As 2024 draws to a close, I’ve taken the liberty of consuming a few minutes of your time to capture some highlights of my work from the last 12 months and also to ponder what role online education may have in 2025.
Looking back
I’ve learnt a lot from the wider educational sector both in the UK and internationally. I’ve connected with colleagues in other institutions on systems thinking (RIDE 2024) and immersed myself in some of the practices discovering a new set of tools for facilitating cross-institutional discussion and operational analysis. I was also grateful for the opportunity to explore microcredentials and professional learning with leading international practitioners, including understanding the models adopted in Australia and Europe (ePIC 2024). At the ALT Annual Conference the overriding message of humanising digital education came through from the collective commitment towards not just hearing but responding to learner experience in its intricate diversity. This included an awareness of how AI is enabling learners positively, echoing some of the points made at the University of Leeds Digital Summit, whilst also requiring transparency on its use, biases and links to exploitation.
This year has also brought some notable achievements. In September, the programme team successfully received the ALT Award for Ethical Use of Learning Technology for our approach to digital accessibility for the MSc Disability Studies. Knowing the commitment to digital accessibility in the team and impact this programme has, it was an honour for the academic and online learning team to be recognised for the values-led approach to programme design and collaborative, authentic user testing that has informed our approach going forward. I’ve been grateful for the team’s achievements more broadly this year demonstrating problem solving, collaboration and care in working together and developing new forms of online education for new groups of learners.
This year also saw my first engagement as a special issue co-editor for the Journal of Interactive Media in Education, exploring the legacy of MOOCs for open learning and learning at scale. I am very grateful for the opportunity to be involved and discussions had with co-editors. Finally, but by no means least, I joined the Association for Learning Technology Board of Trustees. Being able to contribute to an organisation that has accompanied me throughout my career and to continue to support colleagues in the sector is a great privilege.
On a personal note, I have learnt much from my professional leadership coaching which has helped me navigate my role and supported my reflective practice. I have (I hope) developed in being more conscious of my words and actions, thinking about the clarity of my direction alongside aiming for greater devolved ownership, and understanding the importance of a shared narrative about the journey we take as a team. I will continue to reflect and learn on my leadership approach as I continue to balance the needs of the organisation, with the needs of the team and ultimately the needs of our learners.
Opportunities through challenges?
2025 is going to test the educational sector even further than it has been already. Both UK and non-UK student numbers are lower than anticipated, undergraduate regulated fees barely risen and running costs of institutions (staffing, services and supplies) have experienced high inflation. The increase of ‘post-truth’, scepticism of reason and short-termism of political gameplay has created a hostile environment for the pursuit of knowledge and value attributed to education. I say all this without a sociological or economic background required to assert such claims, but purely from doom-scrolling news feeds and a sobering Office for Students report that models 72% of institutions operating in deficit in the 2025/26 financial year. Whilst the London Economics report commissioned by Universities UK puts forward a compelling economic argument for investment in higher education institutions in a bid to affect political will, how universities and the broader educational system are positioned within the general population may also need attention and action.
A lot of my energy is directed towards exploring and harnessing how educational institutions and professional learning are intertwined. Higher education has a huge role to play in enabling individuals to continue or return to education to develop or switch careers. Addressing individual capabilities and navigating uncertainty in employment markets, finding solutions to significant social and environmental problems, harnessing creativity and human endeavor are all dependent on skills, knowledge and attributes developed through educational experiences. This leads me to ask how can we bring education to people, how can we encourage participation and how can we open experiences up for greater collective involvement? The answers to questions like these may need radical deviations from established paradigms and, obviously from my perspective, I view online education as central to providing opportunities for the survival of higher education.
A hope for what’s to come
Next year I would like to see more cross-institutional partnerships, utilising the benefits of online education in the co-development and co-teaching of professional learning and degree programmes. This would give students greater choice over where to study and who to learn with, bringing international academic expertise together with different national and local contexts. I would also like to affirm a commitment to quality of learning that is based on engagement and outcomes, with learning design and course development expertise that works in partnership with academic and subject matter experts to understand how best to teach and learn specific disciplines and professional practice. Finally, I’d like to see an openness to things going well, things failing fast and learning from both.
When institutions and individuals are under pressure, it can lead to retrenchment and sticking to what is known. Higher Education may be entering its ‘Kodak moment’ – no, not the nostalgic snapshot of joy printed and framed for eternity, but the moment of disruption that will either make or break it (see this HBR article or this Forbes article). 2025 needs to see a year of innovation, thinking about the role and place of education that will meet the needs of a changing population and changing industries and a shift to action. This should not be a reactionary agenda, but one that sets education up in its broadest sense, in a lifelong learning sense, to respond to and anticipate the needs of learners globally and locally for the long term. The modes of teaching, formats of courses and even ideas of qualifications may need to change and adapt to the demands of new populations and flexibility required in an uncertain world. This is scary, but also holds the potential for an exciting opportunity for learning design and online education. We must make our own future and enable the futures of others.
Leave a Reply