REDEFINING THE FUTURE OF LEARNING — How Digitization Will Spur a Totally Different Model of Learning from Totally Different Providers of Learning

In a digital dialogue with a respected college, professor Peter Lorange, former IMD President and writer of the book The Business School of the Future, the digitization of learning was discussed. With the traditional learning making mankind who we are, and with the future learning defining what mankind will become, it is not an unimportant question. In fact, I would argue that it is the most crucial question for anyone interested in what the future will bring to us in general, what it will bring for society and what it will bring for yourself, your friends, your family, your company and your country. I.e. well worth at least some minutes of reflection so to speak 😊

The crucial history of traditional learning

Since the birth of mankind millions of years ago, learning has been at the forefront of what makes us who we are — along with our bigger brains it’s what took us from monkeys to hunters and farmers, and later from the industrialist we’ve been, to the digitalists we are becoming. For some centuries learning has been formalized and systematized into formal education, nurturing all our youngsters and preparing them for life, hopefully also for jobs.

When this natural social evolution in recent decades accelerated to a digital revolution of change, the traditional ways of learning are not doing their job anymore.More specifically the digitization will mean three crucial changes redefining the future of learning: the economy of scale, the coexistence of three different learning providers, and a digital disruption with a totally reinvented customer acquisition and engagement.

The economy of scale in the future of learning

The first thing concerns the total disruption of anything we ever thought about when it comes to content on one side, and economy of scale on the other. The last decades digital decacorns has taught us all about the disruptive power of “scale” when we are introducing internet into a business vertical in general, and when introducing mobile internet in particular.

Translating this into the area of learning, in the traditional classroom you can have 20 to the maximum if you want a true dialogue and for student to interact. 200 if you want them to sit still and listen to your traditional monologue.

In the modern classroom, I cannot have 20 or 200 students, not even 20.000 or 200.000 (which is what I had in my most recent learning app at AIAR). But I can have 20 million (!) students, 200 million or, actually even 2 billion.

And you know what? First it won’t cost me nearly a dime more for every million I add. Second, the possibilities for interaction brought by gaming and social media, are magical. And third the potential for customization is made even more magical with the development of AI — not only the curriculum, but actually also for the “pedagogics”, i.e. the full customization of individual learning journeys.

The brutal consolidation in the future of learning

If we keep to the track of learnings from the dawn of the decacorn millennium, we should also expect this economy of scale to generate a total consolidation of market regarding the “modern university” using the “modern model of learning”.

More specifically in the choice between content is king and customer is king the latter will as always prevail, and the old respectable institutions will be transformed to “content providers” left out to revshare models for those digital giants most efficient in customer acquisition and consumer engagement (or, to be more specific, the whole growth hacking spectra of the four latter letters in the AARRR-formula).

After that the ventures more efficient in the customer acquisition and engagement online, will reach to such power as to not only beat-or-eat their competitors, but also be able to “pick” their providers, and thus pick the price and format as well.

The three models for the future of learning

And so far as goes for “theory”. In practice I think the biggest issue is to think of “one” modern university or “one” modern model of learning.

Instead I believe we will see the development of a few distinct learning models. As one of these we will see a “more” modern model, who will still use new technology to repair old processes”, but at least bring a fresh new perspective for the traditional academic world. Parallel to this I think we will also see a traditional model fighting for their inherited power and super strong brand, by fierce defense mechanisms avoiding everything that can threaten their beloved status quo.

But adding to this there will also be a third model, totally thinking out of the box — “using new technology to innovate new processes” — that will be the one that turn to all the virtues made possible by emerging technologies. Here we will not anymore only talk about the global economy-of-scale, but with full AI-customization down to one-to-one level, with 100% secure examinations and certificates, with the joy of social interaction and dialogue instead of old monologues, with the accumulation of collective intelligence, and even using the vast big data for close cooperation with companies looking to reduce time and money for the most perfectly matched talent acquisition.

The friendly journey of coexistence

The fun thing is that I would not put any different “values”in any of these three models, instead I think there will be students favoring them all.

The traditional offline schools will have the conservative people fond of old virtues. The modern offline schools will be attractive to more modern people wanting to achieve their knowledge in what is appearing to be a more efficient, and hopefully a little bit more fun way.

Still, the inherent inertia in the analogue world, will make both of these better at Preparing you for Life (PfL) rather than Preparing you for Jobs (PfJ). For the more “skilling” part of knowledge, i.e. the true lifelong learning of PfJ, the NexGen of mobile learning will always be the most updated, efficient, secure and — adding a high degree of gamification and social interaction for the millennials — perhaps even the most fun way of learning. And it will do it cheap or totally free.

For the masses. With a true economy of scale.

If you “see” the invisible matrix, I only expect one model that will have a shorter lifespan, and that is the old digital learning of traditional MOOCs, OPM:s and eLearning — “using new technology to repair old processes”. They did their job, now it’s time for the next generation to do theirs :)

Going from theory to action

So we will still have the traditional institutions with an old model, for consumers with conservative values of discipline and a one way street of the experienced teaching the unexperienced. At the same time this will coexist with more modern institutions using a fresh new model with all the flipped classrooms and blended learning for “liberated” consumers believing in more alternative bottom-up ways of learning.

All good. But at the same time, we will for the pure online learning have the economy of scale catalyzing a consolidated market filled with global decacorns mastering the customer acquisition and consumer engagement for the masses of billions of people in need of learning, calling the shots to a vast array of content providers.

So when going from theory to action, from analysis to action, how does this acquisition and engagement look like in reality?

1) CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT. In his “Lorange Network” Professor Lorange say that”web-based learning typically requires a different approach than merely video-recording conventional lectures.” Nothing could be righter. In the company I recently founded together with my partners in Singapore, AIAR, we call it to avoid using new technology to repair old processes (MOOCs/PMP/eLearning), instead of innovating new ones. This is exactly what we are doing as we speak, with a mobile learning feeling more like social media and gaming than traditional boring education — adding AI and blockchain for customization and security.

2) CONSUMER ACQUISITION: #Lorange is on the right track also here. “A clear strategy for marketing and distribution of digitally based learning materials would be needed”. Again, spot on. The “giants” of eLearning, all with €50–500 Million on funding, all got less than 11 million downloads last year (none of them from the old academic world). The year before that I got 12 million downloads for a mobile game in one of the ventures I chaired…

…with $10K in marketing budget.

The way ahead

I.e. there is a totally new world out there, and this is just the beginning.

The need for thinking out of the box is an understatement.

The possibilities for the ones who understand what to be done to do good for society — while earning a healthy lot of money when doing it — is gigantic.

Let’s make this happen. Now :D