“There’s always been a concern that technology is going to come along and unseat traditional education, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.”
In Part 4 of our series on 'The Decade Ahead' we talked to Graham Bell, Director of Digital Education at Cranfield School of Management, about his insights into what the next decade might bring.
The world is changing rapidly, and technological advancement is a huge catalyst for, and driver of, the change we are all experiencing.
As someone who finds technological advancement fascinating, I used to pride myself on being on top of virtually every new technology that was developed. But the speed at which new technologies are being adopted today makes that nigh-on impossible; even if I did nothing else 24 hours a day, I couldn’t do it.
Technology at Cranfield
My role is to keep Cranfield School of Management abreast of new and improved technologies that could benefit our learners, our academics and researchers, and the University as a business.
My team are responsible for anything relating to digital that affects the creation or delivery of our educational content. This might mean creating new programmes to be delivered partially or fully online such as our recently launched online stackable programmes, or investigating how we can use technology, like AI for example, to enhance learning delivery and the learning experience.
We have been working on transitioning our programmes to become more digitally focused for many years, both in terms of the content and the way it is delivered, and there are only so many seats in a lecture room. So if we want to continue to grow student numbers, we must identify different solutions which help more students to learn in ways that suit them.
The growth of digital
When I think about how technology has evolved over the past 10 years and consider where it might take us in the decade to come, it’s hard to know for sure where we’re headed.
Right now, we’re experiencing a lot of change, and multiple global pressures that can either make digital technology seem more or less attractive, depending on your viewpoint.
We are only just beginning to understand the overlap technology has across the whole of our lives, including its wider impact on our time and our mental health. There’s a growing sense that people are beginning to question if we need all this technology and to push back.
Then there’s the speed of change, and technology is right at the heart of that. The rate at which digital technologies such as Threads and ChatGPT have been adopted is exponential when you compare it to recent technologies such as Netflix, Twitter and Facebook, and the rate of adoption is almost unbelievable if you look further back to the expansion of technologies such as TV and radio in the twentieth century.
If we were to leap ahead 10 years from now, what might life look like?
It’s difficult to know exactly, and all we can really do is look at where some of the big tech firms are heading and make some assumptions about that. Even then there is a good chance that they will also be disrupted by innovative new technologies in that period. With all that in mind, our aim is to make digital learning flexible, so that as people engage with learning throughout their careers it fits around their needs.
The future of learning and development
As a learning and development provider, there is a lot we need to consider and question when it comes to adopting technological advancements.
There’s always been a concern that technology is going to come along and unseat traditional education, but I don’t see that happening any time soon. The desire to spend time learning from experts alongside peers with similar interests, with all that might entail, is still strong. But we must aim to make learning more accessible with the appropriate use of technology.
One of the big challenges for education providers is that implementing digital technologies is expensive. We have to strike a balance between investing in change and leveraging our existing knowledge, expertise and ways of teaching so that in combination we deliver impact and value in a meaningful way.
We are constantly developing new ways to balance digital growth with maintaining those elements that make Cranfield unique. To do that, we need to think about how the ways people approach education are changing, to make sure we are offering the choices they need and that digital technologies are being used to add value, rather than just for the sake of it.
The business school of the future
There is undoubtedly a possibility that traditional education establishments could be disrupted and challenged in the next decade by companies that come along with new ways of offering education and development. For us at Cranfield, it’s about investing in the things that add value and moving into spaces where there’s a clear benefit for both the learner and the university.
Some of the developments I think we will see in the wider marketplace include:
- People re-entering education
As people live and work for longer, and as skills needs change and develop in society, we’re going to see increased emphasis on lifelong learning, whereby people return to education more regularly throughout their lives to upskill or reskill. - The growth of micro-credentials
Having recently launched our own online stackable micro-credentials in the School of Management, we are already seeing huge interest from employers, who see them as good value for money. Flexible, affordable and accessible, they enable greater personalisation of the individual learning and development journey, without penalising people that cannot commit to a long-term programme. - Greater need for entrepreneurial skills
With a growing trend towards people wanting to work for themselves, there will be a need for education providers to help them acquire the knowledge it takes to start and successfully grow a business. - Increased use of AI
AI is growing in popularity, and many people already use tools like ChatGPT to enhance their productivity. As education providers, we need to ensure we are giving people the skills they need to understand and critically evaluate these tools and the information they return. They are also powerful tools that can be used for building learning capability by creating revision sets, knowledge checks and providing simple explanations of complex terms and concepts. - AI driven personalised learning experience
Further into the future, we might see functionality like an AI-generated learning ‘assistant’– for example, a cross between Siri and ChatGPT. This ‘assistant’ could prompt you to try something new or understand a topic from a different perspective. By accumulating data about you and your learning style and preferences over time, it would be able to make suggestions that support when and how you learn best.
The decade ahead
Where would I like to see Cranfield in 10 years’ time?
We will still be producing high-quality leadership and management education, and applying the right learning technology at the right place and time to support the needs of our clients and learners. I strongly believe that we will continue to use technology to develop solutions that make our education affordable and accessible to more people.
Cranfield will continue to contribute thought leadership to conversations focused on global challenges, and we will be at the forefront of helping people develop and follow their own individual learning pathways, whatever format of learning that entails.
From a personal point of view, in 10 years’ time, I hope I will have finished my PhD and be using my knowledge and experience to give back in some way, whether that is supporting people’s learning journeys and personal learning strategies, or helping people understand how to get the best out of technology rather than let it consume or dominate them.
I love working with new technologies. It can be exhausting at times, but as long as you’re the kind of person who gets excited by change and advancement – which I am – it’s also quite exhilarating.
Author
Graham Bell is Director of Digital Education at Cranfield School of Management
