Singapore’s universities such as SIM University (UniSIM) are looking for ways to bring higher education closer and more accessible to Singaporeans.
One such concept is that of the flipped classroom, in which short video lectures are viewed by students at home while in-class time is spent on exercises, projects or discussions.
The motivation for such innovative ideas is to allow adults to manage their time and balance their resources between work and study.
Also, it has been suggested that degrees need not be completed in one continuous stint, but may be completed after a student has gone to work. Degrees could have a time limit of validity, and knowledge associated may be refreshed over the working life of a graduate.
Educators say that online courses will become the norm. For example, elite universities abroad such as Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been offering massive open online courses on online platforms like Coursera and edX.
Classrooms of the future will also look different. Students could be seated in clusters and plugged into their mobile devices as they work on real-world projects, with the help of data analytics and virtual reality.
Even like Japan and China are beginning to use robots as partial substitutes for teachers in schools.