The way classes are taught has gone largely unchanged over the past 30-40 years. The format is relatively standard: a teacher stands in front of the lecture hall and speaks for 2-3 hours to a lecture hall filled with 100+ students. Some technical changes are that we have moved from chalkboards to PowerPoint presentations, and some teachers are recording their lectures, which allows students to watch at 1.5x speed from home. Further changes are that students now take notes with laptops instead of with a pen and pencil.
The part that is changing rapidly through digital platforms is the way in which students are making assignments and studying for exams. When study groups are made, the primary method of communication is facebook chat/groups. The first initiative in a group is often that someone makes a new GoogleDocs document and invites everyone. This easy to use technology has given us the ability to work together digitally and more importantly, remotely.
Besides working on projects together through digital platforms, education is also changing in the way that we follow lectures. The current method of studying is that you take your own notes during the lecture, which means that you miss a few things here and there due to distraction. The new way, which I just learned about a few days ago and expect to grow in popularity, is that multiple students have a GoogleDocs document open, and simultaneously take notes, creating synergies by working together to effectively capture all the information. This means that you not only get all the information from the lecturer, but you also have a well-prepared document if you miss a lecture.
Finally, the way we learn is changing due to educational platforms that are available to anyone with an internet connection. Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) are opening up education to the masses, which allows anyone to learn anything about a certain subject, usually free of charge (Alcorn, 2015). In my own experience with calculus, I have relied largely on YouTube videos to explain certain concepts, as it allows you to stop, rewind, and move through the content at your own speed. Furthermore, online platforms allow you to easily ask questions, which are often answered by other students, which is easier than asking a question mid-lecture to a professor that is trying to keep to his/her time plan.
Concluding, education has gone largely unchanged in the manner that it is taught in universities, as there is still a professor standing in front of a lecture hall filled with students. However, the biggest change to education has been the addition of information platforms such as Facebook groups, GoogleDocs, and YouTube, which allow students to effectively work together on assignments and learn from each other.
What other tools do you foresee changing education? Is there reason to believe that school students should also use online-resources for learning?
References:
Alcorn, B. (2017, March 17). Who’s Benefiting from MOOCs, and Why. Retrieved October 19, 2017, from https://hbr.org/2015/09/whos-benefiting-from-moocs-and-why
Hi Shaffy,
Thank you for your interesting post. I had not thought about how little the core set-up of education have not changed very much over the years. However, the recent trends of recording lectures to allow students to follow lectures from the comfort of their home have disrupted the notion of education fundamentally, in my opinion.
In one of the courses I had during my Bachelor, we discussed the need for physical universities or schools for that matter. Since you mention the ubiquitous availability of lecture videos and notes, I was wondering whether you think these developments could eliminate the need for universities? Will information be disseminated to students around the world, eliminating the need for physical universities?
Hi Mas, thanks for the comment. I agree that the trend of being able to record lectures is changing how university is being taught. Although I dont think we need to be physically present to listen to someone speaking, as we could theoretically do this through youtube, spotify?, or other platforms. I do think universities are needed in a physical form as it brings students together with professors and fellow students to discuss subjects in-person. The social aspect that a university provides is valuable to an education i believe, as it provides an encouraging environment to drive you to learn.
Interesting article Shaffy! Funny that I saw the same thing happening a few weeks ago: a few people in a row, all working in the document during the lecture!
I’ve used YouTube tutorials for the same reasons as you did. It was very convenient to rewind and go through everything at your own pace. However, I think the typical classroom sessions will stay. It is an easy and very efficient way of spreading knowledge and teaching students.
However, I do think progress can be made in P2P learning. You learn the most about something, when you explain it to others (Paul, 2011). Further, you can learn from the perspectives of other students. If they explain they way they’ve come up with an answer, this can change the way you think about a problem.
Concluding: I think the classical way of teaching will stay. However, I believe students will engage more in P2P learning in the future. Technology could support this development.
Paul, 2011 (http://ideas.time.com/2011/11/30/the-protege-effect/)
Hi Rink, interesting comment. I have also used youtube and various online channels to learn about various topics. Interesting insight regarding peer to peer learning. I know this is a big focus point of international language-learning. Whereby two individuals skype for an hour, whereby they speak in both languages for half an hour, acting as teacher and student.
Hi Shaffy,
Thank you for your insightful article. I do think that information platforms will have a massive impact on the future of learning, but only when a solution for the lack of interaction between students and teachers, which is often a problem on these online platforms. What do you think of the usefulness of these platforms for people who have already started their career? I believe that this is where the largest benefit of online learning lies, since many of these people do not have time to go to a classroom on a regular basis. According to research 77.84% of people have taken an online course already and 47.79% of people are interested in online certifications. So, it seems that there is definitely a market for it. Take a look at this interesting article about this topic: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/09/is-online-learning-the-future-of-education/.
Hi Olivier, I had not thought about it like that, but I agree that professional learning may at some point become larger than university learning if you look at the absolute numbers of the workforce vs. students at any time. Furthermore, not all companies have the resources to provide internal training, which could make online platforms more popular.
Great post! It’s definitely interesting to see how big the changes are. I too use the tools you have discussed in this blog to stay up to date and make studying way more efficient. However, if you are working in a group, you still rely on the perceptiveness of others. Do they understand something the same way you would? If they do understand it differently, which is the right way?
