Campus Review Volume 28 - Issue 1 | January 2018 | Seite 25

TECHNOLOGY
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RETHINKING CLASSROOM DESIGN
The move to digital campuses makes it possible to
rethink traditional classroom design. This is what Singapore’s
Nanyang Technological University is doing with its recently built
learning hub, The Hive. Its classrooms are equipped with flexible
seating and digital and audio-visual communication tools.
Indiana University in the US is taking things a step further with
Mosaic. This active learning initiative refashions classrooms
depending on their use – for example, instructional teaching,
collaboration or student presentations. By adopting a flexible
classroom model, educational institutions can deploy cameras and
screens quickly for things like projecting content onto walls and
filming student presentations.
THE CONSUMERISATION OF VR
At a recent trade show, Pearson displayed virtual reality content and
a pair of VR goggles on its stand – and no books. That says a lot.
Content used to be primarily text and images with a few educational
videos thrown in for good measure, but the notion of what constitutes
content has shifted radically – and now includes virtual spaces.
I foresee VR featuring strongly in the education sector in 2018
because of its sheer potential. Its immersive nature makes it
highly suitable to education generally. Using VR, educators can
digitally transport learners to distant locales that may otherwise be
prohibitively expensive, inaccessible or dangerous.
Educational institutions across the world are already doing this.
For example, educators in Hong Kong use VR to create realistic
simulations of dangerous workplace environments to provide a
hands-on learning experience without compromising safety.
Many VR experiences already exist for free (or for a small fee) on
the web. As VR technologies mature and their costs therefore fall,
we’re likely to see more universities building them from scratch.
Some higher education establishments in the US have already
launched VR labs where students can capture and edit VR-based
projects, especially in the arts – for example, dance and music.
LEARNING TO BE DIGITAL CITIZENS
to determine how well individual students are doing, where
they are struggling, and how they can be helped to improve on
their scores.
For instance, a study by Teacher magazine found Catholic
schools in Western Australia have employed data walls – a strategy
involving visually representing student progress for easy monitoring
by educators – to great success, with several institutions reporting
improved student outcomes.
Similarly, Singapore’s ministry of education also found that an
increasing number of schools in the city-state were experimenting
with technology for teaching, with educators leveraging it to track
learning outcomes.
Such tools will be precursors to more intelligent ones that
will feature more granular levels of personalisation, as well as
predictive capabilities that can help to flag potential issues.
In fact, we are already seeing some early predictive tools
that model large cohorts of data and then overlay students’
first-term grades to predict outcomes. For example, the results
may show that student A has only a 70 per cent chance
of graduating in economics, but a 95 per cent chance of
graduating in accounting and finance, were he or she to
switch courses.
In a digital world where everyone’s voice is equal, the best
production wins – even if it has been created by someone wishing
to do harm or someone with no authority.
Moving ahead into 2018, I expect to see greater emphasis on
teaching the younger generation how to be good digital citizens,
across the education spectrum. This entails educating them on
the use of digital creation tools and on the ethics involved. For
example, appropriate online behaviour and how to distinguish fake
news from real.
EXCITING TIMES
The Microsoft Asia Digital Transformation Study determined that
APAC’s education sector thinks it urgently needs to embrace
digitisation. Despite this, only 23 per cent of respondents had a
digital strategy.
This indicates that the APAC education sector needs to catch up
to their Western counterparts in embracing the digital revolution.
However, if their current state is any indication, we can look
forward to exciting times indeed. ■
Jeff Rubenstein is the vice-president of global product strategy
and business development for Kaltura, Inc.
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