Many Americans recognize the value of returning to school to further their education but struggle to find the time, finances, and support to pursue their educational journey.
Change is a constant — in our lives and in our work. As we enter a new era in higher education, there is perhaps no better example of the ever-present power of change than within the virtual and physical walls of our colleges and universities in the United States. When managed accordingly, virtual course offerings in higher education provide truly positive outcomes. As more institutions of higher education embrace necessary change and notable innovation, such as leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), we see a meaningful impact on campuses and in communities, with a greater number of qualified graduates to fill high-paying, in-demand jobs and with increased learning productivity leading to degrees in a shorter timeframe. In the 2020s, higher education is speeding up, leveling up, and standing up to new challenges and opportunities.
Demanding more
However, what might be most concerning to today’s educational leaders and students alike is the rate of change we are currently experiencing — across every segment of the industry, across every type of learner population, and across every intricate element of operation. If leaders are asleep at the wheel with respect to distance education options, they might quickly see their bread-and-butter enrollment vanish faster than a federal budget dollar.
Students demand flexibility, instructors want to be compensated for the additional work and exponential increase in faculty/student relationships that hybrid instruction can require, and classes need to reflect jobs that don’t yet exist. Higher education is truly no longer about “or” when it comes to physical or virtual education; it’s about “and,” with distance education leading the way. Students, faculty, staff, administrators, employers, and partners of higher education don’t just want something different — they want (and deserve) more.
Ahead of the curve
When the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) was founded 36 years ago, our focus was to provide video conferencing expertise and guidance to the global educational community. Colleges and universities around the world turned to our board of directors, comprised of mostly institutional presidents and industry executives, to learn about design choices and best practices. In those early days, the data was primitive and the video conference systems we spoke of were both expensive and unreliable. But we are hard-wired for human connection — in our personal and professional lives, as well as during our educational experiences — and the education industry had an opportunity to become more inclusive, more accessible, more flexible, and more affordable.
Technology was key to the opportunities that lay before us. So, for all the shortcomings of “distance learning innovations” several decades ago, we were on a path to somewhere important, and USDLA stakeholders knew it. As such, industry professionals came to our conferences to hear about the good, the bad, and the ugly truths from the experts.
Individualized learning
Fast-forward to 2024 and distance learning is as ubiquitous as a Starbucks on every corner. Students no longer must be physically present on campus; the instructors come to them courtesy of a Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams link. Sick that day? No worries, just log into the institution’s Learning Management System (LMS) and access the missed class on-demand. Suddenly the student can set the individualized schedule for their education at a learning pace with which they are most comfortable.
Having been in the educational technology field for more than 25 years, I’ve seen rapid rates of change and watched as the disruptive technologies that followed inevitably changed our lives forever. What was once massive and out of reach is now affordable and ubiquitous. Video conferencing capability that required six-figure budgets and involvement from your local telecommunications company now sits squarely in the palm of your hand. This same magnitude and rate of change is quickly altering the higher education landscape forever and giving students limitless options for continuing their education.
Today’s higher education customer (the learner, student, or corporate-education client) is better informed than that of past generations and seemingly far less patient; they want education to be from anywhere, at any time, as they navigate a lifestyle much different from their predecessors. Some of the customers clamoring to be served in new (and better) ways are traditional college students fresh out of high school, while others are either already established in their careers or climbing the corporate ladder. Regardless, they want (and need) the ultimate flexibility from an institution to make education work for them.
Necessary evolution
Change is the end game here, and those who resist it will be gone in a few short years. Institutional adaptation of distance learning and flexibility are the primary ingredients for success in this age of rapid change. For another example of how the industry is evolving (and being revolutionized), look no further than the town/gown partnerships that are taking higher education from a traditional island to an integral part of the community and the workforce. Higher education’s digital learning partnerships with industry employers are no longer a “nice to have” — they are mandatory for a college or university’s survival as courses are tweaked (and entire programs are developed) for those high-earner jobs that today’s graduates are seeking. Throw in the added benefit of some online co-op work programs to provide a graduate who is “employment-ready,” and you have the winning trifecta of a happy (employed!) graduate, a booming community full of thriving organizations, and a sustainable higher-education institution that’s meeting the demands of students and employers alike.
Our distance and digital learning association is not immune from change; as an example, our mission now focuses more on pedagogy and how to best leverage the hundreds of distance/digital learning tools versus how to construct the networks themselves. Partner engagement is also year-round rather than annually at a single conference, as we have grown to regularly provide free webinars to help keep you up to speed with the latest trends.
It’s our honor to provide value to you at every turn, whether it’s how to ensure distance learning coursework flexibility and access for students, or the importance of embracing competency-based and skill-based education. Distance education today provides pathways for students in ways never before possible.
