Building the capacity for change

EDUCATION

There has been much talk about the challenges that most colleges and universities are facing these days. For the most part, the topics raised by faculty and administrators are obvious:

the insufficient operating grant structure, a fierce competition for funding, aging facilities, unsustainable IT infrastructure and faculty shortages.

Over the past two decades, the demand for educational services grew and operating costs rose, while government support for higher education declined. Students have faced increasing tuition fees, resulting in further public concern about affordable and accessible education.

But perhaps the most critical challenge facing our higher education system is to develop the capacity for change - as space and time are no longer being confined to either the campus or academic schedule.

Today's students are members of the socalled "digital generation" who were exposed in their early lives to home computers, the Internet, cell phones, video games and new media. As a result, their approach to learning tends to favour more interaction and experimentation, team collaboration and personal experience. Likewise, they demand interactive learning and the plug-and-play experience as part of their new learning and socializing environment around campus.

Increasingly, as governments and businesses respond to the 24-by-seven service model, the same demands will be made by students, who want access to their educational programs at any time outside the campus environment. This is of particular interest to the adult student population, who have a keen interest in .any time, any place" education.

Building capacity for change in this context will signify a significant shift in tomorrow's learning style from individual learning experiences to collective team learning experiences within academic institutions. Faculty members will find themselves taking on the role of facilitator or coach to inspire, motivate and monitor students' learning environment, process and progress.

Tomorrow's student can also expect to have access through technology to a wealth of learning options, styles, opportunities, products and services that might be offered by various institutions.

As our society becomes more global and more dependent on new knowledge and knowledge workers, our higher education system will need the capacity to respond to the forces of the marketplace.

Emerging learning technologies, as well as a wealth of educational service packages and content providers, will present unique opportunities for colleges and universities to take their programs around the globe. The challenges here remain in the limitations of the current system structure, charter and mandates, rules and policies. Once again, all of these trends serve to alter the competitive landscape within higher education while technology can be used to expand the broader and diverse segments of our society.

Certainly, this can be achieved through thoughtful planning to promote and encourage changes and knowledge learning. The barriers that we all face are no longer cost or technology, but perception and habit.

Lifetime education is rapidly becoming a reality, making learning available to anyone who wants to learn, at the time and place of their choice without great personal effort or cost.

Copyright Plesman Publications Ltd. Jun 2001
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved