OpinionThe UK coalition’scurriculum needsto look beyondfacts and datesPage 2

Inside »

How to reducethe dropout rateTechnology helpsuniversities keepstudents on trackPage 2

BusinessCompanies worktogether to traintomorrow’sworkforcePage 3

Classroom wallsare abolishedOnline coursesdissolve barriersto learningPage 4

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FT SPECIAL REPORT

The Connected BusinessEducation

When Barack Obama, theUS president, last monthannounced a scheme toequip 99 per cent ofpupils in state-run

schools with improved broadband con-nectivity in an effort to boost educa-tional attainment, he was underliningthe fact that future generations needadvanced technological skills to sur-vive and prosper in the 21st century.

Such a focus ensures the business ofIT in education is a concern of globalproportions, but speedy internet con-nections are not the only require-ment.

Many argue that education systemsaround the world are failing students,employers and society. The challengesinclude updating curriculums – whichsome feel do not meet the knowledge

needs of young people – and low grad-uation and high dropout rates inmany countries. In the US, for exam-ple, 46 per cent of college students failto graduate within six years andteachers simply do not have the timeto personalise the education experi-ence and engage them more.

Employers are also worried. In asurvey by the US-based Chronicle ofHigher Education, half of respondentssaid they had trouble finding recentgraduates qualified to fill positions –conclusions that have been echoed insurveys from around the world.

John Baker, chief executive ofDesire2Learn, a provider of cloud-based learning tools, says: “Whiletechnology has been leveraged toautomate simple tasks and formanagement productivity, it has not

tackled the bigger issues of creatingan engaging learning experience,improving overall outcomes andreducing dropout rates.

“Globally, we need to make the shiftfrom a one-size-fits-all approach toeducation to learning systems that areintelligent, mobile, engaging and,most important of all, personal,” headds.

Mr Baker’s experience is an

example of how powerful digital learn-ing can be. He formed his company in1999 after identifying his own need foronline learning while studying sys-tems design engineering in Canada.

He is among an expanding group ofentrepreneurs who believe that tech-nology holds the key to resolvingmany of the problems facing educa-tion providers and institutions. Theyargue that education is on the brinkof a digital revolution – one poten-tially as far reaching and disruptiveas that which has already sweptthrough other sectors such as media,entertainment and financial services.

The obvious signs of this revolutionare the laptops, tablets and digitalwhiteboards widely available inlecture halls and classrooms in devel-oped countries. The real innovation,

however, is in the software anddelivery of education services, and inthe analytical tools that underpin it.

Chris Davia, chief technology officerof online education company Connect-EDU, says. “Schools need much moresophisticated tools than many usetoday to empower teachers to improvetheir instruction.

“As big data and predictive analyt-ics technologies edge their way into[state-run] schools, administrators,teachers, parents and even studentswill be able to use data to evaluatebetter the progress and needs of learn-ers,” he says.

Mr Davia and others say digitisationhas the potential not just to democra-tise learning – providing low-cost,

Continued on Page 3

Technologyis the key toteachingfuture skillsThe world of education is on the brink of adigital revolution potentially as disruptive asthat in media and finance, writes Paul Taylor IL

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2 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES WEDNESDAY JULY 17 2013

Academic administratorsworldwide are asking iftechnology can help keeplearners on track as theygrapple with the questionof why students leavehigher education withoutgraduating.

In the US, almost half allfour-year college studentsfail to earn a degree withinfive years, while in the UKabout one in five studentsdo not complete theirstudies. In Australia,about 20 per cent quit intheir first year.

That is bad for studentsand institutions. RuthDrysdale, e-learningprogramme manager atJisc, a UK-based charitythat advises the educationsector on digitaltechnologies, says: “Lowretention rates not onlyreflect a negative pictureof the student experience,but institutions affectedare liable to lose valuablegovernment funding.”

While the reasons whystudents drop out varywidely, financialconsiderations are perhapsthe biggest cause, as risingtuition fees and debts,coupled with uncertainpost-graduation jobprospects, lead manystudents to question thevalue of university.

Such problems point to aneed for technologies thathelp students to pick theright courses and thatallow them to study in theway that best suits them,so they get the most out oftheir time and money.

As a result, the marketfor IT in higher educationhas coalesced around twobig themes: monitoringstudents’ activities andachievements usingbusiness intelligence-styleapplications and extendingthe classroom experiencebeyond the lecture hall orseminar room.

At Arizona StateUniversity (ASU), forexample, student retentionrates have risen abovenational averages forpublic universities inrecent years. Staff saymuch of the credit for thatgoes to the university’sonline student advisorysystem, eAdvisor.

Introduced in 2007, it wasdesigned to “take theguesswork out of earning adegree”, by mapping outfor each student thecompulsory courses theyare required to take tograduate in a specificacademic major, as well asthe elective courses bywhich they can earn extracredits. This lets themtrack their progresstowards their degrees,while their supervisors canuse the data to monitorand advise them, as wellas letting them identifystudents at risk ofdropping out.

ASU, the US’s largestpublic university with astudent body of some72,000, has almost 9,000

students enrolled in morethan 60 undergraduate andgraduate programmes thatare made available entirelyonline through what iscalled a virtual learningenvironment, ASU Online.

