Strategies for Higher and Postsecondary Education Leaders to Shape the Future of Learning

Since more than a hundred years before the founding of the United States, we have had institutions of higher education dedicated to academic pursuits. While these schools have evolved with the times – multiplying to serve a growing population, accepting a broader population of people, moving beyond academic pursuits to preparing people for specific occupations – exponential changes in technology indicate that more change is on the horizon.

With this rapid change, the need for leaders in postsecondary and higher education to shape the future of learning is more urgent. This week, KnowledgeWorks releases Shaping the Future of Learning: Postsecondary and Higher Education Strategy Workbook^© to help leaders consider opportunities for the future of learning and identify how to take advantage of them today.

“The world outside education is accelerating at an exponential rate,” KnowledgeWorks Senior Director of Strategic Foresight Katherine Prince said. “We must think critically about what the future could look like and how we can work today to shape it. This workbook provides an opportunity for people working in and with postsecondary and higher education to consider specific questions about how today’s practices can affect the future in 10 years.”

This workbook explores:

• Five opportunities to lead the future of learning as we look ahead ten years
• Strategies for taking action to address critical areas of change
• Examples of work being done today by innovators in postsecondary and higher education
• Key questions to help you consider how you and others might respond to opportunities and challenges on the horizon

“We’re having similar discussions with K-12 leaders and need to ensure similar conversations are happening at every stage of the PreK-16 continuum,” said Virgel Hammonds, chief learning officer for KnowledgeWorks.

This new resource was informed by conversations with more than 60 education leaders throughout the country. It serves as a companion piece to Shaping the Future: A Strategy Guide, which was released in October 2016.

“Many of the education leaders we talked to found that giving themselves space to think about the future led them to the realization that even taking small steps today can have a large impact,” KnowledgeWorks Director of Strategic Foresight Jason Swanson said. “We hope this workbook will give people working in postsecondary and higher education a tool for thinking more critically about the future and deciding how they can impact the future through their work today.”

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