{"id":768,"date":"2021-11-11T17:25:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-11T17:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/?p=768"},"modified":"2026-06-29T14:02:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T14:02:23","slug":"the-future-of-higher-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/?p=768","title":{"rendered":"The Future Of Higher Education"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/a\/AVvXsEjqNvvv3x2ILU-cgT5lbx_qiAFnOLXU-wwFiHc5O1RaclR6gtjukTQdQfvtgHnHKeMXIfx2rHI7CPIqOrI8JJhar46KT5Bea0xNRXsJQxY7kNm_53mofP2YSuaHhmOXcTLNmP3LVwZaDBNUXLfdOPNak_2MqcdFJISiJSRNjYzn0pNXvQbnf7Ne52Y0=w640-h344\" style=\"margin-left: 1em;margin-right: 1em\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"400\" data-original-width=\"744\" height=\"344\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/a\/AVvXsEjqNvvv3x2ILU-cgT5lbx_qiAFnOLXU-wwFiHc5O1RaclR6gtjukTQdQfvtgHnHKeMXIfx2rHI7CPIqOrI8JJhar46KT5Bea0xNRXsJQxY7kNm_53mofP2YSuaHhmOXcTLNmP3LVwZaDBNUXLfdOPNak_2MqcdFJISiJSRNjYzn0pNXvQbnf7Ne52Y0=w640-h344\" width=\"640\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 640px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 640\/344;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>Question: What does oversight of every instructional design (ID) department on the planet give you?<\/p>\n<p>Answer: Vision.<\/p>\n<p>This vision of the future of higher education is summarized in this video (3:18).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><iframe allowfullscreen=\"\" class=\"BLOG_video_class lazyload\" height=\"388\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Pzw9sw5qghQ\" width=\"467\" youtube-src-id=\"Pzw9sw5qghQ\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Prior<br \/>\n to 2017, instructional designers (IDs) at their institutions were often<br \/>\n a department of one. As such, instructional designers work in an<br \/>\nisolated position. Tasked with working with an entire university\u2019s<br \/>\nfaculty &amp; staff, instructional designers often find it rare to find a<br \/>\n sympathetic ear for their common concerns.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Peter Shea created a Facebook group, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/1526889350715555\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instructional Designers in Education<\/a>,<br \/>\n in April 2017 with the hopes that instructional designers working in<br \/>\neducational institutions could gather and use each other for support. In<br \/>\n joining, instructional designers in education are part of a <i>virtual department <\/i>and<br \/>\n can discuss the sociology of being an instructional designer. In this<br \/>\nway, this group leverages the power of connections to add a human touch.<br \/>\n At this writing, the group has doubled in size since 2020.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The most common post themes include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Challenges<br \/>\n with working with faculty, who while being subject matter experts,<br \/>\nrarely have even a basic foundation in educational theory.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>The recurrence and tamping down of myths such as learning styles and using highlighters.<\/li>\n<li>Learning Management System (LMS) tech fixes and recommendations<\/li>\n<li>Job postings (huge uptick here with MANY classroom teachers converting to ID)<\/li>\n<li>Explorations of the impact of new technology on teaching pedagogy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As<br \/>\n soon as the black swan event of COVID-19 struck, we knew that<br \/>\ninstructional designers were going to get hit hard: hit up for advice,<br \/>\ncourse building tasks, anything and everything related to creating<br \/>\ninstructional content for online.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>True<br \/>\n story: As soon as a residential campus shut down and sent students<br \/>\nhome, administration sent out one email with three items:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A link to the campus web conferencing provider,<\/li>\n<li>a link to the campus course management system, and&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>a link to the campus IT help desk.