ASU’s use of technologyis unusual compared withother public universities inthe US, says RachelFishman, an educationpolicy analyst at US think-tank The New AmericaFoundation. She says it isone of only a handful of“next-generationuniversities” (along withUniversity of CentralFlorida, Georgia StateUniversity and Universityof Texas) that usetechnology to help largeand increasingly diversestudent populations stickwith their studies.

“The main reasons forlow uptake [of suchtechnologies] are generallycost and the challenges ofgetting faculty buy-in,” shesays. “Recent cuts in statefunding have made gettingthe IT infrastructure inplace almost impossible forsome. And faculty buy-inremains a difficulty, assome academics don’t feelthat online education offersthe same high quality asface-to-face.”

Funding is also an issuein the UK. However, in thepast three years,Manchester MetropolitanUniversity has usedtechnology to revamp itscurriculum design anddelivery, based on studentfeedback, and introduced aprogramme calledEnhancing Quality andAssessment for Learning,which was funded by Jisc.

This incorporates avirtual learningenvironment, Moodle, thatlets students accesspersonalised information

on timetables, deadlines,reading lists and coursematerials via laptops andmobile devices. It alsoallows them to see whatcourses they have takenand what they achieved, aswell as making their nextsteps and module optionsclearer to them.

As of May, Moodle wasreceiving about 450,000visits a day from 30,000individual users.

It also provides staffwith real-time studentmonitoring capabilitiesthat provide reports onstudent engagement withMoodle, so that they aremade aware if someonehas not downloadedessential reading material,for example.

It is too early to saywhether this will affectretention over the longterm, says Jisc’s MsDrysdale, but it is thiskind of active engagementon both sides of thefaculty/student equationthat may help to keepstudents on track.

Universities gohigh­tech to cutdropout ratesHigher education

Jessica Twentymanon ways to help keepstudents engaged

‘Institutions withlow retention ratesare liable to losegovernmentfunding’

The lesson is, ironically, onnew technologies, but onlysix of the fourth-gradestudents in the scruffyroom in secondary schoolNo. 24 in La Plata, nearBuenos Aires have broughttheir state-issued netbooks.

Two boys sit glued totheir screens in silence.Two girls share a laptopand a set of earphones. Halfa dozen students clusteraround desks where thereare two netbooks, but onlytheir owners look at them.

One girl blows bubblegumand plays with her phone,another rests her head onthe desk, eyes closed.

It is a far cry from someprivate schools in Mexico,at the other end of LatinAmerica, where iPads areused as teaching tools, orfrom interactive white-boards common in the UKand US. Romina Giddings, aformer primary teacherwho has also worked in theUK, quit after moving toBuenos Aires over what shecalls Argentina’s antiquatedsystem. “Can you believethat in 2013, we still useblackboards?” she says

In an attempt to close thedigital gap in Latin Amer-ica’s third-biggest countryand guarantee computer lit-eracy for a new generation,the government launchedConnecting Equality in2010, a programme to give anetbook to all students instate secondary schools.

It is the biggest pro-gramme of its kind in theworld, in terms of numbersof netbooks handed out,says Silvina Gvirtz, the pro-gramme’s executive direc-

tor. Three million had beenhanded out by early Julyand the scheme is likely tohave cost $3.5m by theyear’s end. She declines toput a figure on the pro-gramme’s total cost, but ithas been avidly promotedby Cristina Fernández, thepresident, who says Argen-tina spent 2 per cent of GDPon education in 2003, whenher late husband waselected president.

Now it spends 6.5 percent. “Netbooks aren’t theonly thing needed,” MsGvirtz says. “But withoutthem, reducing the digitalgap is impossible.”

Although 163 of the 183students at School No. 24were given their netbooksin early June, some havebeen locked out because ofaccount inactivity and atleast one is broken. ButMalvina Castillo, the head,says pupils are more atten-tive and better behaved.

The netbooks come withbooks, educational content,

some games, and connect toan intranet. “They can’t useFacebook or connect to theinternet. This limits the dis-tractions,” smiles teacherElian Tesoriero.

The social challenges ofdigital access that Connect-ing Equality seeks to

address are illustrated bythe fact that the primaryschool in the same buildingin the rundown neighbour-hood on the outskirts of LaPlata has a canteen servingbreakfast, lunch and tea toensure its pupils – manyfrom poor or abusive back-

grounds – get enough food.Primary schools are not

covered by the programme,though in Buenos Aires andsome provinces there arelocal schemes. At thisschool in La Plata, primarystudents have not yetreceived netbooks.

Claudia Nieto, whose sonsattend Carlos Pellegrini,one of Argentina’s mostprestigious state highschools, says the pro-gramme is not focusedenough. “Since they aregiven to all kids at Pel-legrini, regardless of thefamily’s ability to buy a lap-top, I would say more thanhalf of the computers givenout are never going to makeany real difference since thefamilies probably alreadyhave at least one other com-puter at home,” she says.

Other Latin Americancountries have introducedsuch programmes. Uruguayblazed the trail with itsPlan Ceibal, initially tar-geted at primary pupils,

and the country has offeredMexico assistance with asimilar scheme. Brazil andPeru are among the coun-tries that already have lim-ited programmes or arelooking to expand them.

But Fabio Tarasow, co-ordinator of the educationand new technologies pro-gramme at the Latin Ameri-can Social Sciences Insti-tute in Argentina, doubtstheir efficacy. “I don’t thinkConnecting Equality willimprove the quality of sec-ondary education or Argen-tina’s Pisa scores,” he says,referring to the OECD’sthree-yearly school stand-ards evaluations.

