Five Innovative Higher Education Ideas With Great Potential!
Updated: June 19, 2024
Published: June 9, 2017
Technology is undoubtedly changing how we live. From voice-activated assistants in our phones to autonomous vehicles, technological innovations lead to efficient outcomes across all walks of life.
It’s no surprise that innovations in education are also helping to reshape how we teach, learn, and thrive. From distance learning to virtual reality and everything in between, innovation in higher education is maximizing students’ and teachers’ potential and possibilities.
So, we’ve compiled a quick review of some of the latest and greatest examples of innovations in education and techniques that are reshaping education.
1. Distance Learning
With the amount of freely accessible information online, an individual could theoretically educate themselves independently entirely for free. But, education has never just been about information. It’s also about the building of community and the fostering of meaningful dialogue in the learning process. Distance learning has also found ways to make that possible through pedagogical frameworks, social media, forums, and more.
Enter the online university. Once considered a novelty, online universities have never been so respected and popular as they are now. They allow students to easily access information from the internet at a much lower cost than was ever possible in the past, without sacrificing the other benefits of university, such as having direction and guidance from instructors and a sense of community from peers. The reason that most online universities can operate more cost-effectively than traditional campuses is that they have fewer overhead costs. For example, online universities don’t have to pay to keep the lights on in buildings, to have staff on campus 24/7, to host events, etc.
Online universities, like the University of the People, provide accessible and affordable education to anyone around the world, while dramatically lowering the barriers to entry that traditional universities often require. To check out the University of the People’s program offerings, click here.
2. MOOCs
Massive online open courses, known as MOOCs, have some similarities to online universities as they both take place online, but their outcome varies.
When attending a MOOC, a student who completes the course does not leave with a degree. Instead, a student may choose to pay for a certificate of completion (if the MOOC provides that as an option). MOOCs are great for students seeking to learn about a new subject or for a professional looking to grow in their current field or potentially change careers.
With MOOCs, courses are pre-recorded, which provides students with the flexibility to log on from wherever they wish to learn, whenever they want to. Technology and access to the internet make MOOCs a possibility.
3. Virtual Reality
Virtual reality uses computer technology to simulate environments. For example, you can put on a virtual reality headset and enter any world: past, present, or make-believe. When it comes to educational uses for virtual reality, the use cases are practically limitless.
Virtual reality can be deployed to take students on field trips and visit sites that they are learning about. Students in highly technical fields that require training can use virtual reality to develop the skills they need to enter the field and perform their duties. To depict, they can learn how to perform surgery using virtual reality headsets (which is more cost-effective and less risky than having to do so in real life before they are prepared to do so).
Additionally, in the case of distance learning, institutions can implement virtual reality to simulate an actual classroom environment in which it feels like students and teachers are in the same room together, even when they are actually logging into class remotely.
4. Open Educational Resources (OER)
Beyond sites like Wikipedia, which can be written by anyone and are thus not 100% reliable, students today have access to Open Educational Resources. This is a huge innovation that has changed the way online universities operate, as well as traditional universities.
OERs are online collections of top-notch scholarly material, including full texts and learning materials, such as exercises and tests, articles, essays, and more.
This type of information was once locked away in exclusive institutions. Today, anyone can get their hands on it. What’s more, it’s often those exclusive institutions that are putting out the OERs. Moves like these send a clear message to the world: education should be available to everyone, and our technology is finally up to the challenge of making this a reality.
5. Data-Driven Education
We talk a lot about the internet as a vehicle for education – but technology will do more for education than merely put it online. Analytics technology is currently being put to work in many higher education settings to help teachers understand insights about their courses that they would not otherwise have access to or be able to analyze.
Online learning platforms like Blackboard allow course instructors to analyze large-scale data about course performance, zeroing in on what material is sinking in with the students and where they are still having trouble. This will allow instructors and administrators to refine their approach and personalize it to their students’ needs over time.
For example, as class sizes grow, some students are keeping up with the assignments and lessons, and others are falling behind. These analytics platforms provide teachers with an easier way to segment their class into those who can move forward versus those who may need extra support. This offers a better overall picture than just having to track test grades (as test grades don’t always explain the full story).
Hence, data analytics has the power to usher in an era where education can be monitored and improved upon in real-time.
The Way Forward!
These are just a few examples of innovation in education. As you can see from the abbreviated list, innovative higher education can completely transform how institutions of education operate, how teachers share knowledge, and how students gain the access they need to learn.
And, the most exciting part about technology is that it evolves exponentially. So, as we progress into the future, more updates to the innovation in education will take place even more rapidly. There’s a lot to look forward to!