The rise of the global campus
Extending the university campus into the virtual space is not an entirely new concept but it has been accelerated by COVID. At the epicentre of the transition is Gideon Shimshon, Associate Principal, Digital Learning & Innovation and Director of QM Online at Queen Mary University of London. He explains where we’re heading.
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The campus is changing – inevitably, irrevocably and extraordinarily. Of that, Gideon Shimshon is sure. Through COVID, there have been some ingenious wins as well as some tough losses as ‘crisis teaching’ has catapulted teachers and students into unknown territory. But the fourth industrial revolution, that of ‘digital first’, at undergraduate and post-graduate level, has been in the pipeline for some time.
Gideon is proof of that shift: he arrived mid-pandemic at Queen Mary in July 2020, after three years as Director of Digital Learning and Innovation at Imperial College and five years at Leiden University leading the Centre for Innovation where he founded the Online Learning and New Media lab. As an expert in the future of education as well as non-traditional applications of emerging technologies, there are few so virtually tuned in as he.
"The dynamics of COVID have helped organisations understand they can do things they didn't think possible," he says before setting out a powerful if controversial proposition that "an online university offer is arguably better academically than an on-campus experience. As a university we regularly unpick the classroom, redesign the way we offer learning to our students and look at new modalities and technologies. It requires effort to transform a course online but we've seen that every time you take people through that journey, they gain a lot of insights into how to improve their teaching."
The current campus set-up still has some time to run, and Gideon would retain certain in-person events – ‘nothing beats the collective experience of hearing an inspiring speaker in a lecture theatre’ – but he is not here to deliver ‘back to normal’. Instead he is asking, ‘How much of learning will now be offered in a digital format? Can we teach at scale and leverage digital for the benefit of our students wherever they are in the world?’
Remote learning is not new: back in the 1880s officers in the colonies earned their degrees via correspondence courses. In the 1960s computer scientists across the world developed a knowledge sharing system that would become known as the Internet.
"We're in a new phase, broadening out the way we teach and learn across the globe." Coming soon, Queen Mary students could follow a campus-based or multi-location Master’s – or a blend of the two, their tutor by their virtual side. A recent AR (augmented reality) project, successfully used headsets to replicate the ward visits medical students undertake, and enabled lecturers to select and comment on the most instructive cases, not always available on a real visit. Science students could feasibly use a lab anywhere in the world, to learn online with their Queen Mary cohort and teacher.
What all this does to the hidden curriculum – the one that gets you selected for an Olympic rowing team, turns you into stand-up with your own YouTube channel or bonds you into lifetime friendships – Gideon believes is less important these days. In our increasingly digitised world, social connections are made through diverse channels: Aula, adopted by Coventry University, Engageli, Slack or relative old faithfuls, Zoom and Teams are some of the players he cites. If he could invest in improvements however, it would be to align the screen and camera on devices so people look at each other properly. Such subtleties can make a big difference in engagement.
The potential of digital first makes Gideon shine as he talks: of a globalised educational approach collaborating to solve some of humankind’s challenges; of how the university can have a bigger impact on people’s lives by making digital courses available to thousands more top-notch candidates; of how he wants Queen Mary to be a ‘community campus’. Situated in Tower Hamlets, a deprived, densely populated borough in East London, 69%* of the population belong to minority ethnic groups. A number of Queen Mary’s students are local, often the first in their family to go to university. Degree apprenticeships already enable students to work and study concurrently and there are online boot camps to help graduates skill up to get a job.
In development, too, are educational offers aimed at local secondary school pupils to create a funnel for the university as well as access for traditionally non-university audiences. "Through digital learning and with dynamic online teaching tools we can remove geographical and socio-economic barriers and give students access to Queen Mary. It’s bringing the campus to the widest community possible, for lifelong learning and it can make us the most inclusive university there is."
*Borough statistics - The higher education journey of young Tower Hamlets residents, June 2016
Biography: Gideon Shimshon
Gideon spent the past three years at Imperial College London as Director of Digital Learning and Innovation. Previously, he spent 5 years at Leiden University leading the Centre for Innovation where he founded the Online Learning and New Media lab, as well as HumanityX, a knowledge hub for scientists and practitioners interested in applying Big Data Analytics to the fields of peace and justice.