In the latest, in 2009,Argentina was below Chile,Uruguay, Mexico, Colombiaand Brazil for reading,though its scores improvedin maths and science.

Ms Castillo says one ofthe programme’s failings isa lack of training for teach-ers in school time, while MrTarasow says teaching in

Critics sceptical of Argentina’s efforts to bridge the digital divide

Two years ago in HongKong, Kenneth Chen, theundersecretary of state foreducation, told schoolleaders the territory wouldnot remain top of globalscience teaching tables “bycontinuing to teach sciencein the old ways”.

He urged educationaliststo “move away from afocus on contentknowledge” and toembrace the concept of“learning to learn” that hehad placed at the heart ofeducation reforms.Technology was crucial toachieving that ambition.

A decade earlier inSingapore, Teo Chee Hean,the state’s then ministerfor education, summed upan ambitious researchproject by saying “the paceof change of newtechnology is more rapidthan the typical time linefor educational researchstudies . . . Teachers need

to . . . produce and publishresearch findings on amore rapid cycle so thatother teachers can build ontheir experiences, learnfrom them and implementthese improvements intheir own classrooms.”

By 2012, looking back onpast reforms, Heng SweeKeat, Singapore’s currentminister for education,noted today’s focus on“developing a broaderrange of skills such ascritical thinking andcreativity, and to devolvingmore autonomy to ourschools to encourageinnovation”.

Although it is not theonly factor in these states’economic success, thispedagogic approach seemsto be working. Between2007 and 2013 the annualgrowth of Singapore’s GDPaveraged about 4.5 per centwhile Hong Kong’s GDP isgrowing at close to 3 percent each year. The UK’sGDP, by contrast, isforecast to grow at 0.9 percent this year.

A key factor is that theseeconomies view educationas an investment, while inmuch of Europe and theUS it is seen as a cost. Inreturn for this investment,Singapore and Hong Kongwant more than kids whocan recall a finite set offacts. They wantcollaborative ingenuity.

Unsurprisingly, theOECD’s Programme forInternational StudentAssessment, an educationalsurvey, following criticismof its own measures ofeducational success, hasnoted Singapore’s focus onequipping “students withcritical competencies, suchas self-directed learningand collaboration skills”.It will be introducingcollaborative problem-solving as an internationalmeasure of educationaleffectiveness from 2015.

How well might Englishchildren perform on suchtests? In England we havean alternative coalitiongovernment experiment ineducation. Encouragingly,

this has given us a hugediversity of school types,from free schools to studioschools, from universitytechnical colleges toacademy clusters, and adiverse pool of teachers,precisely what is needed toprovide the “vibrantlearning communitieswhere exploration andexperimentation areintegral” spoken of by Mr

Heng. But while schooldiversity is necessary, it isnot in itself sufficient and,rather less encouragingly,the other half of this boldexperiment involves pupilslearning content.

It was ironic that, in amonth when a fact-basedEnglish history curriculumwas announced, RichardIII’s skeleton was found

under a car park inLeicester. As Englishschoolchildren werebeing told of theirrevocable supremacy oftheir history books,archeologists were saying“we will have to rewritethe text books”.

Oh dear. Focusing oncontent is a commoneconomic mistake. In the20th century, in parallelwith the expensivemisunderstandings of thedotcom bubble, education-based companies thoughttheir market would becontent delivery. Surely,content was king anddelivery equalled dollars?The answers were it wasn’tand it didn’t.

In a world awash withcontent, much of it free,ingenuity and creativitywere increasingly scarceand valued commodities.

However, will Englishschoolchildren, newlyreturned to rote learning,sitting down to an exampaper and hoping there areno surprises, be ready for

the continuing uncertaintyand the constant surprisesthat characterise ourcurrent economiccircumstances?

This concentration onbeing able to repeat factsrather than learning howto critique and applyknowledge feels reckless.

In a world that haswitnessed the collapse ofunskilled clerical jobs,filling our schools withunskilled clerical tasks isnot likely to offer apositive outcome fortomorrow’s youth in termsof educational or economicreturns.

At this stage in theworld’s race for economicsurvival, the UK coalition’seducational focus onuncritical content isstarting to look like asuicide note.

The writer advisesgovernments andorganisations aroundthe world on largeeducation and otherIT projects.

Coalition curriculum is a death knell for UK youthOpinionSTEPHEN HEPPELL

The computer room at NewDelhi’s Lady Irwin primaryschool – a state-run establish-ment with 1,400 students –contains 14 desktop computers

used to familiarise pupils aged betweennine and 11 with digital technology.

The questions “What is an operat-ing system?”, “What is a desktop?”and “What is an icon?” are writtenneatly on a chalkboard above themachines, which are not connected tothe internet. Students practise usingMicrosoft Excel and Word, and graph-ics programs. “The kids love to drawand paint on the computer – and playgames such as Angry Birds,” saysRadhika Bist, a computer teacher.

Lady Irwin’s lessons reflect India’sfumbling but eager embrace of digitaltechnology in education, as schoolsgrapple with how to integrate comput-ers into the curriculum and try tobridge the country’s vast digital divide.

“Earlier, the question was ‘Shouldcomputers be brought into theschools?’,” says Ashutosh Chadha,head of corporate affairs for southAsia at Intel, the technology com-pany. “Now we know that computersshould be brought into schools, butfor what, and how? What we still needto crack is the ‘how’?”