For our course, Information Strategy, only one lecture was recorded. During that lecture there were way fewer people in the classroom. Would that mean that if eventually every lecture is recorded and everyone is used to that way of studying, there would be no need for occupying a whole lecture room anymore? I personally learn the most when I’m in class, because it forces me to interact and think about the things that are being said or asked by the teacher. However, everyone studies in a different way.
These are definitely interesting questions to think about. I hope the lectures will continue on being given in lecture rooms, but who knows? Maybe in the future there will be one person, like me, all by him or herself in a lecture room with the professor!
Hi Roos, thanks for the comment. Although the lectures are increasingly becoming digitalized, I think there is still a need to have physical contact moments with the professors. Otherwise, we might as well just read the content ourselves. However, I can imagine that it might be possible in the future for universities to combine classes through partnerships, whereby we as RSM BIM class sit in/follow a similar level class that we are shown through video lecture at Yale in the United States for example. Will be interesting to see how it develops.
Hi Shaffy,
First of all, I completely agree with you that education has drastically changed over the last decades. Reflecting on this from a personal opinion, I cannot imagine myself being in a lecture and having to make notes with my pen on a piece of paper.
Moreover as you have stated, teamwork for assignments has become way easier due to digital platforms such as GoogleDocs, in which you are enabled to communicate and work much more efficient. However, the use of GoogleDocs with multiple people for making notes during the lecture seems a bit complex to me. Working simultaneously in a shared document will cause a lot of chaos which will eventually lead to people who stop making notes. Furthermore as we have seen during one of our lectures, the free-rider hypothesis seems quite evident here, as when the group of participants grows, individual contribution levels decline.
However, overall I definitely agree that information technologies bring major opportunities to share knowledge in an efficient way with students mutually. Maybe the next changes will be in the way that lectures are taught?
Hi Maxim,
You have an interesting point regarding the free rider hypothesis in such google docs notation assignments. I think you are probably correct that on average contribution per person will decrease. However, maybe the social benefit of being recognized by fellow class members as being helpful will be stronger than the benefit of free riding. We will see how it develops next study period.
Hi Shaffy,
First of all, I fully agree with you saying that information platforms have largely impacted what is happening within most classrooms. Already from the look of it when sitting in any class, usually 90% of students has a laptop open (although I personally belong to the other 10%). It is a second thing if they actually use it to take notes though.
I think that a lot of change can be expected within the coming years, especially in education. To name a technology that I think could have a large impact: Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is likely to take over tasks from professors, but will unlikely make them disappear fully, especially in courses where a higher level of creativity is required (Basulto, 2015). The EUR, and likely many more, already have systems in place that do parts of the grading for them and it is likely that this technology can mature in such a way that it will be able to grade essays and project reports in a similar manner as humans do. Once education starts to use such technologies I think we could really be up for a big change. What if a robot in a few years is able to predict your chance of passing/failing a subject before you even started? That way everyone would be able to receive very personalized guidance to increase the chances of success.
Something that I think can become a challenge in this process of change is the uncertainty it creates for professors. You already mentioned the MOOCs, but I think that there are plenty of professors who would rather not create such knowledge video’s. As an expert in their field, the MOOCs can be seen as a threat to their personal added value when they can just create a video about a certain topic once and put it online. Their expertise then becomes more widely available, which I could understand would not be something that they are very open to. On the other hand, if they don’t do it someone else just might.
Really curious to see how different a next generation will experience their education, and even more curious what topics education will be focused on in the future.
References:
Basulto, D. (2015, June 2). Watch out college professors, the robots are coming for your jobs. Retrieved from the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/06/02/watch-out-college-professors-the-robots-are-coming-for-your-jobs/?utm_term=.429096fb74e8
Hi Sander, interesting thoughts on MOOCs and professors reasons for wanting/not wanting to make MOOC videos. Although I can image that some professors are becoming worried about whether they are actually needed to teach a class, I think that universities will always have a need for professors to teach seminars and in-depth sessions with students. I do agree though that there would theoretically be less of a need for professors if we can watch lectures that are already given in the past, or from a different university on the same topic.
You only analyzed the current change. What do you think the future will bring for classrooms?
Hi Rogier,
I am actually not sure what the future classroom will look like. It is difficult to say whether we will actually need to be present during lectures at the RSM. Furthermore, it might just be that the lectures become more interactive through platforms which allow students to answer questions in real-time through their mobile phones and laptops. It will be interesting to see how it develops.
Hello Shaffy,
This is for me also the first time I noticed people working in Google Docs during lectures. I think it is a great idea and I will definitively use it in the future.
Regarding the part about group assignments in google docs, I agree that it makes life a lot easier doing it that way, however I still believe the personal interaction part is very important too. I noticed that if you don’t start by sitting together, the objectives are not clear and the different parts are not consistents. Overall, I think it is a great tool, but we should not forget the personal interaction!
Hi Anneline, I agree with your view that we should continue to focus on the personal interaction in education. I think this is especially important for education at younger ages, which could also change due to new technology. At a young age I think the social interaction aspect of education is just as important as the content that you learn, perhaps even more important. Therefore, technological tools should work complementary, and perhaps to individualize learning so that everyone can learn at their own pace. As to university I think new tools will continue to be introduced, allowing students to pool together their knowledge and work together.