91
October 2018
OPINION
- The Digital Future of Universities
The global impact of technology and the consequent emergence of a new network society has led to an important shift in how higher education is perceived, organized and conducted. Economic globalization has generated a pressure for citizens to acquire and develop very different sets of skills and competences in order to swiftly adjust to changing work environments. Universities are now expected to prepare students for jobs which may not yet exist. At the same time, society’s way of life today requires that educational delivery should be more open, flexible and ubiquitous, too.
The rapid expansion of online learning across universities has been closely linked to this transformation. By allowing the dematerialization and unbundling of educational processes, for institutions it has become a highly efficient, sustainable and ubiquitous way of extending access to quality learning opportunities for all. However it has also entailed new possibilities for continuously innovating and diversifying teaching and learning methodologies. What’s more, online learning has allowed universities to develop new forms of delivery which have a wide-ranging impact on society (for example, MOOCs).
António Teixeira - Professor at the Universidade Aberta de Portugal and president of the Head panel in the TeSLA project
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