Access to computers and digitallearning materials in the classroom –and the way these are used – dependheavily on students’ economic status,and the type of school they attend.

Many private schools are investingin advanced digital education systemsto enliven classes with interactivelearning materials. Technopak Advi-sors, a consultancy, estimates thatbetween 80,000 and 100,000 of India’s260,000 private schools have investedin some form of classroom technology.

Companies such as Educomp, NIIT,Core Education & Technologies andPearson, which owns the FinancialTimes, are promoting digital educa-tion systems. Wiring up a single classcan cost about Rs200,000 ($3,300), butcompanies are often willing to bearthe initial installation costs, thencharge monthly user fees per student.

Technopak estimates India’s marketfor digital learning systems at about$500m a year, although the competi-tion for orders is fierce, and privateschools in smaller cities are amongsome of the biggest customers.

“Second and third-tier cities arewhere there is a lot of action,” saysEnayet Kabir, the head of Techno-pak’s education division. “Parentsthere realise their children will not

have a location advantage, comparedwith children who live in the biggercities, but there is a desire to givethem a high-quality education.”

State governments are also trying topromote the use of computers in theirschools, but efforts vary widely, fromteaching basic computer literacy tousing digital technology to enhancelearning in every subject. Many suchinitiatives are still in development,leaving hundreds of millions of stu-dents with no access at all.

Haryana, in northern India, hascomputer labs in more than 2,600 sec-ondary schools to teach basic comput-ing, and has a $50m project to give fiveschools full digital learning systems.

In the southwest, in Karnataka,whose capital Bangalore is a hub ofIndia’s information technology indus-try, state authorities are trying toestablish computer-aided learningcentres in every state school: withfive computers and CDs with educa-tional material in local languages. Sofar, about 20 per cent have beenreceived their equipment.

The many obstacles include the lackof internet connections, trained teach-ers and even people to set up themachines. In some state schools,administrators are so terrified that

the computers will be damaged, theyare never taken out of their boxes.

In 2011, the Indian governmentannounced what was supposed to be agroundbreaking scheme to providehighly subsidised, education-focusedtablet computers to university stu-dents. The Aakash, produced byDatawind, was touted as the world’scheapest tablet, selling at just $35. Butso far, the government has orderedjust 100,000 and the devices have beenplagued by quality issues.

Meanwhile, the government of UttarPradesh has begun handing out freenotebook computers to those graduat-ing from state high schools andenrolling in higher education, fulfill-ing a campaign promise of AkhileshYadav, the chief minister. Hewlett-Packard has won a $515m order tosupply 1.5m computers for the give-away over a seven-month period.

But Intel’s Mr Chadha says policymakers need to move beyond justgiving out devices. “It’s not just aboutproviding devices in a classroom or inthe hands of students,” he says. “Areyou providing connectivity? Do youhave local content available to them?And are the teachers trained? All ofthese are important to help bridge thedigital divide.”

India struggleswith logisticsof IT provisionnationwide

Asia State governments are trying to promotethe use of technology in education, but thereare many obstacles, reports Amy Kazmin

Access for all: aclass in Delhi runby charity groupNo Child In Trash

Suzanne Lee

Latin America

Jude Webber looks ata scheme to issuecomputers to pupilsthat aims to closethe equality gap

The Connected Business

ProfessorHeppell:‘schools arebeing filledwith unskilledclerical tasks’

‘Netbooks aren’tthe only thingneeded, butwithout themreducing the digitalgap is impossible’

Cristina Fernández: spending on education has risen

the digital era needs arethink: “Transformation isnot going to happen justbecause of technology.”

For Ms Gvirtz, the pro-gramme guarantees rightsand social justice and

improves a once vauntedstate school system that hasbeen long in decline.

“It’s not that Argentineeducation is marvellous,”she says. “But there hasbeen a lot of improvement.”

FINANCIAL TIMES WEDNESDAY JULY 17 2013 ★ 3

The Connected Business

Paul TaylorEditor, theConnected Business

Amy KazminSouth Asia correspondent

Jude WebberArgentina, Chile, Uruguay andParaguay correspondent

Jane BirdJournalist specialising intechnology and business

Charlotte ClarkeOnline and social mediaproducer, business education

Jessica TwentymanFreelance journalist

Sarah MurrayFreelance journalist

Adam JezardCommissioning editor

Michael CrabtreePicture editor

Steven BirdDesigner

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quality education directlyfor students wherever theyare – but also to tailorlearning to the individualneeds of students from pre-school age, through schooland college and into theworkplace.

Underpinning thesechanges are technologiessuch as the web and broad-band that provide the trans-port and delivery mecha-nisms for much of the newcontent. These includevideo, to support digitallearning, together withsocial media and other toolsthat foster collaborationand feedback.

But perhaps the mostpowerful and transforma-tive tools being applied toeducation are so-calledadaptive learning, pio-neered by companies suchas New York-based Knew-ton, and predictive analyt-ics, which turn data intoinsights that guide decision-making.

Predictive analytics canhelp teachers forecast stu-dent performance moreaccurately so that lessonscan be more easily adaptedto specific areas of need,rather than delivering aone-size-fits-all curriculum.

“By using data to evalu-ate students in real timeand applying predictivealgorithms, educators candrive more targeted curricu-lums. This should allow ear-lier interventions to ensurethat students are on trackto meet whatever measuresof success exist,” says Con-nectEDU’s Mr Davia.

