Technology-enhanced Educational Reformulation

Manju Jalali, Global Head of IT, International Baccalaureate

What do you think are some of the major challenges and trends that have been impacting the educational space lately?

The pandemic came along with a number of technological advancements that accelerated many trends and prompted a transition from traditional learning methods toward online approaches. The invasion of technology into education has paved the way for many changes in curriculum, classrooms, demographics, and more. These trends are likely to shape the future of education and humanity.

There are multiple AI programs available today, like ChatGPT, that can write sophisticated essay responses. This has triggered reactions in the education industry, ranging from concerns about ethical use, the impact on education, and academic integrity to opportunities for innovation. But we believe AI technology will become part of our everyday lives, like spell checkers, translation software, and calculators. We, therefore, need to adapt and transform our educational programs and assessment practices so that students can use these cutting-edge AI tools ethically and effectively.

The challenges the global education sector has experienced over the past few years have highlighted the need for innovations to improve access to learning. Blended and online learning has opened up a world of possibilities that can improve access to education for students worldwide who cannot attend traditional brick-and-mortar schools. Recently, we introduced the online Diploma Programme (DP). This pilot aims to deliver a fully online DP with a few selected partners. It also explores how we can create and reinforce collaborative learning communities. The International Baccalaureate is committed to expanding access to its programs and supporting the development of IB educators worldwide.

What are some of the major challenges that are plaguing the educational sector, and how are remote and distance learning models helping combat these challenges?

The pandemic brought various challenges in the education industry to the forefront. It highlighted the need for innovation and improved access to learning. As the industry moves through the transition from traditional learning to blended learning, there are a whole lot of advancements taking place and a world of possibilities that can be put together to deliver an enhanced learning & teaching experience and innovative ways of delivering education.

These advancements are not just about automating when it comes to education but rather about the entire experience. Automation comes with responsibilities, it is of the utmost importance that we ensure processes are secure and data integrity is maintained. From an experience perspective, it is important that the learning experience is integrated, simple and much more personalized to ease the usability and adaptation process. We focus on delivering digital content with a visualization layer that can be tailored in such a way that it is fit to adapt to each individual student’s learning needs.

"As a technology group, our focus is on enabling the vision of the organization, which is centered on providing high-quality education, positive outcomes, and the right learning & teaching experience for our end-user community"

As we are putting these things in place as part of our architectural roadmap, we are cognizant that there are complexities and challenges along the way. Moving from traditional learning to a hybrid way of learning is not a single-day process. As we modernize education and its legacy, it is important to focus on critical systems, like assessment systems, ensuring the quality of content is retained without compromising on the integrity of the data while ensuring modern methods are as effective as traditional methods of education delivery.

The other challenge is to drive awareness and usability around the new technologies that are introduced as part of hybrid delivery model. We need to train our end users (students, teachers, educators) on the new tools and digital resources, and the ways of accessing the resources responsibly while ensuring awareness of the risks involved and how to navigate through them responsibly.

Can you tell us about the latest projects that you have been working on, and what are some of the technological and process elements that you leveraged to make them successful?

We are currently looking at a range of projects from digital assessment to transforming the entire learning ecosystem. As part of it, we have recently launched a fully online Diploma Programme (DP) pilot, giving students the opportunity to take ownership of their own learning and develop future-ready skills to make a difference and thrive in a fast-changing world. We intend to offer and enhance the overall learning experience, which includes not just learning management systems but driving broader and personalised learning experiences. We are working on modernizing our customer relationship management systems, to create an elevated experience for our end user community. As a technology group, our focus is on enabling the vision of our organization, which is centered on providing high-quality education, positive outcomes, and the right learning & teaching experience for our end-user community.

In light of the growing popularity of distance and remote education, how do you envision the future of the education industry?

With the emergence of various AI software comes a paradigm shift in the education industry. We are leveraging on the benefits of technology innovation to drive several transformational initiates resulting in an enhanced digital experience and value for our end-user community. While in the process, it is of utmost importance that the transformations maintain the authenticity of the processes and academic integrity.

Technology will enable delivering more personalized experience tailoring to the needs of the individual, byte sized learning will allow learning at your own pace so that learners are motivated to consume meaningful content at a quicker pace, use of augmented and virtual reality will allow interactive and immersive learning experience thereby blending physical world with virtual world. 

Creating a digital space for our organization is one of the things that we are excited about. It will result in a collaborative space, community learning and connectivity across the education ecosystem 

Do you have any words of advice for your peers on how to navigate the complexities of the ever-evolving education space?

The best advice I can give to my peers is to learn from each other. It is indeed a competitive landscape in which we co-exist, but we should collaborate across the entire ecosystem as there is power in learning from each other. At the end of the day, ours is not a commercial world to look at profits; our end customers are students and educators. The value we add is access to education for all and leveraging cutting edge technology to extend the reach and transform our educational programs and assessment practices effectively.

Learning Management

Virtual Reality

Digital Experience