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The campus administration was confident that they could handle this situation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I<br \/>\n was personally approached to give advice for an in-person class that<br \/>\nwas converting to online. I asked, \u201cWhat experience do you want to<br \/>\ncreate for your learners?\u201d&nbsp;The answer I received was \u201cExactly the same<br \/>\nas in class.\u201d&nbsp;I said quietly to myself \u201cNo, you don\u2019t.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With<br \/>\ndecades of research in online learning successfully pushed into<br \/>\ninstructional design programs (because online or not, the IDs are the<br \/>\nassumed experts in the campus LMS&#8211;an online resource), we knew that<br \/>\ninstructional designers were about to get hit VERY hard.<\/p>\n<p>At first,<br \/>\n some of the comments were cute and I\u2019ll admit I had to stop myself from<br \/>\n reaching out to pet these instructors on the head and say \u201coh, you are<br \/>\nso cute!\u201d when I heard things like \u201cI find it much easier to work online<br \/>\n when the music I listen to has no lyrics&#8221; (cough multimedia principle)<br \/>\nor \u201cI find it is much more important to reach out to and show care to<br \/>\neach of my students as compared to when I was in the<br \/>\nclassroom.\u201d&nbsp;(&lt;-OK, that instructor gets points! Good job!) This<br \/>\narticle, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fierceeducation.com\/best-practices\/covid-19-lessons-to-take-forward-for-higher-education\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">COVID-19 Lessons To Take Forward for Higher Education<\/a>, has some positive conclusions about the push to online teaching in the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Futurists<br \/>\n kept whispering that COVID-19 pandemic was not a black swan event. We<br \/>\npaid attention to that. We immediately started thinking 6 months to 1<br \/>\nyear down the road.&nbsp;Higher education administrators were going to want<br \/>\nto move as quickly as they could to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.georgiancollege.ca\/news\/featured-news\/virtual-campus\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">pandemic-proof their campuses<\/a>.&nbsp;So I looked at the future and said \u201cwhat\u2019s next?\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-full-width\" style=\"text-align: center\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"No alt text provided for this image\" data-li-src=\"https:\/\/media-exp1.licdn.com\/dms\/image\/C4D12AQHXzEF1Q0va_g\/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488\/0\/1626270861922?e=1642032000&amp;v=beta&amp;t=rCXCqb_tWDiS02E5NdAX_Il0_BPYd13ofdFhMa3gj9w\" data-media-urn=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/media-exp1.licdn.com\/dms\/image\/C4D12AQHXzEF1Q0va_g\/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488\/0\/1626270861922?e=1642032000&amp;v=beta&amp;t=rCXCqb_tWDiS02E5NdAX_Il0_BPYd13ofdFhMa3gj9w\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Here&#8217;s my version:<\/p>\n<p><b>1. Web conferencing software captures all lectures.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>&nbsp;<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<table align=\"center\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" class=\"tr-caption-container\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEhtqgV-qUM77jHvJvq6WeaHJKdnwdPKqJniEvfCA2ixKCvfSXlrc4lSkj3EbR7ASUKsb4r-JDPgcrmQ2L-OYJ3LUAFLhXksNOjAbVGxcYEUsP1BJoV_Sj7jDvfCVP_6rebr12ThhJWNYM6tfOtImpljPwWwDW-_CtGaDioeV4ZprHT7s3PDN9Ri7fvpvyQ\/w238-h320\/Zoom%20growth.png\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Screen caputer of BBC news page with title Zoom sees more growth after unprecedented 