Meanwhile, other technol-ogy start-ups, such asCoursera, which wasfounded by a group of Stan-ford University graduates toprovide the technologicalunderpinnings for massive

Continued from Page 1

open online courses, orMoocs, are shaking up thedelivery of education inmuch the same way as theUK’s Open University –which effectively provideddistance learning via televi-sion – did in the 1970s.

So far most Moocs,including those establishedby Harvard University,Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology and other topuniversities, have focusedon the higher educationmarket, but that maychange. Ten large US publicuniversities and post-secondary systems havedecided to join forces withCoursera in an effort toenhance the educationaloffering and bridge the gapbetween post-16 and highereducation.

David Reynolds, anequity analyst with Jeffries,wrote in a recent note toinvestors: “While highereducation is the focus fornow, some partners [are]focusing efforts withCoursera directly at [stu-dents aged between five and18], seeking to improve stu-dent readiness for highereducation and consequentlyimprove attainment.”

Anant Agarwal, a profes-sor of electrical engineeringand computer science atMIT and president of edX,and a leading provider ofMoocs, told the FinancialTimes recently: “Onlinelearning is going to betransformative. Traditionaleducation is never going tobe the same again. It hasalready changed.”

But not all educationexperts are convinced.

“Cheerful claims that UShigher education is under-going an irresistible changedriven by digital technologyare unduly optimistic,” saysthe Hudson Institute, aWashington-based researchorganisation, in a reportentitled Beyond Retrofitting:Innovation in Higher Educa-tion.

The authors, AndrewKelly and Frederick Hess,accept that technology hasthe potential to transformhigher education just as ithas other knowledge-basedsectors such as music, jour-nalism and financial serv-ices, where new providershave unbundled goods andservices, and improvedaccess and conveniencewhile reducing costs.

But they argue that tech-nology does not guaranteeinnovation and that entre-preneurs must provide thisdrive.

However, such changes –and not just in higher edu-cation – may be slow to beimplemented, as theydemand the modernisationof educational systems inways that may prove to becontroversial, not leastbecause they are likely tooverthrow generations’worth of received wisdomabout how and what peopleneed to learn.

Without the backing ofthose who design curricu-lums and run institutionsaround the world, thereforms needed by futuregenerations in order todevelop the useful work-place skills of tomorrowcould still be a long timecoming.

Key toteachingfutureskills

On FT.com »

ConnectedBusiness videoPaul Taylor talksfinancial serviceswithEuroclear’sLieve Mostreyft.com/finserv

TransformingIndustry videoTech start­upsand the financialservices worldft.com/fintech

Despite alarming global lev-els of youth unemployment,business investment in edu-cation remains inadequate,particularly in developing

countries. Just how little the privatesector invests emerged at this year’sWorld Economic Forum in Davos.

A paper released by Unesco, the UNcultural agency, found that the com-bined amount spent by corporationsand private foundations on educationin developing countries was just$683m a year.

Many people in the corporate sectoracknowledge this must change, andnot just in developing countries,because, despite the record levels ofjoblessness among the young, compa-nies often struggle to find qualifiedcandidates to fill their vacancies.

One programme in the Middle Eastis aiming to start turning the tide.The Jordan Education Initiative,which has support of businessesincluding Cisco, HP, Microsoft andIBM, uses IT to develop the skills stu-dents need to secure jobs. It not onlyequips schools in the country with

computers, but also develops IT-basedcurriculums and teacher-training soft-ware packages.

“As corporate enterprises, we aregoing to need to do our own re-skill-ing,” says Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn,head of the online learning network atequipment maker Cisco.

The initiative demonstrates that thecorporate sector can contribute morethan in-house training and educationfunding – particularly if companiesharness their internal capabilities todevelop digital teaching methods andonline educational content that canpotentially be used by millions.

However, some young people lackthe most basic of skills. Here, too,technology can help. As part of itscharitable Skills To Succeed pro-gramme, for example, Accenture, theprofessional services company, hasdeveloped games for teenagers basedon its own business simulations.

Users play the role of a character onscreen and, as the game proceeds,make choices and receive coaching.Decisions might help them learn howto create a CV or find out what it is

like to work in different sectors. Otheroptions are designed to overcomesome of the basic obstacles that youngpeople face in finding and keeping ajob. “It can be as simple as the factthat they don’t dress properly or theydon’t use deodorants,” says MikeByrne, head of talent and organisa-tion performance for Accenture in theUK and Ireland.

“The richer the content is and themore choices and options people have,the more powerful the learning tech-nique,” he says.

Employers are also recognising thatthe talents and attributes employeesrequire are changing. Assessment &Teaching of 21st Century Skills, aproject that brings together govern-ments, schools, academics and indus-tries, has identified four categories ofnecessary skills, says Anthony Sal-cito, head of education at Microsoft,one of the project’s sponsors.

These are: how students think crea-tively; how they use tools and data toreach decisions; how they workcollaboratively; and how they thinkabout global issues. Technology plays

a critical role in developing theseskills. This is partly because routinetraining can be provided digitally,which means more time is availablefor face-to-face sessions to focus onso-called softer skills – personal traitsthat enhance a jobseeker’s employa-bility, such as developing emotionalintelligence.

Mr Salcito says social media andother technologies have expandedlearning opportunities.

“Technology enables a level of col-laboration that would have been hardto achieve outside a classroom in thepast,” he says.

