Expediting Education — edX president Adam talks EdTech, Covid, and passion
edX, an online learning platform jointly created by MIT and Harvard University, offer free massive open online course (MOOCs) accessible for all. What makes it special, what’s the impact of Covid-19 this year and where does it head toward in the future? President of edX, Adam Medros shared his knowledge and passion during an online talk organised by Cambridge University Technology and Enterprise Club.
Lessons from the past: online teaching ≠ online learning
MOOC, an initiative from American elite universities to democratising campus education resources, ignited a global phenomenon in 2012. edX, along with a few other players, aims to unlock education content to a much wider range of audiences so that our learning does not stop at the moment when we walk out of the campus gate. Instead, Adam claimed, one can take up any subject of interest available and embark on his/her learning journey at one’s own pace, style and place.
This idea of expanding elite education to the general public and extending it to a life-long duration caught the imaginations of numerous adult learners and university faculty members.
Along with expediting education democratization grows the awareness of learning science. ‘There’s a difference between learning and teaching’, observed Adam. edX creates an efficient learning environment by offering a modular learning experience, self-paced learning and assessment. Its open-source learning platform means a crowd-source effort to tackle challenges in making teaching effective online with a massive audience.
But Adam went further to emphasise the importance of staying learner-focus. ‘Learning is hard. One needs to put aside a dedicated time for a hard process, so we need to understand why they come, what they want and why?”
Covid’s impact of the present: from choice to necessity
Facing the question of how Covid-19 this year impacted edX, Adam revealed that at the beginning of the lockdown policy began, the platform’s traffic grew by five to six times compared to that of normal times. The crisis also exposed the vulnerability of those universities which were not online-infrastructure ready. For example, teachers might find it frustrating to learn how to work with multiple online teaching platforms very quickly. Online might be a choice for students and teachers pre-Covid but the pandemic accelerated online education’s process to be a necessity.
‘If there’s a best online course on calculous, does each university need to have its own calculous course? And what does it mean for university’ business model?’. Adam posed the question. A believer in the private sector’s strength in efficiency, Adam sees online improving the efficacy of education. ‘edX is non-profit but we shall still pursue profit (through efficient operation) and puts it in good use.’
Tech’s role for the future: enhancing not replacing education
Pre-pandemic, the role of automation was already found in almost every industry. Covid-19 crisis and its subsequent need for us to work and study from home make the role of EdTech indispensable.
But what does the post-Covid future look like in education? Would Adam himself prefer a university experience purely online? Would AI replace human teachers? What will be the role of online in K-12 education? Our discussion about EdTech’s future raised even more questions if not eyebrows.
Adam sees the potential to reduce cost and improve the efficacy of education through technology such as AI and digital distribution. But he also doubts if education will be fully or shall be fully automated, ‘Education is very complicated. It involves social skill, mental health and culture.’ That’s a good piece of good news for those who still enjoy a drink in a student pub or a chat in a student common room.
The passion, the change and the will to get things done
With a bachelor's education in Economics and German literature, a Harvard MBA degree and as a product guru scaling up TripAdvisor, Adam joined edX in a leadership role in 2017. His own personal journey tells a story of lifelong learning and pivoting. When asked if he has any advice for the current student, he encouraged the students to follow their passions, pursuing it and pivoting when new passion emerges. In the background of his home office, one memo board writes ‘Get it done’.
The only thing unchanged will be the constant of changes. In an environment subject to interruption of nature (such as Covid) and disruption of technology (such as AI), the only way to go forward is to continuously upskill and reskill ourselves.
The heart to follow our passions and the mind to get it done will be, in no doubt, supported by movements like MOOCs and platforms like edX.
