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Jul 413 min read

What Learning Looks Like in the Age of the Customer

Updated: Sep 25



As the world rapidly changes, so too must our approaches to education and continuous learning. We discuss innovative approaches like Singapore's Skills-Future Credit program, supporting mid-life learners, and the rise of multidisciplinary majors. We question whether universities are keeping pace with demands for flexibility, affordability, and skills alignment in rapidly evolving job markets. In this "Age of the Customer," we see students as empowered buyers demanding higher engagement and personalization, which is increasingly possible with online learning and AI. We spotlight a digital education company leading with innovative, cost-effective solutions that could redefine tertiary education. Tune in as we envision an education system where learning is lifelong, flexible, and tailored to individual needs.





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Episode Transcript:


Raakhee: Welcome to Signal Shift by Horizon Shift Lab. We’re your hosts, Lana Price, Raakhee Natha, and Sue Chi. Each episode, we explore the latest signals—in technology, culture, and society—uncovering insights that will impact our daily lives in the future. Join us as we shift perspectives, explore possibilities, and delve into real changes in our world. Curious to learn more? Go to horizonshiftlab.com.


Welcome to Signal Shift. Today we are talking about a very big subject that I think everyone is talking about and that's university, college, higher ed, or tertiary education as some call it.

Now university protests have made the biggest headlines in the last few weeks, as the group of students who began their college lives in the middle of COVID graduated amidst heated and even violent protests calling for a ceasefire and end of support for Israel in the Israel-Hamas war or Israel-Palestinian conflict.


And the truth is that scandals have rocked some of the top universities in the United States for the last few years. The college cheating scandal that saw officials taking bribes for student placements amongst the wealthy with some Hollywood names peppered in. And of course the topic that thousands contend with every day, which is huge student loans that have a very direct impact on life choices and options.


So, you know, considering the options for remote learning, virtual learning, and AI, this realm of education has to be, and I'm sure many would say, must change in the years to come. So, let's explore that today.


Lana: I was approaching this as, you know, higher education is not just for the young, right? Not just for those who are graduating high school and going to college immediately afterwards. You know, thinking about this, in relationship to the conversation that we had recently about how higher education is a part of life-long learning.


And so, and I was thinking to that, Raakhee had shared about her desire to go… to go back to school to get another degree. And so the signal that I found was from Singapore and the [Ministry] of Education has announced a program, for those who are 40 and older, they get a credit to apply towards their education. And so “substantive skills reboot” is what they call it. And so this Skills-Future Credit is up to $4,000. It starts May 1, 2024.


And so this is for micro-credentialing and other sort of short-form courses that they have, many, many, many different things that you can apply this credit towards. But they also have a program that they're going to start next year for long-form credit support. So if you want to go back to get a degree that could take like up to two years, for example, this program will provide income for people, like up to 50% of their income up to a cap, for two years while they go back to school.


So I think they're really recognizing that mid-career and older adults have significant financial obligations, right? You can't just not earn money and take two years off of work. And so they're providing this source of income so that folks will take the chance, right, to take the time that's necessary, gain these skills, and come back to the workforce with new opportunities available to them.


So I thought that this was a really wonderful pioneering program and something that is really needed globally as we think about the evolving skills that are needed in the workforce. And so that's my signal.


Raakhee: Yeah, I love it, Lana. It's, wow, how amazing if every country could have that. It really makes me want to move to Singapore. I won't lie, that's really, really progressive and so, so needed. And yeah, Sue, I'm curious, what do you have today?


[4:59]


Sue: Sure. One of the things I was wondering is how universities are making learning more relevant for students in the future, right? So just what is the latest innovation around actual learning?


So one thing I've been seeing in the news more recently is that universities more and more are creating multidisciplinary majors. And you're seeing this at universities all across the world.


So a couple of examples of what that looks like in real life is, you know, I currently live in a huge college sports town. So this really piqued my attention where there have been several universities now creating sports leadership and management programs for bachelors and graduate degrees that focus not necessarily on the sport itself, but on the business aspects of sports. And so they're creating bachelor of science degrees, bachelor of art degrees as well.


And then on top of that, there are even some colleges that are creating e-sports degrees. I know we talked about gaming a little while ago. And the concept is the same. It's not the actual e-sport itself that they're being trained in. Whether you're an athlete or not, it's really studying like the psychology of it, the economics, the business, the marketing, all of those things to acknowledge how complex these industries are getting and how expansive they can be when you think of it as a career.


And that's not the only industry I found where they're doing similar things. For example, at USC, just a few years ago, they created a music production major that covers all the business and production side of the music industry. So whether or not you're an artist, this is something you can major in.


And then recently Clemson created a multidisciplinary aviation safety track. So it no longer just covers the engineering aspect of aviation. It covers engineering, extended reality, data science, but it also goes into social science, economics as well.