Companies are turning to digitalforms of education because they oftenneed to train teams that are dispersedacross the world and because employ-ees today need constant access to edu-cation and training.

“The world is changing so fast,industries are reinventing themselves,and your employees can’t sit still,”says Ms Beliveau-Dunn.

In the absence of the regular, long-term jobs enjoyed by previous genera-tions, IT training can equip people to

start their own businesses, says ChrisCoward, co-founder, of the Universityof Washington Information School’stechnology and social change group.

He sees potential in hybrid models.“People are learning through onlinecourses, using social media to connectwith each other on the course andusing Meetup [a website that allowsgroups with similar interests toarrange meetings] to connect physi-cally,” he says.

However, while face-to-face encoun-ters are likely to remain an importantpart of education, digital training hasbecome a far richer experience than itused to be. Gone are the days whencompanies simply transferred materi-als from hard copy to a website.

Today, whether courses areaccessed via online video, gaming orsocial media sites, students andemployees can now learn in virtualteams and participate in simulationsrather than simply having to absorbinformation passively.

“Collaboration and video are thebreakthrough tools for the nextcentury,” says Ms Beliveau-Dunn.

Online tools canboost chancesof employment

Private sector Businesses are co­operating totrain tomorrow’s workers, writes Sarah Murray

Signing on: would­beemployees apply forwork at a job fair inJakarta Reuters

4 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES WEDNESDAY JULY 17 2013

The Connected Business

Consumer industries areamassing huge data sets,highlighting the importanceof choosing the right ana-lytical models to help makecommercial decisions.

Analysing data is astraightforward matter forstatisticians or engineers,but not for many execu-tives. As a result there isdemand for more commer-cially savvy IT profession-als, known as data scien-tists, and business schoolsare responding to this call.

Imperial College London

recently announced aresearch partnership withChinese telecoms companyHuawei in July. Backed bythe UK government, aca-demic and business expertswill work together todevelop technologies thatutilise “big data” – the termused to describe masses ofinformation harvested fromcommercial activities,social media and othersources.

Another sign of the timescan be seen at University ofOxford Saïd BusinessSchool, which has added abig data module to its MBAprogramme. This is taughtthrough an online platformcalled “Global Opportuni-ties and Threats: Oxford”,and aims to help studentslearn how to ask questionsof the data that will help anorganisation to prosper.

“We want Oxford MBAsto be able to apply newbusiness models that willrespond creatively to thechallenges and opportuni-ties that big data willbring,” says Janet Smart,senior research fellow atSaïd, who specialises in sys-tems engineering and pro-gramme management.

“When an organisationmakes the investment inskills and technicalresources, it needs to beable to generate a return onthat investment. That willrequire people who can askthe questions of the datathat will lead to the action-able insights.”

In the Netherlands, Nyen-rode Business Universiteitis trying to bridge the gapbetween business leadersand cyber knowledge withits Business and IT MBA.

Launched in 2010, the pro-gramme now has more than80 students and is sup-ported by CIONet, Europe’sbiggest community of ITexecutives.

Modules from the pro-gramme have been sharedwith Technical UniversityMunich in Germany andthe University of St Gallenin Switzerland.

“Chie� nformation of�c-ers think their departmentsshould be more prominentin organisations and I thinkthey are right, especiallywhen they are spending€1.3bn a year on IT,” saysprofessor Marcel Creemers,programme director atNyenrode. “The �nancialbusiness model now reliesheavily on IT.”

He recently organised acyber security masterclasswith KPMG, at which

students and invited chiefinformation of�cers tookpart in a business simula-tion of a cyber attack inorder to put together somebest practice measures forcompanies to employagainst hacking.

Meanwhile, the �rstcohort of the Masters inBusiness Analytics courseat the Schulich Schoolof Business at Canada’sYork University is about to

graduate, having spent ayear studying the subject,including work on a dataanalysis project directlyapplicable to the corporateworld.

And in the US, Eric Brad-low and Peter Fader, mar-keting professors known fortheir ability to analyse con-sumer data to predicttrends and formulate busi-ness strategies, are direct-ing Customer Analytics Ini-tiative for the Whartonschool at the University ofPennsylvania.

Jonathan Wareham, vice-dean of research at EsadeBusiness School in Spainand a professor o� nforma-tion systems, says: “Stu-dents are typically resistantto subjects on databasetechnologies, data struc-tures or pure statistics.

“However, when they see

the applications – how thedata can be used to addressreal operational decisions –their attitude changes sub-stantially . . . They see theincredible power thatknowledge of such technolo-gies commands.”

For some academics, how-ever, it is important thatbusiness schools respond tothe emerging trend withcare.

Clive Holtham, professoro� nformation managementat City University CassBusiness School in the UK,says: “Our job is to bring abroader, balanced view[and] the actual value of bigdata is probably less than isbeing claimed.”

Vast quantities of histori-cal data are not necessarilygoing to help you make theright decisions over thecoming months or years, he

says. Furthermore, dataoften come from unreliablesources. Hurricane Sandy,for example, generatedthousands of tweets butmost were from the Man-hattan area. Those in poorareas – who were eitheraffected the worst or justdid not own smartphones –were not represented.

Prof Holtham says:“Rather than worry toomuch about having too fewdata scientists, we shouldworry about whether oursenior managers are numer-ate enough and whether wehave enough critical think-ing skills across the wholeworkforce.”