2020\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"1077\" data-original-width=\"802\" height=\"320\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEhtqgV-qUM77jHvJvq6WeaHJKdnwdPKqJniEvfCA2ixKCvfSXlrc4lSkj3EbR7ASUKsb4r-JDPgcrmQ2L-OYJ3LUAFLhXksNOjAbVGxcYEUsP1BJoV_Sj7jDvfCVP_6rebr12ThhJWNYM6tfOtImpljPwWwDW-_CtGaDioeV4ZprHT7s3PDN9Ri7fvpvyQ\/w238-h320\/Zoom%20growth.png\" width=\"238\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 238px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 238\/320;\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"tr-caption\" style=\"text-align: center\">Source: https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/business-56247489<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><\/b><\/p>\n<p>In<br \/>\n the frantic move to online, instructors did not want to leave any<br \/>\nstudents behind and records all of their classes. Within one year, the<br \/>\nworld has the entire existing knowledge base of every class recorded.<\/p>\n<p>Effect: Those videos can be analyzed for teaching style.<\/p>\n<p>Really, who has time for that? Most higher education campuses barely have capacity to observe each instructor once per semester.<\/p>\n<p>Artificial Intelligence: Hi.<\/p>\n<p><b>2. Artificial Intelligence evaluates all instructors.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Artificial<br \/>\n intelligence has the time. Sorting through this data would not be hard<br \/>\nto program. The characteristics of a great teacher that separates them<br \/>\nfrom a good teacher are quantifiable. It\u2019s not <u>in the content<\/u><i>&nbsp;<\/i> (Congratulations, your YouTube video covered the content in 55 minutes, perfect! Err. No.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/l.facebook.com\/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Feducation%2F2021%2Fjul%2F12%2Flectures-still-have-much-to-offer-students%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0zDH2KLa42jAlAm6120_dlTY1MaoIMoJdyjIt0cU1YIcomrB3crjZBvaE&amp;h=AT2rNCpI-uArTdlQY8fI0K3jRKboDJnZtfxBgLsFKf1q7fs0OfFMuQ3TtD8tzKh-6iM3dowqeBgMVHhiW1kUGHxX4obqZ0a_9Nui9_9VfSAnhGCnRA_rz_XpeeYxkIBY8A&amp;__tn__=%2CmH-R&amp;c[0]=AT2ymUBVcESga6rIxblQqncKC_-381WgyqW8a7YOBXgIyeVSFUr3WbcVSTHc0vpzsXpHKCjYYKdNAPh8HyTunZxc4iQD-2UsWkHirjv3WYqlMrf8yVH8nsX7oPsCiIBNd5AyMaJcP47Ln2sZAycsKl7p4wk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Great teaching is in how the teacher interacts with the students<\/a>.&nbsp;After<br \/>\n all, if you just want content covered in 55 minutes with audio overlay<br \/>\nand visuals, that\u2019s a Discovery channel video or even ditch the audio<br \/>\ntrack and hand out a PDF.&nbsp;Content does not need to be a<br \/>\nlecture.&nbsp;Teachers are about interaction and engagement.&nbsp;<u>A great teacher can teach a good lesson even on a bad day.<\/u>&nbsp;That\u2019s a needle NOT hard to find in this haystack.<\/p>\n<p>This will be called Quality Control.<\/p>\n<p>In the process, universities&nbsp;discover that&#8230;some teachers are just bad teachers.<\/p>\n<p>No going back from online education though.<\/p>\n<table align=\"center\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" class=\"tr-caption-container\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEg9X8SL48Iv7LHpmrfUIzIe2XAAzG78vqM79XImtzE8m9vRiD-PpgDOHZTsfm-dILmVvyr2VR15O3kHp1bDDmmleN9o05giZrHoUaDyc7CZ1Bd7QEGgYIVrjynEX8Pzw54NcACuHbizfXh7GCpIgqSVpnxAkECPETPkw1c-TyXg7vtW0yna5NouiQI3rZU\/s320\/Nature%20Electronics%20Online%20Education%20in%20post%20COVID%20era.jpg\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"841\" data-original-width=\"815\" height=\"320\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEg9X8SL48Iv7LHpmrfUIzIe2XAAzG78vqM79XImtzE8m9vRiD-PpgDOHZTsfm-dILmVvyr2VR15O3kHp1bDDmmleN9o05giZrHoUaDyc7CZ1Bd7QEGgYIVrjynEX8Pzw54NcACuHbizfXh7GCpIgqSVpnxAkECPETPkw1c-TyXg7vtW0yna5NouiQI3rZU\/s320\/Nature%20Electronics%20Online%20Education%20in%20post%20COVID%20era.jpg\" width=\"310\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 310px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 310\/320;\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"tr-caption\" style=\"text-align: center\">Source:&nbsp;https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41928-020-00534-0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Look at that last phrase: <b>could permanently change how education is delivered.