Helping students “map” their education in 2023 will be artificially intelligent adaptive learning software informed by mountains of what’s called “Big Data.”
Big Data is the phrase used to describe the 2.5 quintillion bytes of information created every day through online, social, and mobile interactions. The amount of Big Data is estimated to reach nearly 40 zettabytes by 2023.
“In the next decade, each student’s ‘digital footprint’ will become deeper and clearer,” said Mark Milliron, the chief learning officer for predictive analytics company Civitas, referring to the electronic trail students will create over their lives in school.
This will help the students of 2023 select what courses they should take, advance through those courses at more personalized rates, and even decide what majors are the best fit for them.
As students read digital eTextbooks, the apps will also be “reading” the students, recommending extra reading, identifying problem areas and memory lapses, and quizzing them on key lessons. Mobile apps connecting — and parsing data from — thousands of students will replace traditional event bulletin boards.
And collecting data from social media profiles could gauge the emotional reactions student are having to coursework or the campus environment. Are they struggling? Are they bored?
Some universities are already in the early stages of implementing all of this data-driven technology.
“If we do this right, it will not only help struggling students but also high achieving students who are phoning it in,” Milliron said. “It won’t just raise the floor. It will also raise the ceiling.”
In 2023, students could have more learning options than ever before, and more software to help them make sense of those options — from picking a college to finding their first job. That begs the question, then: In a future where at least a quarter of universities may not even exist, where does faculty fit in?
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