Is the Future of Education Transactional or Transformational?

Is the work of the academy a transactional or transformational enterprise? In a post pandemic economy, does education lend itself more to the quick click of a button, accessible, high volume, low cost credentialing model? Many fear that is where education may land. Or, will transformational learning thrive in the new normal, leaning on close relationships, small communities, authentic assessment, and real world learning?

It is a trick question that many schools and colleges are asking themselves currently. The question is designed to promote binary thinking, making us believe that education will either look one way or another. The truth is that the future of education will likely have space for both transactional and transformational learning. But, here is what we know to be true from other industries.

1. Market – The market will continue to push education to transactional learning as it appeals to lower cost, convenient access, and mass scale. Online education and hybrid learning models will thrive in this model. Technology will continue to do democratize high quality learning to the masses the way Amazon brought retail to rural communities.

2. People and Culture – The world will continue to thirst for transformational models of learning as it quenches the human spirit, the need for connection, the desire for relationships, and the building of communities. And, this model will undergo some pretty severe change in order to compete in the post pandemic economy, as evident through changing assessment, pricing, and use of time and space models.

We’ll discuss more on this topic later this week as we discuss the the differences between the two models and how, potentially, they may meet somehow in the middle. Next topic? The power of mentors.