<\/b><\/p>\n<div class=\"slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-full-width\">\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>3. Consultants advise higher education that there are too many instructors.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>(The following is <i>my recollection<\/i><br \/>\n of events, not written here as factual.) Around 20 years ago, a couple<br \/>\nstate university systems had the epiphany that they were no longer<br \/>\nserving students within their state <u>geographically<\/u> as land-grant<br \/>\ninstitutions were originally designed to do.&nbsp; For example, if you live<br \/>\nin PoeDunk Town, you would naturally choose to go to PoeDunk University<br \/>\nwhere they offered a <i>version<\/i> of an academic major you *might*<br \/>\nwant.&nbsp; You didn\u2019t go anywhere else (and certainly not out of state!)<br \/>\nbecause your needs were being served locally.&nbsp;About 20 years ago, state<br \/>\nuniversities realized that students were willing to get in their cars<br \/>\nand drive hours to a different in-state university to get the program<br \/>\nthey <u>really<\/u> wanted.&nbsp; That meant that each university had to stop<br \/>\ncompeting against every other university in the state for the same<br \/>\nstudents in the same program. Instead of geographical dominance, the<br \/>\nuniversities decided to divvy up academic programs and let each<br \/>\nuniversity specialize in around 10 program areas and not compete outside<br \/>\n of those areas.&nbsp;That meant that if you were in PoeDunk town and you<br \/>\nreally wanted to go to medical school, you would go to Medical School<br \/>\nUniversity and not the local university. Problem solved. Temporarily.<br \/>\nWe are far past keeping students within state borders now.<\/p>\n<p>Earth<br \/>\nis facing this problem world-wide.&nbsp; Really want to learn Alaskan<br \/>\nWildlife Resource Management but live far away? No problem. Within 5<br \/>\nyears, every school will have a retinue of online programs that you can<br \/>\ntake from anywhere.<\/p>\n<p>Harvard not in your home country? No problem.<br \/>\nTake their online program.  Want that unique program out of New South<br \/>\nWales? You got it, online!<\/p>\n<p>Suddenly, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2021\/jul\/09\/revolution-university-teaching-online-only-lectures-manchester\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">we have too many courses online teaching exactly the same content <\/a>(albeit different instructors\/styles).<\/p>\n<p>Wait, what if Subject X has always been the bane of your existence and that is the problem. You just can\u2019t pass <u>that<\/u> course. <\/p>\n<p>Oh, here is where this entire vision gets VERY interesting.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Enter blockchain.<\/p>\n<p>Enter global enterprise.<\/p>\n<p>They have been getting ready.<\/p>\n<p>Blockchain is already coming into higher education in several places: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tonybates.ca\/2018\/06\/19\/woolf-university-the-airbnb-of-higher-education-or-a-sheep-in-wolfs-clothing\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Woolf University<\/a> and transcripts (Aamir, Qureshi, Khan, and Huzaifa, (2020).<\/p>\n<p>Blockchain<br \/>\n eliminates the need for the university to be the arbiter of reputation.<br \/>\n It allows for reputation-based &#8220;coinage&#8221; (I only use <u>coinage<\/u> to convey using a term associated with <b>value<\/b>&#8211;this actually has <u>no connection<\/u> to cryptocurrency.)<\/p>\n<p>In my video, I show the current model.  I&#8217;ll skip that here and go into the future model.<\/p>\n<p>Student A shops for a class on Subject X.&nbsp; She comparison shops at Amazon Education, Walmart.edstore, and Google.edu (these are mockups!)