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Gail Godwin once said, "Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theatre." As an engineer, I may disagree with these exact proportions, yet there is no denying that the "delivery method" or, more dramatically put, the "theatrical" side of teaching influences the learning outcomes more than any other variable.
In 1967, Edmund Amidon defined teaching as "an interactive process." Today, for the world that's building blockchains and celebrating NFTs, teaching remains as interactive as nearly half a century ago. Think of it as a smart contract between the learner and the teacher where a commitment to an exceptional learning experience remains the primary prerequisite. Let's be cognizant that we are teaching a generation that has grown up watching tutorials and how-to videos; it's up to the teachers to ensure that we impart thorough knowledge and not just information. To uphold the sanctity of this commitment, we must keep reassessing delivery modes and keep our hyperconnected stakeholders engaged.
It is reassuring that we have not only survived but thrived through a pandemic due to the timely adoption of technology. The disruptions caused by lockdowns could have been way worse if we hadn't already gotten accustomed to the concepts of remote learning. It helped tremendously that the modern-day student had experienced remote learning at various stages of their educational journey over the last decade. Nonetheless, the pandemic substantially accelerated the adoption rate of remote learning and made it authentic and universally acceptable. Educators must also applaud the education technology gurusfor their agility in offering superior learning environments during these challenging times.
Institutions have quickly launched platforms on the good-old internet and are now considering the same in the metaverse. It prompts an important existential question: Do we need to maintain our colossal traditional campuses in today's digitally native society?
At the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, I argue that educators must re-envision the very purpose of the college campusto maintain its relevance. It is about time to revisit traditional academia's dynamics and design a "campus of tomorrow" as an innovative and cost-effective solution that meets social and pedagogical needs.
Being from UAE, the land of extravagance, I'm going to use an unusual comparison that requires a little imaginative thought. Let's compare shopping malls to our college campuses. Traditional campuses are megastructures as extravagant as any urban shopping mall. Next time you are in Dubai, I urge you to visit some of our latest malls, such as the City Walk, where you will find famous international university campuses blended into the mall buildings. The student who prefers the mall coffee shop over the college canteen is now able to get the best of both worlds.
But that's not what I propose. My proposition lies in a cultural shift in the learning experience and not just structural fusion. I envision the hyper-hybrid Campus as the next big idea. Think about this; malls have evolved from theiroriginal concept. Victor Gruen, famously known as the "father of shopping malls," imagined malls as recreational complexes, yet they evolved into merely a shopping fiesta. The advent of online shopping pushed malls to become social destinations and venues to experience products rather than purchase them.
Similarly, online learning must rekindle the campus's spark to become innovative experiential spaces that develop the student's persona. An entrepreneurial mindset is critical to the success of the modern learner; hence, learning must be transformed into an experience and not just a transaction.
I define the hyper-hybrid campus as a mall-like campus, tailor-made with a learning experience that is scalable to the ambitions of our youth. It must offer blended learning on the merits of the contents of the coursework. For traditional knowledge-based academic programs that require, teachers may rely solely on online classes. For applied and professional education, however, balancing online with on-campus delivery modes is a tricky issue and requires a critical assessment of the learning outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills and competencies.
More crucial is the availability of appropriate learning environments, setups, technologies and tools that will enable the development of targeted learning outcomes. Such a balance has not been addressed thoroughly but is becoming a pressing consideration. Educators are ready to evaluate its impact on the learners' journey and readiness for real-world jobs. I insist on designing the hyper-hybrid campus to offer a combination of on-site and online, virtual and hands-on and socially entertaining experiences.
With the rise of Web3, academia must act quickly and develop immersive learning environments that ensure footfall on the campus. One such way is to offer virtual classrooms using simulation labs and meta-spaces, an environment that could be experienced only within the campus facility. We need to understand that being digitally native doesn't necessarily mean being digitally competent, and it's up to us as educators to streamline the youth's indulgence in technology and couple it with the human experience.
Simpler were the times when Apple and Blackberry were just fruits; today, they tell us a story of how agility and innovation can make all the difference between being a leader and going extinct. We don't need our campuses to become the next Blockbuster or Kodak—these brick-and-mortar structures need us to bring people back to campus, and the hyper-hybrid campus might be that attraction. To prevent today's campuses from becoming history, institutes must adjust to students' needs. Given the abundance of digital touchpoints, we must keep innovating pedagogical approaches so that digital literacy doesn't become the next cliché. Let us all work together to add fun back into the fundamentals of learning.