Rethinking online education

[Music]

education

as a fundamental human right is an

inherently democratic ideal

the word democracy comes from the

ancient greek demos

meaning common people and kratos meaning

power

and throughout history it’s been a

pretty universally recognized concept

that knowledge is power it is precisely

our universal education system

and the free exchange of this knowledge

that has propelled our human society

forward

at a pace unimaginable to our ancestors

but the double-edged sword of this

accelerated pace of change

brought on by modern technologies is

that our modern world is leaving the

majority of people behind

creating a widening gap between the new

knowledge elites

and everyone else we’ve all seen the

news we’re in the middle of a

technological revolution

the internet is all around us and yet it

feels

untrustworthy millions and millions of

people

are being told that in the future of

work they need to re-skill

in order to remain relevant or that

robots might take their jobs

even those of us with university

educations now find ourselves in a

rapidly evolving and uncertain workplace

that we were not prepared for when

online courses debuted in 2011

they purported to be a solution to all

of these problems

by giving the keys to elite education to

anyone with an internet connection

massive open online courses or moocs

promise to democratize knowledge once

and for all

the only problem is nearly a decade

later

that hasn’t happened research compiled

by the international council for open

and distance learning

shows that of all the people who have

ever completed an online course

over 80 percent already hold a

university degree

that men outnumber women at 56 percent

and that amongst individual subjects

such as stem

the typical gender divide still exists

online

now for those of you who work in higher

education or online education

these statistics are nothing new but

when these topics are discussed blame is

typically placed on the very notion that

it’s impossible to reach

or engage with people off campus and

that any sort of

ed tech solution that purports to be

able to do this

should be met with skepticism but what i

would like to argue today

is that traditional institutions and

online course platforms

have actually not attempted to adapt

tertiary education

to the needs of our hectic modern

lifestyles let alone

on attracting typically marginalized

groups and that doing so

can make all the difference what i’m

working on now with my team at reactor

is to rethink online education using

human centered design thinking

that may sound like something a little

bit out of the box but actually

most of the products that we know and

use today were done with design thinking

so why not online education as a very

basic principle

design thinking means to understand

empathize with

and to find your end user ahead of

designing the concept and build of your

product

then everything about your product from

why it exists to what it consists of

to how it is delivered and how it adapts

to ongoing feedback

is centered around considering the needs

and experiences

of your users imagine for the moment the

background of a typical person

looking to upskill or re-skill online or

even somebody who’s just looking to gain

a general understanding of a topic that

they’ve had no prior background in

regardless as to their prior educational

attainment they are very likely to be

time poor

whether they’re job seeking working full

time or taking care of family

they also most likely belong to the 80

percent of europeans who access the

internet primarily on their mobile

phones

mostly using just a few of their

familiar applications

for this person online education needs

to be bite-sized

easily digestible approachable in tone

and feel

and most importantly mobile friendly it

also helps if it’s fun

bringing online education into where it

actually happens in most people’s lives

their free time the vast majority of

online courses today

were designed for full-time university

students

and they are delivered in tone and

format to those

already familiar with and majoring in

their subject areas

but what about the rest of us what about

the over 200 million people

between the ages of 25 and 65 in europe

and the us

alone who do not hold a university

degree

what about people like me with an

educational background in the humanities

a perspective so desperately needed in

technology today

where do we go to feel like there’s

content for us

and how can we all work together to

close the diversity gap in education in

areas like

gender socioeconomic background and

region

in recent years the knowledge gap in

technology especially

has grown even wider and faster than

ever before

we are starting to understand on a

societal level

the consequences that this can have on

everything from creating inclusive

technologies

to maintaining trust in our democracies

to future-proofing

our economies like many others my career

journey to work in tech

was not a linear narrative in my quest

to translate the world around me into a

language that i could understand

i had the great fortune to come across

and now join a project

that is redefining the space of online

learning

my team at reactor education teamed up

with the university of helsinki

to create a free online course called

elements

of ai and now two and a half years on

it’s become somewhat of a global

phenomenon

artificial intelligence is like

electricity

it will shape our world in ways that we

are just now imagining

so our idea was a simple democratic one

if ai like knowledge is power

then it should not be left in the hands

of a few elite coders

but how do you go about taking a subject

at the cutting edge of computer science

and putting it in the hands of citizens

just coming to terms

with digital literacy working with

professor tamuruz

at the university of helsinki we

combined world-class education

with design thinking to create a course

on the basics of ai

specifically aimed at people who are

typically left out of technology

discussions

we gathered focus groups from our target

demographics

and asked them how they felt about the

subject and the way in which it is

delivered

we were told that ai is elitist

confusing

and intimidating that they were over

saturated by information

and they didn’t know where to go to get

clear concise

explanations with practical real world

examples that

anyone could understand understanding

not just the subject

but the delivery we were able to build a

product with a user experience that is

intuitive

just like the other apps and websites

that people are familiar with in their

daily lives

we did all of this with a mobile first

build so that our students could take

the course on their bus ride to work

we worked with copy editors and

designers to make sure that our content

was conversational

and that our graphics are inviting and

approachable

and as anyone who’s ever created a

digital product will tell you

it’s not enough just to create something

and put it online

expecting people to find it the same

goes with online education

particularly if you are trying to

attract typically marginalized groups

who feel left out of that space ahead of

launching the course

we set a public challenge for ourselves

and anyone who would join us

to educate one percent of finland’s

population on the basics of ai

it started with a local social media

campaign called the ai challenge

that grew after we threw a public

ceremony for all of our first graduates

hosted by the president of finland our

growth since

has been completely organic spurred on

by grassroots movements

amongst our students and our global

partners

all aiming to educate people in their

areas who would otherwise

be left out of the ai conversation

with our course we have reached everyone

from presidents

to prisoners to retirees for

us inclusivity means building online

education

for students that other classrooms leave

behind

now featured in over 500 media outlets

around the world

the oecd has cited elements of ai

as one of the reasons finland will

succeed in the 21st century

we are working now to expand this model

globally

with local partners and hope to

encourage others

through our success to form similar

collaborations connecting people

and technology after exceeding our goal

of educating one percent of finland’s

population on the basics of ai

we partnered with the finnish office of

the european presidency

and the european commission to translate

elements of ai

into every official european language

the first course online to do so

we are now currently rolling this course

out to every eu country

forming partnerships on the ground with

governments universities and local

organizations to make sure that this

course gets in the hands of the people

who need it most

and now over two years later we have

over 540 000 students globally

but most importantly over 40 percent of

those students are women

more than double the average of every

other computer science course online

looking back the partnership that we

formed between a private sector

technology firm and a public sector

university

was an important catalyst in helping us

to rethink online education

and the relationships that we have

formed since with our local partners

have shown us that truly democratizing

learning is a collaborative effort both

on

and offline it may seem like a daunting

task

but there are so many groups of people

under represented in the space of online

education

that it is enough to just get started by

listening to those

you want to reach most if you were able

to consider

the daily realities of your target

students how might you

rethink your approach there’s clearly no

one-size-fits-all silver bullet here but

if knowledge

is power how and with whom we choose to

share it

will be the defining feature of our

future society

i hope today at least that i’ve inspired

some of you to join us

in designing for a truly democratic one

thank you