their research suggests that 20 to 40 percent of current teacher hours are spent on activities that could be automated using existing technology. That translates into approximately 13 hours per week that teachers could redirect toward activities that lead to higher student outcomes and higher teacher satisfaction. This clearly is in line with my thoughts that technology, when used correctly, can facilitate good teaching, but it will never replace teachers.

Evaluation and feedback complete the teaching loop. As teachers understand what their students know and can do, they can then prepare for the next lesson. Algorithms can now uncover patterns about how students perform and algorithms can help teachers optimize their strategies accordingly.

Higher Education is where all of this can have an immediate impact. Combining the technologies to determine the learning modalities of each student - with giving professors real-time feedback on student progress and comparing it to the materials used in their course, can efficiently improve HigherEd learning outcomes.

Education was in crisis before COVID-19 and fixing it was seen as a gargantuan task with a lack of resources. It took a pandemic like COVID-19 to realize that this is possible. Most of the software and technology is available already or is being created, and integrating all of it together is a real attainable solution.

As difficult as 2020 has been for professors and students, the disruption caused by the pandemic presents us with a historic opportunity to try new technologies that would otherwise face stiff resistance from entrenched interests. It is clear that our education system must be prepared for a future that embraces technology to improve learning, whether that learning happens in person, online, or in hybrid environments.

I imagine a chef in the "HigherEd kitchen" taking a little of that, a dash of this; a little bit of adaptive learning from Realize.it, mix it with a pinch of Zoom, blend in a hefty portion of LMS (take your pick), add finely ground OpenStax OER with an already diluted mix of Google Docs and YouTube, and of course add in some scoops of Kahoot. Sounds great, right?

Great? Yes. Easy? No. Possible? You better believe it.

A solution that encompasses, not replaces what a professor currently uses, combining the components not yet possible by adding AI and ML, efficiently creates that solution.

As an E-Learning platform, ElevateU is going about doing everything mentioned before, because we can.

In early childhood, one of my favorite things to do was spending time in the sandbox. Miniaturized construction vehicles and machinery allowed my imagination to run wild building the next castle, park, or sports field. There was just one rule:

Play Nicely.

Everyone was allowed ample time in the sandbox to play and create together as a community. As soon as you pulled Sarah's hair, or hit David, you were banned.

"Changing HigherEd Learning" needs to be a common interest, goal, and solution. We need to act as a learning community that supports, shares and learns from and with each other. And it needs to be always in the present tense.

If you would like to learn more about what we are doing at ElevateU, or join the collaboration already happening in 2021 in the ProfessorU LinkedIn Group where professors, instructional designers, HigherEd leaders, and advocates are all focused on the singular goal - improving Higher Education feel free to reach out to me