Dynamic Educational Ecosystem

Dynamic Educational Ecosystem is the third factor of the series, 6 Factors to Improve Innovation in the GCC Region.

We are living in an era where trends are changing like a rocket. What we learn today is probably outdated when we graduate tomorrow. It’s difficult for the current education system to cope with a market that gets disrupted all the time. Therefore, The old method of having a single book and doing exams is no longer effective. 

Based on a study by Damon Clark, David Gill, Victoria Prowseand, and Mark Rush entitled “Using Goals to Motivate College Students: Theory and Evidence from Field Experiments”, task-based goals had robust positive effects on the level of task completion with increased course performance.

However, performance-based goals had positive but small effects on-course performance. The study was meant to clarify the concept of assigning goals to tasks and achieving those tasks rather than evaluating students based on their performance such as assessing their grades.

While the above study does not provide the necessity of coursework elimination, a study by John Richardson entitled “Coursework versus examinations in end-of-module assessment: a literature review” has revealed the advantages of coursework in contrast with the old school examination assessment.

As mentioned in our 2nd factor “Parenthood”, we need to prepare the next generation of human capital from their homes to be ready for a new education system. A system based on research, assignment, and capstone projects.

We need to read more, learn how to extract information, practice, and deliver our own results. By doing so, we learn ten times more than reading a textbook and doing an exam based on that textbook alone.

It’s not like exams are not necessary because they have their own successful scenarios and circumstances like in professional certificates and licenses. However, the old system of examination should be replaced with a dynamic version that can assist student in practicing and achieving rather than memorizing some concepts and writing it down. Of course, the core concept should be taught but the rest should be entirely based on research.

The entire education system should be fully dynamic backed up by innovative sessions, competitions, skills in self-governance along with a proper system of rewards and achievements.

Besides, students should learn how to work together, be productive as a team member, and make their own critical decisions. When they get older, they should be guided and taught about the needs of the market over the next 20 or 30 years and the types of carriers and barriers that exist along with the objectives of each carrier.

Students should be given a chance to understand the consequences of their choice to be able to prepare themselves for their future plans.

Further, the system should provide options, paths, and vacancies for the next generation fields. It’s true that we need doctors, architects, bankers, lawyers, designers, managers, technicians, and marketers …etc but from the other side, who should we approach if we are interested in learning about robotics, machine learning,  blockchain, cloud computing, industrial design, and material science?

Yes, we are getting some options nowadays here and there but they are not part of our dynamic ecosystem and most of the people are not ready for such fields as they didn’t learn the core principles in their previous years.

A student should be well prepared before school so they can be ready for such an education system, tutors should be well equipped with the latest technologies, models, methods, and research materials so they can provide the right knowledge to students.

Governments should support the entire process from A to Z while companies and research centers should assist students in schools and universities to scalp their creativity and build them for their future business or carriers.

According to a study by OECD, Governments can’t innovate in the study hall, yet they can help construct and convey the case for change. They can likewise handle a key job as stage and specialist, as a trigger and empowering agent; they can invest in the infrastructure and center assets, set a facilitative strategy atmosphere, and take responsibility to permit innovation.

It’s not only about students. Even parents, employees, leaders and entrepreneurs are a major part of the ecosystem and they need to be continuously up scaled and updated to fit the demand of this dynamic market.

Here, I’m pointing at different nodes connected effectively to each other producing a dynamic ecosystem where parents, governments, companies, universities, schools, research centers, teachers, students…etc are all collaborating to achieve a well-established human resource structure to benefit the society’s progress to success.

A business expert in one of the Whatsapp groups that I joined recently mentioned that when he was younger he was interested in the field of agriculture. However, his family told him if he was expecting to be a farmer or a fruit merchant! When he grew up, he realized that the field was full of research opportunities, innovation, and was interestingly diverse. This is a clear example of how a lack of knowledge can lead to poor decisions.

It’s important to approach the right person for advice. If you are not qualified for providing certain types of guidance then simply don’t.

To build a strong dynamic educational ecosystem we need to improve each node in the system and create a well-established connection that can feed each other with proper resources.

In the next factor we will be going through the concept of Self-Dependency and how implementing it in our societies can improve our progress towards innovation significantly.