We witness several significant trends changing education globally—the pandemic and quarantine catalysts for substantial changes in one of the most traditional sectors. The education sector was hard-pressed to go online, but there was no significant change. Everything changed for the first time a year and a half ago when COVID-19 locked us in our own homes, and we had to find new ways to learn online.
A large number of world studies identify several key trends in higher education
First, most of the transformations in universities and changes in students’ expectations are related to technology. Even now, when we were able to return offline and study in the classroom partially through the relaxation of the quarantine, we receive requests to “drop a link to the classroom”? Likely, the group will always have someone who, for one reason or another, cannot come, and this means that the expectations of the education students are still gravitating towards the hybrid format (the ability to choose whether to take part in the class in the classroom or remotely).
Universities should also implement new and clear rules of the game, especially for the attendance of classes. After all, the student can not come just because he needs to get to the university in the early afternoon, or he just changed his mind. Forethought and understanding of the dynamics of the group are essential for the teacher when planning a productive educational process. There must also be new rules and agreements under which everyone works.
Another global educational trend is large-scale technological innovation. Last year, many academic institutions made a significant step in this direction, but we cannot give up. Now technological innovation in education – must be, and the area needs to be constantly improved. Some services like essayassistant.org can help us to implement tech in education. We need enough willingness for this.
The third trend is the staffing of education. It concerns everything: the approach to learning, the choice of courses, their format, order, and time, and it changes the education paradigm. Each student is now a distinct unit. The notion of a group retreats into the background (although this trend has long since gained momentum in the world, Ukraine has passed the back door, and only now the actual implementation of elective courses and individual trajectories for the student is gradually taking place).
Students also have new expectations for universities and want to choose their development trajectory, depending on their needs and capabilities. This is especially true for master’s programs and post-graduate education. The Lego approach (when people do not have to take an extended master’s program for two years immediately but can “assemble” their diploma with the pre-programs and certificates) is becoming more and more demanded in the education of adults.
No one knows what the next school year will be like
The topic of mental health has become topical during the pandemic around the world, and neither universities nor companies can not ask for these things. Many research and reports write about the universities’ expectations to invest in and develop a turbot culture about mental health. Interestingly, over the past two and a half years, the teachers themselves have taken on the function not just to teach/delivering but also to notice if something is wrong with one of the students. Of course, this is not a direct job duty of the teachers, but they as people need to respond to alarms and signal them to others. For this purpose, universities should have an internal system where students and staff can apply for help, such as psychological defeat, an integral part of university life.
What is the result of global educational changes?
Students, faculty, and administrators are no longer the three separate groups working toward their own goals, in line with the 800-year tradition of higher education. These three groups of stakeholders can determine the university’s future only by working together. The students have new opportunities. Teachers work under different conditions, but how to encourage and launch this process – is a great challenge.
The current educational trends were described by the word reimagining – the redefinition of higher education in general. Some innovations bring radical changes in the industry. iTunes has changed the music industry, Netflix has changed the film distribution and viewing culture, and Kindle has changed the book market. The exact radical change in our eyes in education is the staffing of schooling. Interestingly, there is not one player, a clear leader, who breaks the system. So, everyone can either become part of these seismic changes or remain a local player (or disappear altogether). How have we traditionally acted before the covenant? We offered one method of training for all. But the way we learn has to be staffed by experienced because no two people process information in the same way.
If students spend less time in the classroom and more time online, then the left side of the university’s education will fall on young people’s time outside the classroom. This is about mentorship, encouragement, caring mentoring, and formative programs, which are now just as important as the academic structure.
What does change in the field of education mean to a student?
It requires the ability to take responsibility for their learning process. Even if you have mentors, tutors, and peer educators, you still have to participate in this process. The student must want to learn. Then, extraordinary opportunities open up in front of him.
For example, foreign lecturers, whom we used to ask to study for three years in advance, now can teach from the office or home and do not have to spend time on the road and adaptation. We have learned to organize the process of distance learning in real-time with assistants, assistants, and local teaching colleagues. The new approach offers a much more interesting program than if the teacher had to come to us.
My advice to those who start studying at the university is not to think about making your path as short, simple, and easy as possible, but how to make it as helpful as possible. Such a good reason for the development you may not be (because, after all, middle age education has many worrying factors: work, family).