And I think overall, it's just a sign that we're all seeing the world is getting more complex and how is it showing up at universities? We need to get out of these kind of majors that have just silos and to really go into one specific topic, although that in itself also still has value.


But generally, as the world gets more complex, can universities respond to this in the way they create the majors? And so I like it that it's not up to just the students to have to say, oh, I have to follow a major this one particular way. No, now I have flexibility. I can learn the topics I want to learn. So if I want to go into sports, but I'm super interested in the psychology of it, I can do that as a major. I don't have to double- triple- major to get all the things I need out of college. So I like this trend towards multidisciplinary education.


[7:59]


Raakhee: Yeah, it's absolutely a need. It's, you know, it's, it's frustrating when we see archaic programs in a lot of the places. So it's really, really exciting to hear that universities are stepping up their game in terms of thinking more broadly and more multidisciplinary in terms of programs.


I think my signal is very closely related to both of your signals. But I think it's a similar one around, you know, I really think that we're going to see the decline of this formal classroom-based type of tertiary education model. I mean, universities are still going to be there, but I think the kind of transformation we may see, I don't know, it's probably going to be radical in some ways.


But I think there's a lot of things pointing to this one, for example, there's a KPMG report that speaks to the fact that in the UK, it's estimated that one-fifth of degrees are not worth the money in terms of future earnings. So these students are actually financially better off if they don't go to university now. And that's, you know, that's the point we're reaching, right.


And at the same time, depending on where you are in the world, e-learning is seeing compound annual growth. I mean, we know this, right? The signs are all there, but we see a growth rate of 7.5 to about 10.5% between 2018 and 2024. So there's definitely an increase.


And I saw a Forbes article where somebody was speaking about how many people… He did some assessment and analysis of the data. Certainly, this, you know, it depends on his model, how he did this analysis… But based on his sort of research, he found that about 70% of students took at least one online course in 2021-22. So I mean, it's a reality we all know, right? Online learning is very much real. It's there. It's happening.


But I think this is all happening in a bigger context of what we're seeing with tertiary education now. And that is something that Forrester Research speaks about something called the Age of the Customer. We had the Age of Information, which is the internet. And then by around 2018, they say that we had the Age of the Customer, which is Uber, Amazon, Netflix, that sort of thing, Airbnb. And that didn't exactly hit universities in that way. But it's hitting it now, right? Is to say convenience, personalization, exactly to your point, Sue. And a big, big thing then being affordability.


So, yeah, I think the age of that customer is going to hit universities pretty strongly now with everything we're seeing happening. And I think lead to some changes.


But I also wanted to share, and Lana, you kind of alluded to this in, you know, I've always spoken about, I really want to study more and, yeah, you know, continue sort of learning and take on a formal degree. But it's just too expensive. Like, I can't justify it, right? Especially being where you are in life, having a degree already. 


But I had taken a risk with, this was my second masters. But I took a risk in doing it with a very different type of organization. And it's a company called Quantic. You may have seen information for them or ads for them. And they have a smart model in the sense that it's completely online. It's very gamified, the learning, to a certain extent, it's app, it's quizzes, it's meant to be a move away from kind of the theoretical thing. But you are on your own. And it's really online, remote learning.


But I took a chance on them. And I did it. And I really loved it. And that's how I did my MBA. They're accredited. It's amazing. It was one, you know, it was less than 10% of the cost of going somewhere else. And I happily put it on my resume.


And what was smart about their model is they targeted students who really had really good universities on their resume, or were working at all the top tech companies or something like that.


So you'd be willing to take that risk with a different name. You see, we're still going to look really good. And yet they have this amazing alumni of like people with all these great skills and that sort of thing, like competing with Harvard or wherever you want to sort of bring up there.


And so I think about a place like Quantic. And I'm like, that was a smart choice. I'm glad I did that. I don't regret that, you know, in hindsight. And I think about frustrations with places like Harvard Extension, where you're paying, you know, $30,000 or something like that for a master's degree online. And yet they refuse to say Harvard on the certificate is always going to say Harvard Extension. Not all Extension schools do that, you know, they just say UCLA or whatever it may be. Harvard does it.


And it's a big debate because you're spending so much, even for this, you know, this learning you're doing on your own, right? So I think there's going to be a change in that. And I think, yeah, we'll want personal experiences, but I think they'll look different. And I think we'll be willing to do week-long things where we get together and it's more transformative and more special. And the rest of the year can kind of just be online. And who knows, maybe we can have a Horizon Shift Lab learning week-long seminar that's more transformative than, you know, a degree or the courses you could do in a year. So I, yeah, I'm very optimistic about those kinds of changes coming.


[13:32]


Lana: Yeah, you know, I think in response to what you're talking about, I mean, when I was researching this topic, and I was also thinking about the death of the resume, right? That like a lot of companies now and state governments are no longer requiring a four-year degree, right?


