Mustread on trends in higher education: the 2014 Horizon Report

The eleventh edition of the Horizon report on trends in higher education has been published. You can download the report here.

“This eleventh edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in education. Six key trends, six significant challenges, and six emerging technologies are identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years, giving campus leaders and practitioners a valuable guide for strategic technology planning.”

What are the trends to be?

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less

  • Flipped Classroom
  • Learning Analytics

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years

  • 3D Printing
  • Games and Gamification

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years

  • Quantified Self
  • Virtual Assistants

For me the biggest element in the report is the tone when describing MOOC’s, summed up as:

“…while MOOCs were widely embraced in 2012, 2013 brought a major sea change in attitude. After these initial statistics were published, many turned skeptical about how engaging these learning environments actually were. Critics warn that there is a need to examine these new approaches through a critical lens to ensure they are effective and evolve past the traditional lecture-style pedagogies. Adding to the challenge is that many stakeholders see competition as threatening to the very notion of public universities and colleges, which complicates the exploration of alternative models and strategies.”

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