I was asked to provide my thoughts on the future of higher education for Coursedog’s Community 2020: A Virtual Summit for Higher Ed event. Looking 20-30 years into the future, I talk about higher education re-branding itself as Lifelong Education, how the funding model will change, increased access and representations, the ways students will engage in modular learning, the ways technology will change the classroom and the administration of lifelong education, and of course the record keeping requirements for all of these changes.

Key Takeaways: 

All of this is speculation and a fun thought exercise. These predictions are based on current trends, but the future is uncertain and ever changing. That’s why this is fun! I could be totally off base, but we’ll have to wait 30 years to find out.

Lifelong Education is a much better branding for our industry for the kind of learners we will serve in the future. 

The funding model for lifelong education must change in order for the industry to remain viable and relevant.

The academic calendar as we know it will be replaced by modular learning, on individually determined timelines.

Today’s disruptive technologies (Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence) will be pervasive in the future. Technology will enable highly immersive hands on experiences that increase learners’ breadth and depth of the subject matter. 

References and Additional Reading:

Coursedog event site

Slide deck from my presentation

NPR : New Report Says Women Will Soon Be Majority Of College-Educated U.S. Workers

NYT: Lesson of the Day: ‘How Technology Is Changing the Future of Higher Education’

Books by Futurist Ray Kurzweil