<\/p>\n<table align=\"center\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" class=\"tr-caption-container\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEiLnEZD9xd8ESYEEUAQ8hBk8ZaAPUDFfzJqwI-6_p9bkZHt4KlkudXMPWCv2mgufQ7frIUe6UpA-dVIDK67Dt7rp6KXnN8q2lG_YLZE_YGiE6uJGIx5PPxwQ5Um0DkXT0CjbZgG-5YG7wNHYpqFDohA-r3XpW_1yrK_Ky-OxyB2moQF68Myeabk5MQCVVg\/w640-h93\/Amazon%20Prime%20Education%20Mockup.png\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"98\" data-original-width=\"686\" height=\"93\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEiLnEZD9xd8ESYEEUAQ8hBk8ZaAPUDFfzJqwI-6_p9bkZHt4KlkudXMPWCv2mgufQ7frIUe6UpA-dVIDK67Dt7rp6KXnN8q2lG_YLZE_YGiE6uJGIx5PPxwQ5Um0DkXT0CjbZgG-5YG7wNHYpqFDohA-r3XpW_1yrK_Ky-OxyB2moQF68Myeabk5MQCVVg\/w640-h93\/Amazon%20Prime%20Education%20Mockup.png\" width=\"640\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 640px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 640\/93;\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"tr-caption\" style=\"text-align: center\">Mockup of future imagined Amazon-based education platform<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><\/p>\n<table align=\"center\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" class=\"tr-caption-container\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEiOBOzBM243vnAKAQ3elSJJWKQ8KPDNLb5u1agEdxk392WxBpkAtxk-9jQl1L5sqvRmPz9E6r_k5-3DtBepJSu9z36z-AQfbGy63q7urFvVCLIH780d7wPu6v6y9n3HL_LoM3bJp07uFdMRqQPRJ0Sib8gmlqFFnyenUhPi4IdQzLE4BswwzYCuc2FRres\/w640-h80\/Walmart%20mock%20up.png\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"93\" data-original-width=\"753\" height=\"80\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEiOBOzBM243vnAKAQ3elSJJWKQ8KPDNLb5u1agEdxk392WxBpkAtxk-9jQl1L5sqvRmPz9E6r_k5-3DtBepJSu9z36z-AQfbGy63q7urFvVCLIH780d7wPu6v6y9n3HL_LoM3bJp07uFdMRqQPRJ0Sib8gmlqFFnyenUhPi4IdQzLE4BswwzYCuc2FRres\/w640-h80\/Walmart%20mock%20up.png\" width=\"640\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 640px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 640\/80;\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"tr-caption\" style=\"text-align: center\">Mockup of future imagined Walmart-based education platform<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<table align=\"center\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" class=\"tr-caption-container\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjZ_2q1RXFB0KmlUROEXbArdaQ8JPRq8_tT4CLp3KyR8rxkq7wNwqiooNYYLiBy62Mloo4qvApV_XPI3Qmc5WzVNrMn3pu1TJ5BAGW3iSVuXzUasD1vjRvVeKAKvnntLeDlmyl3834_B9-QEwBF2RpNnD9b0sHDl8kD9IdDAfG3RwbG9qAt9cEDivVbCMQ\/w640-h310\/Google%20edu%20mockup.png\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"373\" data-original-width=\"768\" height=\"310\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjZ_2q1RXFB0KmlUROEXbArdaQ8JPRq8_tT4CLp3KyR8rxkq7wNwqiooNYYLiBy62Mloo4qvApV_XPI3Qmc5WzVNrMn3pu1TJ5BAGW3iSVuXzUasD1vjRvVeKAKvnntLeDlmyl3834_B9-QEwBF2RpNnD9b0sHDl8kD9IdDAfG3RwbG9qAt9cEDivVbCMQ\/w640-h310\/Google%20edu%20mockup.png\" width=\"640\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 640px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 640\/310;\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"tr-caption\" style=\"text-align: center\">Mockup of future imagined Google-based education platform<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>She<br \/>\n considers her price-point, preferred instructional approaches, time<br \/>\navailable, compatibility of format and purchases a course from<br \/>\nInstructor B.<\/p>\n<table align=\"center\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" class=\"tr-caption-container\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEifLW-piHM_dFiqpcqWIq0quF7Ag9E3TiWN6zQr9id0fTcQkrM7ZNSZ0aX1LomW3IENh45CiudIu84FhyphenhyphenLU2nX_ujuTRnGZxbcaOpupqIfRq3PWRRbBoXuzvEOoGOmAqCWulf1h3Dd18pYupms-APke0mi6hYOIMl8nW24r2HJjYzUt9E_DnbWM55qN90s\/w640-h360\/Mock%20Up%20Amazon%20Education%20Courses%20on%20X.png\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"720\" data-original-width=\"1280\" height=\"360\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEifLW-piHM_dFiqpcqWIq0quF7Ag9E3TiWN6zQr9id0fTcQkrM7ZNSZ0aX1LomW3IENh45CiudIu84FhyphenhyphenLU2nX_ujuTRnGZxbcaOpupqIfRq3PWRRbBoXuzvEOoGOmAqCWulf1h3Dd18pYupms-APke0mi6hYOIMl8nW24r2HJjYzUt9E_DnbWM55qN90s\/w640-h360\/Mock%20Up%20Amazon%20Education%20Courses%20on%20X.png\" width=\"640\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 640px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 640\/360;\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"tr-caption\" style=\"text-align: center\">Mockup of a web store page selling student seats in a course on Subject X.