Open curricula and collaborative training

The digital revolution, accelerated by the pandemic, is an opportunity to re-imagine current learning institutions, enabling us to reshape both the form and content of our education.

New types of education and training institutions are emerging, including digital education platforms and traditional institutions that offer radically different approaches to both course design and format. Interdisciplinary learning is being used to build skills such as systems thinking that future workers will need to tackle challenges like climate change. Digital technology is unlocking hybrid opportunities for self-led study, collaborative work and practical experiments in both virtual and physical environments.

Adopting open education principles such as those outlined by the European Commission could enable us to harness the inputs of multiple actors, including businesses, to innovate curricula that better equip workers of the future with the skills they need to thrive.

Across the US and Europe, open-source principles for education and training are gaining popularity and alternative learning institutions are becoming more widespread.

New types of educational institutions are emerging, piloting different business models, learning approaches and curricula. Examples include the University of the People, the first non-profit, tuition-free, accredited, online university in the U.S., and The London Inter-disciplinary School (LIS), a university that organizes learning based on tackling real-world problems.

MOOCs and eLearning platforms such as Coursera, Udemy, FutureLearn, edX, are not only helping tackle barriers to learning but they are also helping drive innovation in digital course design. Open edX and Udacity for Business are enabling new players to collaborate to define new learner pathways and create tailor-made courses for students and professionals alike.

Public-private collaboration can enable learning pathways to be constructed across both industry and educational institutions. New industry-academic partnerships are emerging: Northeastern University is working with Google to integrate the company’s professional certificates into their Bachelor of Science in IT curriculum. Apprenticeships are a well-established mechanism for integrating education within work. Traditional models have been focused on entry-level employees, but the same principles could be applied to higher levels of mastery and seniority. The Personal Learning Cloud approach for leaders combines online courses, platforms and learning tools from both traditional institutions and startups.

Within your own organization:

• Audit each kind of role or task-set to define learning opportunities.
• Identify re-skilling roadmaps and create personalized learning journeys for existing employees to help fill current and future skill gaps.
• Normalize and promote cross-function learning for workers.
• Use innovative learning management systems (LMS) and course design tools to make training more learner-centric, inclusive, and accessible.

With others:

• Partner with education and training providers to co-design course content informed by a grounded understanding of skills gaps.
• Make practical ‘future skills’ courses available on open digital education platforms and link them to specific (internal and external) job postings.
• Partner with academic institutions to integrate employee development pathways with learner pathways, e.g., through apprenticeships for employees at both the beginning of their career journeys as well as those further along.
• Support institutions that are promoting educational innovation, e.g., interdisciplinary education.