Business schools need tocontinue teaching quantita-tive and research methods,he adds, methods that havebeen around for a longtime.

MBA providers respond to call for specialists to interpret ‘big data’Business schools

Many executives arestruggling with theinformation delugesays Charlotte Clarke

‘We should worryabout whetherour seniormanagers arenumerate enough’

The topic of big data ismaking its way into theclassroom, and the abilityto analyse information ishelping educators makebetter decisions andcustomise content forindividuals, raising hopes ofimproved results and lowerdropout rates.

In most industries, bigdata (complex informationproduced in huge amounts)come from websites andsocial media as well asdevices such as mobilephones, video recorders,

satellites and sensors.In education, the informa-

tion is generated by every-thing from online learningtools on laptops, mobilephones or tablets to schoolleague tables, studentrecord systems and datacollected by educationdepartments and regulators.

John McAlister, a deci-sion sciences specialist atPA Consulting, says: “Mostparents would be surprisedat the level of data beingcaptured in education.”

However, while large vol-umes of data have longbeen generated by the edu-cation sector, software nowallows this information tobe used to analyse every-thing from the relative suc-cess of different teachingmethods to the length oftime students spend on onetype of course versus

another. Central to the suc-cess of predictive analyticsis the fact that education ismoving into an onlineworld, where activities canbe tracked.

In education, the big dataapproach is “only enabledby an increasing number ofstudents and teachers con-ducting their lives online”,says Gartner, the ITresearch company.

Of course, this raises con-cerns. With schools anduniversities holding suchinformation on the perform-ance of each student andteacher, governments andeducation institutions willneed to establish policies toprotect individuals’ privacy.

However, data analyticspromise many bene�ts.Armed with information,parents and students canmake better choices when

selecting schools and uni-versities. This has particu-lar relevance in countrieswhere tuition fees are risingor governments are cuttingstudent subsidies.

“If you’re moving to aself-funded university sys-tem, students should bemore interested in the dataon different universities,”says Mr McAlister.

When it comes to individ-ual courses, students couldidentify which ones – basedon their personalities – theywould be more likely to suc-ceed in, or those that woulddo most to secure them thejobs they want.

“We could have that per-sonalisation and conven-ience we’ve come to expectin online shopping,” saysEllen Wagner, executivedirector of the WesternInterstate Commission on

Higher Education Co-opera-tive for Educational Tech-nologies, which promotestechnology-enhanced teach-ing in US higher education.

For educators, analyticssoftware provides insightsinto what works best in theclassroom.

Schools or universitiescould use data to identifycourses in which studentsare struggling and comparethem with others wherethey are doing better, allow-ing improvements to bemade. Such methods alsoallow educators to personal-ise study programmes forindividuals based on theirlearning styles, strengthsand weaknesses.

“Institutions are going tobe able to offer a moreengaging learning experi-ence,” says Michael King,head of the global education

industry unit at IBM, thetechnology company.

Customisation can takeplace rapidly. Data gener-ated as students go througha course can be used toinform immediate changesin pace or content.

John Baker, presidentand chief executive ofDesire2Learn, which pro-vides software for educa-tional applications, says:“Instead of everyone usingthe same text book andgoing through it at thesame pace, it’s tailoring theexperience.

“And when you put thistechnology in the handsof teachers and educatorsaround the world, we’reseeing students whowould normally drop out�nishing high school andstudents who are strugglingthrough university getting

better advice,” he adds.Traditional schooling is

also being turned on itshead. Pupils will no longerneed to spend the day inlectures and evenings doinghomework designed to helpabsorb what they learnt inclass.

When highly customisedinstruction can be accessedonline at home, the school

day can be devoted to teamactivities, real-life experi-ences and the practicalapplication of knowledge.

As a result, scarce educa-tional resources can bebetter used. IBM’s Mr Kingsays: “You can use thatexpensive classroom andteacher time to allow thestudents to work in groupsand build other skills.”

Analytics give opportunity to customise learningStudent choices

Courses can easily bepersonalised toensure better results,says Sarah Murray

Work and play: learning can take place o�campus Getty

University education hastraditionally been the pre-serve of relatively wealthypeople in the developedworld. But this has begun

to change with the introduction ofmassive open online courses, orMoocs, that are virtually free andavailable worldwide.

These will not destroy real universi-ties, as some people suggest, saysSimon Nelson, chief executive ofFutureLearn, an online learning plat-form owned by the UK’s Open Univer-sity. “However, they will have a fun-damental impact on higher educationby making it available to people whopreviously wouldn’t have been able toafford it, lacked entry level quali�ca-tions or lived in the wrong place.”

Moocs involve global “classrooms”in which people can watch recordedvideo lectures, take tests, earn certi�-cates and participate in discussiongroups. They have begun to appear inthe past two years, from organisationssuch as Coursera and Udacity, both ofwhich emerged from Stanford Univer-sity, and edX, from Harvard and MIT.

Some Moocs have more than 100,000students. Their size and capacity togrow make them a game changer,says Andrew Ng, co-founder ofCoursera, which has attracted almost4m students to its 400 courses, a thirdof them from developing countries.

Moocs are created by educationalinstitutions – Coursera has 83 provid-ers so far. Initially focused on compu-ter science, they now cover many top-ics including other sciences, arts,humanities, business and �nance.

Mr Nelson sees them as part of a

wide range of online learning options,which include the Open University’sOpenLearn and organisations such asthe Khan Academy and Codeacademy,which provide entertaining and inno-vative online teaching on topics suchas maths and software programming.