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Student A earns a blockchain coin for \u201cSubject X\u201d issued by Instructor B.<\/p>\n<p>Both of their reputations are now connected.<\/p>\n<p>Student A goes on to work for Boss C where Subject X is part of her daily job. <\/p>\n<p>Boss<br \/>\n C evaluates how competent Student A is with Subject X.&nbsp;He awards her a<br \/>\ncoin that indicates that she is competent working with Subject X.<\/p>\n<p>Student A gets most of the positive reputation coin. <\/p>\n<p>But,<br \/>\n because part of the awarding of a coin from Boss C is reputation and<br \/>\nBoss C is, in part, telling Instructor B that she did a good job <i><u>instructing<\/u><\/i> Student A&#8211; part of the positive bump in reputation goes back to Instructor B and it is reflected in <i>her<\/i><br \/>\n ratings. She can now charge a little more for her course teaching<br \/>\nbecause she can prove that her students go on to work with Subject X<br \/>\nsuccessfully.<\/p>\n<p><b>Notice in all of this, an institution of higher education was not needed.&nbsp;<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Up<br \/>\n to now, universities have been arbiters of transcripts.&nbsp; If they kept<br \/>\nthe transcript sacred (and they really do) then all of the reputation in<br \/>\n a student&#8217;s transcript is bound up and captured by the university. The<br \/>\nuniversity charges for it and doesn\u2019t release those transcripts easily<br \/>\nat all! &nbsp;But in this blockchain model, you do not need a university.<\/p>\n<p>You<br \/>\n do not need a university for physical hosting of the course.&nbsp; The<br \/>\ninstructor can run it all with one Zoom and Dropbox license.<\/p>\n<p>You<br \/>\ndo not need a university to collect tuition or pay the instructor. The<br \/>\nmoney passes directly between them and instructor can charge a<br \/>\nmarket-supported rate for their courses. Cheaper courses with less<br \/>\ninstructor inaction and poorer instructors are available. Better<br \/>\nteachers are literally raised up due to blockchain coinage.<\/p>\n<p>Look at the positives:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The relationship between what Student A is competent in and her Instructor and Boss is fluid. <\/li>\n<li>At any point, reputation could be modified or retracted.<\/li>\n<li>There is a direct feedback loop between employers and instructors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I<br \/>\n can hear you from here. You are asking&#8230;but if we don\u2019t have<br \/>\nuniversities, what about research? We depend on universities to be the<br \/>\nbastion of unbiased research.&nbsp; If we simply don\u2019t need them anymore,<br \/>\nwon\u2019t research disappear?<\/p>\n<p>\n\tOK, once I stop laughing about putting the word \u201cunbiased\u201d and<br \/>\n\u201cuniversities\u201d together in the same sentence (as I hold these truths to<br \/>\nbe self-evident, they never <i>were<\/i> unbiased), I\u2019ll tell you that<br \/>\nresearch won\u2019t stop. There is such a thing as a research center&#8211; where<br \/>\ncourses do not play second fiddle to research and<br \/>\nacademics-as-researchers can do their great and necessary work.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tI\u2019m actually ALL FOR research. My disdain for the rat race known as<br \/>\ntenure has leaked out in social media before and I\u2019m really sorry for<br \/>\nthose that have worked so hard but it is slavish institution that<br \/>\nprotects professors that give high grades to women with short skirts.