Arab Educational Information Network

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, much still feels the same, though in some important ways thinking and behaviors may be shifting in anticipation of longer-term changes in the ways lives are structured and how places and spaces are shared. In higher education, these shifts may reflect an evolution from short-term "emergency" or "reactive" modes of offering education during extraordinary circumstances to making strategic and sustainable investments in a future that will be very much unlike the past. As this year's teaching and learning Horizon panelists gathered to reflect on current trends and the future of higher education, many of their discussions and nominations suggest that change may be here to stay and that there will be no return to "normal" for many institutions. To provide an expansive view of the shifting global landscape, panelists were asked to identify trends across five categories: social, technological, economic, environmental, and political. This report summarizes the results of those discussions and nominations and serves as one vantage point on where the future may be headed. This project was grounded in a modified Delphi methodology that seeks to elevate the collective perspectives and knowledge of a diverse group of experts, and the panelists' activities were facilitated using tools adapted from the Institute for the Future. (ERIC)