FutureLearn, which will launch its�rst courses this year, intends to con-nect these Moocs to the digitisedarchives o� ts partner institutions,the British Library, the British Coun-cil and the British Museum.

One consequence of the explosion inonline education is the prospect ofletting students take a “pick’n’mix”approach and choose courses offeredby different institutions, rather thanbeing restricted to the options offeredby a single campus.

For this “unbundling” to happen,employers would need to recognisenew forms of quali�cations says Wil-liam Lawton, director of the Observa-tory on Borderless Higher Education,a think-tank. Countries would need anational framework, he says.

The technology could also enablethe pooling of foundation coursesbetween universities, Mr Lawton sug-gests, so the same course could beoffered through several institutions.

But such innovations are likely totake 10 or 15 years to come aboutbecause of the threat to vested inter-ests, he believes. Lack of funds mayalso cause delays.

Edinburgh University spent £250,000developing its �rst six Moocs,launched on Coursera in January.

Jeff Haywood, the university’svice-principal, says the main motiva-tion is educational research and

experimentation. “Our aim is partlyto learn how online technologies canbe used on campus. For example, weplan to try incorporating our equinenutrition Mooc into the undergradu-ate veterinary science curriculum.”Reputation is another factor. “Wewant to be seen as at the forefront oftechnology in education and investingin the future,” says Prof Haywood.

Raising revenue is not a primarygoal, but Edinburgh has licensed phi-losophy and critical thinking Moocs tothe University of Maryland.

The technology has limitations,says Mr Ng. “We are at the early

stages of �guring out how to make ita more social experience, so peoplecan �nd friends for life this way justas they do at a traditional university.”

Nor is it suitable for hands-on sub-jects such as sports or neurosurgery.Certi�cation also presents challenges.Coursera has developed technologythat veri�es a student’s identity usinga webcam and typing rhythm analy-sis. Then there are cultural issues.Men in the Middle East may not wantto watch a lecture given by a womanwithout a headscarf, says Dr Lawton.

The bene�t for developing countriesis about meeting demand, he says. In

the developing world, there are notenough teachers to cope with growingneed for higher education.

Edinburgh’s Prof Haywood sees theimportance of Moocs as stimulatingdiscussion on new methods o© earn-ing and education. It is “inconceiva-ble” that teaching will be the same in10 years, he says.

“The evidence can be seen in thefact that vice-chancellors and seniordecision makers in education are talk-ing about online learning and how tomodernise and innovate in traditionalcampus settings, rather than stickingto their usual focus on funding.”

Students tunein to lectures asclassroom wallsbegin to vanish

MoocsOnline learningmethods are dissolvingthe longstanding barriers that have kept peopleout of higher education, reportsJane Bird

‘We are at the early stageso� guring out how to makeit a more social experience’

Teaching a class of 100,000 studentsmight seem daunting to the averagelecturer, but not to Matt McGarrity fromthe University of Washington. By thetime his massive open online course, orMooc, on public speaking began onJune 24, 87,000 students hadregistered, and 1,000 more were signingup each day.

“It’s very exciting and an amazingopportunity to be teaching one of thebiggest audiences in the world, ever,”says Mr McGarrity. The numbers willalso please the Gates Foundation, whichput up $50,000 to support the course.

Mr McGarrity expects his students towatch 90 minutes ofl ectures a week,which can be viewed in short chunks.Students are encouraged to take online

tests, undertake speech assignments,and interact with others in forums,spending a total of three to five hourseach week online. There is no text book.

The data regarding who has signedup are intriguing. Most are over 25, andalthough 24 per cent are from the US,the rest are scattered worldwide, with10 per cent from coming from India.

“This shows the Mooc is not a threatto bricks and mortar universityteaching,” says Mr McGarrity. “The realsurprise is that 40 per cent alreadyhave an advanced degree and the vastmajority are professionals.”

Fewer than half will complete thecourse, says Mr McGarrity, and onlysome of those will participate fully,taking part in discussion forums and

posting speeches for peer review.Mr McGarrity is still preparing the

lectures, because much of the materialhe uses in face-to-face training does notwork online.

“It has to be accessible for peoplefrom Belize or Moscow. Ensuring it isnot overly westernised or limited totopics ofi nterest to the developed worldhas been the biggest challenge.”

He is trying to focus on techniqueand raise awareness, as opposed todealing with specific topics. “I wouldnever universalise any one publicspeaking technique, although I am usingthe English language and thewesternised tradition of rhetoric.”

Mr McGarrity also wants to minimisethe risk of political antagonism in the

assignments. “For example, you wouldavoid asking a Palestinian to talk abouthow the settlements on the West Bankare entirely justified.”

Adapting to the camera was alsodi�cult, says Mr McGarrity, who hashad some blunt criticism from students,as people thought he spoke too quicklyduring some of his early lectures.

Nor have all students appreciated hisanimated hand gestures, which he sayshe has developed over years o� ace-to-face lectures to stop people gettingbored. “Some really like it, but othersthink I am karate chopping,” he says.“People in Asia think it’s rude when Ipoint at the camera.”

Jane Bird

Case study Meet the public speaking lecturer who has to address a class of 87,000 and counting

On course: model Mackenzie Drazan of California completes her high school calculus homework behind the catwalk during New York Fashion Week in February Reuters