So hold that idea of going to university so that you can have it on your resume. So as you have, you know, a bachelor's-- when it's not, you know, no longer required for thousands of jobs.


So at least 16 states have removed 4-year degrees as a requirement. They've instead substituted what the equivalent work requirement would be. In this recent survey, like 50% of companies have started to go through their job requirements to remove the four-year degree.


And so as we're moving towards skills-based hiring, you know, if you have to take an assessment [for the] job, right, that proves that you have the certain skills, then the value proposition is going to be, well, where is the place where you can get the skills, right, a bang for the buck? And so this is the competition, right?


So will you get the skills in online, you know, university or microcredential, or are you going to get the skills in a traditional four-year [and] go there physically, right? This is part of what we're shopping for, right, is like what, what are we getting for our investment? And what are the outcomes that we're looking for?


And if no one's, if we're not doing it to check the box anymore, then, you know, I think that changes the playing field.


[15:35]


Sue: Absolutely. You think of this common-sense idea where you could do that. Could you actually create a world where students can get a degree in that they just need to have a certain number of credits from an accredited place or something like that, and just figure out where they want to get these experiences from. 


And so just like you're saying, you, you want to, if you're going to go do computer science, right, you want to have a place accessible to you where you want to go look at computer science, but if you want politics as part of it, maybe that's not the best institution to study politics for you, right?


You can go do that on your own and you get the credits and you go to an accrediting body, see, I've got all my credits, give me a degree, you know, or something like that. And I wonder, maybe there will be more cross-collaboration between universities or even non-universities to create some of those things. Like there are lots of learning companies now that have great reputations for what they're studying and what kinds of jobs people are getting out of it. And so it would be, it would be very complicated to do something like that. But if you put the student at the center, you know, what an incredible opportunity for people to create their own paths.


[16:57]


Raakhee: Gosh, yeah, like spot on, I think, with everything you both are saying, and it just makes me realize just how rife the space is with opportunity. I feel like, gosh, there should be so many more players out there, right? Like there's so much room and so much opportunity now. So it's going to be really interesting to see what happens over the next few years.


And I also wonder about the technology side of this in the sense of AI and how that's going to spur things faster, help with personalization, help with that offline learning happening a lot faster, getting what we need. I mean, it all makes me think that there's everything we're saying, everything we've all shared. These changes have got to be coming fast and soon to tertiary education.


I don't know, as a parent, like, I'd really sit back and be like, do I want to be paying this much for my kid to go to, like, a formal classroom?


Lana: Anecdotally, I know some teenagers who are really having an open dialogue with their parents saying, like, that they're not convinced that they want to go to college and their parents are supporting them in that decision to, you know, just explore some of the other options.


I know there's a signal that Sue had found, that a lot of people are graduating high school and going to the trade schools because they are not, because they're skeptical about sort of the, you know, what they'll get out of going to a four-year institution. So definitely, I think that that is very, very present.


Sue: Yeah, I think this applies broadly to what's happening. But if you think of some of the specialized trades, for example, I'm thinking of healthcare, there is a specific role for continuing education and continuous learning. Because when you go to the doctor, you want to make sure they have the most up-to-date information. Well, all these other industries are changing too, like, why wouldn't we have something like that? That we should have an expectation of continuous learning, upskilling the rest of our lives. And if universities aren't going to do that, we need to figure out who can and make that a really good value proposition for people who are going through different transitions in their life. Maybe, yeah, want to segue into a new kind of trade, new kind of industry. But I think the theme I'm just centering myself on right now is this idea of personalization, like learning cannot be just created by the provider. It really has to be customized to every learner. And the system has to be set up so that every learning individual who learns in so many different ways can kind of come up with the best way that they learn to get out of it what they're paying for.


Raakhee: Coming out of today's conversation, I'm very optimistic. Probably more than I have been out of so many other conversations of ours, because I'm like, wow, there's opportunity. And those of us who want to learn, I mean, we have to learn, clearly we have to, but we also want to learn.


I think there's going to be more options and it's going to be affordable. I think it's a big, big, big thing. And that's exciting. And to be able to personalize these degrees this way, how exciting. I wouldn't have minded this being the beginning of my sort of 20s venturing out into the world, right? And crafting the degreeways. I think we had very limited options when we began our journey. 


So, yeah, really, really exciting. I think we'll have to revisit this topic, you know, in a few months.


And who knows what interesting developments will come up then again. But I think very exciting space. We're going to see lots of change and I'm sure a lot of people will share the sentiments we share today. So, I hope this one brings some hope to anybody who's out there thinking about studying themselves or have kids going to school. I think there's going to be some exciting change for the better in this industry and the way tertiary education is structured. 


Thank you so much for being here with us again, and we will catch you next time. All right, bye for now.


[21:29]

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