MANCHESTER (N.H.) — A student is driving to class in a driverless car. She uses notes to jam into the windshield, while gesturing with her hands to create a 3-D holographic model for her architecture project.
It almost looks like science fiction. This impression is reinforced by the fact it is being shown in virtual reality in a futuristic space with overstuffed seats and pillows. This scenario, however, is based upon technology already in development.
The Sandbox Collaborative, Southern New Hampshire University’s innovation arm, is located on the fifth floor in downtown. It offers panoramic views of the red brick mills dating back to the city’s 19th century industrial heyday.
This is one of the few places in which experts are testing new ideas to shape the future college education. They use everything from computer simulations to blockchain networks to artificial intelligence (A.I.).
They are not looking for a future with falling enrollments, financial difficulties and closing campuses. It’s a brighter in that students subscribe to instead of enrolling in college, learn languages and foreign streetscapes in virtual reality with avatars as conversation partners, and have their questions answered by A.I. 24/7. Teachers can create their own digital transcripts to record all of their life achievements.
These advances have many possibilities. The current structure of American higher education is as old and as popular as the Manchester mills. It is based on a calendar which dates back to a time when students had no choice but to return home to harvest. Academic disciplines were then divided on campuses for 18-to-24-year-olds.
Gordon Jones, the Boise State University College of Innovation and Design’s founding dean, stated that universities may be at cutting edge of research in almost all other fields. He said that they have been cautious when it comes time to change the structure of their institutions.
However, with the increasing demands of students and employers, especially Generation Z, and the need for new customers, schools like Southern New Hampshire University and Boise State have started labs to improve their ability to teach, to match their skills to jobs, and to lower costs.
Many of these were recruited from the corporate or tech sectors. M.I.T. A multimillion-dollar fund has been established to allow faculty to explore new teaching methods.
Some universities and colleges collaborate on these ideas in groups such as the University Innovation Alliance and the Marvel Universe-worthy HAIL Storm — it stands Harvesting academic innovation for learners —a group of academic innovation labs.
History is the best guide. The most dazzling ideas that are being generated in these spaces won’t make it far. Universities are like archeological digs for innovations that have failed to deliver. Although online courses have been the greatest technological advancement in the past few decades, seems to have reduced costs. However, online higher education still has much lower graduation rates than programs offered in person.
“One of our most important tasks is to disprove and demolish ideas,” stated William Zemp, chief strategist and innovation officer at Southern New Hampshire University.
“There is so much noise out there that you need to be a myth buster.”
Subscription to College
These would change the way students pay for college. They might instead of enrolling in college, and pay a monthly fee to subscribe to college. This would allow them to take any course they wish, whenever they want, with ongoing access to career advice and guidance.
Richard De Millo (director of the Center for 21st Century Universities) said that one of the institutions is considering a subscription model for Georgia Institute of Technology. The subscription model would allow users to access a global network of mentors, advisers, and any other assistance they need to improve their professional position or learn a new skill.
Boise State has already started to pilot this idea. The Passport To Education cost $425 per month for six credit hours, or $525 for nine credits in one of two online bachelor’s degrees. This is 30% cheaper than in-state tuition.
Students are encouraged to pay by the month to make their educations more efficient. Most students will graduate within 18 months, according to Mr. Jones. He said that 47 students have signed up for the subscription model so far and another 94 are in the process of applying.
No matter how they pay, the future students may see other dramatic changes in how their education is delivered.
Your Teacher is a Robot
Georgia Tech is testing a virtual assistant named Jill Watson. It was built on the Jeopardy-winning I.B.M. Watson supercomputer system. This A.I. This A.I. answers students’ questions in a discussion forum along with human teaching assistants. Students often cannot distinguish between them, their professor tells them. Students could benefit from more Jill Watsons to help them overcome obstacles in online or large courses. Next, the university will be developing virtual tutors. It claims that this could be possible in between two and five years.
In collaboration with Pearson Education, S.N.H.U. is testing A.I. grading. An A.I. is already available at Barnes & Noble Education. Bartleby is a writing tool that corrects grammar and punctuation, helps with plagiarism searches, and creates citations.
At Arizona State University, A.I. A.I. is used to monitor for signs that A.S.U. Online students may be experiencing difficulties and should alert their academic advisors.
“If we could get early signals, then we could go to them and say, “Hey, you’re still inside the window” “to pass,” said Donna Kidwell, chief technology officer at the university’s digital learning lab, EdPlus.
A hillside overlooking the Hudson River in upstate New York houses another harbinger of good things. Here, an immersion lab with 15-foot walls, a 360-degree projection screen and a virtual transport system takes Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s language students to China.
Students learn Mandarin Chinese through A.I. Avatars can recognize not only what they say, but also their gestures and expressions against a backdrop of Chinese street markets and restaurants.
Julian Wong, a mechanical engineering major, was the first student to complete the program.
Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer, stated that students in the immersion lab learned Mandarin twice as fast as their counterparts in traditional classrooms.
Dr. Jackson, who is a physicist, was not surprised. She said that the students who are now enrolled in college “grew up in digital environments.” “Why not use it to engage them?”
Schools of Education use slightly less advanced simulations to help teachers learn how to deal with simulated students. Engineers at the University of Michigan use an Augmented-Reality Track to test autonomous vehicles in simulated traffic.
A Transcript for Your Life
This is changing the way that these types of learning are documented. The race to create a lifetime transcript is on.
Many academic transcripts do not include work, military history, internships, apprenticeships, or other relevant experiences. Course names like Business 102 or Biology 301 don’t reveal much about the students who have taken them.
“The learner and the learning provider are all speaking different languages that don’t interconnect,” stated Michelle Weise (chief innovation officer at the Strada Institute for the Future of Work).
One solution is the “interoperable Learning Record” or I.L.R. This is a clear indicator that higher education will continue to be filled with acronyms and jargon.
The I.L.R. The I.L.R. would list specific skills people have acquired — such as customer service or project management — rather than which courses they took and what majors they chose. It would also include any other life experiences.
The learner would be able to share this “digital trail” with potential employers. It will also make it easier for students to transfer academic credits from one institution to another.
According to Credential Engine’s September analysis, American colleges, universities, and work force training programs award at least 738.428 unique credentials. This is according to a September report by Credential Engine. Credential Engine has also taken over the translation of these into a standard registry of skills.
I.L.R.s can be used in both directions, unlike transcripts. Potential employees could use them to search for jobs that require the skills they have, and employers could also look through them to identify potential hires who possess the required skills.