Horizon Report 2021

This week the 2021 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report® Teaching and Learning Edition was published. Every spring, Educause publishes this report, which identifies key trends and emerging technologies and practices shaping the future of teaching and learning (here is a link to the full 50 page report). I will share the categories and ideas, which might be helpful to faculty considering redesigning their course over the summer.

The report includes a "Scanning the Horizon" section, which describes a global landscape identifying trends across five categories:

• Social (remote working; the digital divide, mental health issues);

• Technological (hybrid learning, increases use of tech, online faculty development)

• Economic (decreased funding, demand for news skills, uncertainty in economic models)

• Environmental (climate change, reduction in work/travel, sustainable development), and

• Political (online globalization, rise of nationalism, public funding of higher ed).

The next section includes Key Technologies and Practice. This section shares ideas on Artificial Intelligence (AI) (In 2017, EDUCAUSE wrote on AI in their 7 Things to know publication), Blended and Hybrid Course Models (cited paper on Gamified Design Framework for Flipped and Self-Regulated Learning), Learning Analytics, Micro-credentialing (short courses and badges, bootcamps, professional certificates and licenses, non–university-issued non-degree certificates, university-issued non-degree certificates), Open Education Resources (OER, Sydney University Open Press), and Quality Online Learning (UF Self-Service Course Design).

The Horizon report includes a section on "Scenarios," which include GROWTH (takes current trajectories into a future in which higher ed largely flourishes); CONSTRAINT (higher ed continues but with a diminished role); COLLAPSE (higher ed is beset by rapid breakdowns and forces of change outside its control); and TRANSFORMATION (higher ed establishes a successful new paradigm).

Finally, there is a section on IMPLICATIONS, where they share several case studies from the following universities: Australia (Mason), South Africa (Czerniewicz), Turkey (Bozkurt), and two segments of US higher ed—associate’s colleges (Crawford) and doctoral institutions (Mondelli).

Reference

Pelletier, K., et al. (2021). 2021 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report, Teaching and Learning Edition. Boulder, CO. ISBN: 978-1-933046-08-2.