&nbsp;<br \/>\nAnd about a million other problems.<\/p>\n<p>\tWhat about the fact that a<br \/>\ndegree is a purposeful gathering of subjects that outside industry<br \/>\nadvisory boards have authorized that are intended to create a<br \/>\nwell-rounded citizen and competent first-day-on-the-job ability?&nbsp; (I am a<br \/>\n Liberal Studies major myself!) The disconnect between what industry<br \/>\nwants and what industry gets from employees is already a strong flowing<br \/>\nobjection out there. I do respect that getting certifications to solve<br \/>\nproblems doesn\u2019t solve every employment skill problem. For example, some<br \/>\n workers have years of technical experience. But they are unpleasant to<br \/>\nwork with, to say the least, and they will not rise up the career ladder<br \/>\n without a \u201cdegree\u201d.&nbsp; Here is the key: I find that employers often<br \/>\nshuttle these workers off for a degree NOT to prove technical skills&#8211;<br \/>\nthe candidates already have them and find school work monotonous and<br \/>\npointless. The employers want the workers to pick up those <i>finer skills<\/i> that would be covered in the \u201crequired\u201d courses<i> outside of a major <\/i>(aka<br \/>\n learn to embrace diversity by taking a course that forces a learner to<br \/>\nembrace diversity.&nbsp; Learn an appreciation of alternative ways of thought<br \/>\n by taking a humanities course.&nbsp; Learn other world viewpoints by taking a<br \/>\n course about another culture. And so on.)&nbsp; I find that this could be<br \/>\nsolved.&nbsp; Just make humanities, art, and writing required certification<br \/>\ncourses in jobs!&nbsp;What about the <i>overall idea<\/i> of a program or<br \/>\ndegree; the concept that a program is a well though out gathering of<br \/>\ncourses balancing requirements against electives.&nbsp; What if the<br \/>\nstudent-become-employee doesn\u2019t check every traditional program box?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It<br \/>\n is current bane of higher education that students graduate after X<br \/>\nyears with a degree that is already out of date. So I kick pre-formed<br \/>\ndegrees to the curb too.  More ebb and flow. More consumer choice.<br \/>\nEmployers should just look for what they need and by-pass the rubber<br \/>\nstamp of the degree.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d like to see what education looks like with less medieval serfdom<br \/>\nand more market demand. Some places have been getting away with<br \/>\neducating us for years and it seems to have worked (cough, military,<br \/>\nchurch, media, cough).<\/p>\n<p>So, what do you think is coming next?<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>#blockchain<br \/>\n #HigherEducation #Future #Vision #Research #OnlineEducation<br \/>\n#InstructionalDesigners #ArtificialIntelligence<br \/>\n#WhereWeAreGoingWeDoNotNeedUniversities<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This article originally posted to LinkedIn on&nbsp; July 14, 2021. Updated with images (because Google might eat old images) and one slight edit deleting a comment about Amazon Education overlords on February 18, 2026.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/future-higher-education-heather-elizabeth-dodds-ph-d-\">https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/future-higher-education-heather-elizabeth-dodds-ph-d-<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\n&nbsp; Question: What does oversight of every instructional design (ID) department on the planet give you? Answer: Vision. This vision&hellip;\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/?p=768\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;The Future Of Higher Education&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[335,25,334],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blockchain","category-future","category-higher-education","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":776,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768\/revisions\/776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}