The world is evolving at a dizzying speed, especially in these times when the pandemic has erupted with force in all sectors, modifying people’s behaviors, attitudes and consumption habits. Students are not oblivious to this change, on the contrary, their professional training no longer only depends on intellectual capacity, it requires a combination of intellectual capacity + emotional intelligence + resilience + increased cognition. That is, skills necessary in the technological proliferation of what some authors call the “4th industrial revolution.”
A report from the World Economic Forum in 2016 said that professionals, 18 months after graduating, would lose 40% of what they learned every 3 years. On the other hand, he predicted that, in 2020, more than a third of the skills of the occupations would be made up of skills that are not yet considered crucial for the current job.
Both soft skills and technology are essential to successfully meet the different challenges we encounter in the world of work. Some soft skills require that you include cognitive thinking, innovative adaptive thinking, solving skills, elastic skills, and transvergence skills.
According to Professor Ronald Barnett, from the Institute of Education at the University of London, we could talk about the concept of University 4.0. An evolved university, socially responsible and committed to meeting the needs of students. Based on high speed internet, mobile devices, technology platforms and digital apps. In it we can find the integration of modalities that favor inclusion and social diversity such as virtual, hybrid, remote, immersive classes, etc.
Another characteristic is that we will find an academic offer of transversal disciplines in less time than a traditional career, achieving an advanced level of personalization in the curriculum, according to the objectives to be achieved. In addition, students can add new soft skills or specializations to their degree throughout their working life.
Some of these new professionals will be global leaders, satellite workers, project incubators, immersive world engineers, entrepreneurship influencers, learning coaches, tele-educators, knowledge knowmads, gigie educators, cultural managers. Profesionales formados para ejecutar nuevos roles transvergentes.
On the side of digital platforms, we find intelligent LMS that will use AI algorithms in combination with IoT (Internet of Things) to offer a unique and complete learning experience to students. This revolution also integrates robotics, automated systems, blockchain, Fintech, bots, deep learning, 5G technology and cybersecurity systems.
Some institutions of higher education are using the data to improve the learning experience of their students. That is the case of the UPC, we were pioneers in using AI to predict the educational performance of students in their first years of study. This allows us to anticipate and manage the reinforcement of learning in which the predictive model indicates that they may have some kind of difficulty. Data analytics will also be used in this phase to personalize the experience and needs of each student, based on their performance. We also use AI to serve our students. Today, more than 80% of the questions are answered by our virtual consultant ALMA in seconds.
Finally, it is important to remember that University 4.0 is not the one that has the latest technology, nor the one that copies the other for fashion, but the one that is capable of using technology as a means to better train our students. That today is possible by understanding their need, seeing their level and thus planning their learning to reach the goal. Every day we will experience a very personalized education.
Let’s measure our innovation not by the technology we have but by the one we use and we can demonstrate that it brings better results in the acquisition of knowledge, development of competencies, in the retention of students at risk, etc. Education 4.0 is a great challenge for the education sector in Peru, but it is a challenge that has already begun and that we will not be able to miss.
Either we innovate or we disappear.
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