Harnessing information and communication technologies for effective knowledge creation: Shaping the future of education

Purpose Education is subject to the same pressures as a business, it has to spur innovation, improve customer service and achieve operational excellence. Education is expected to solve intricate problems that heralded the twenty-first century. Niche areas emerged in education that need further study and research. The authors postulate such demands may be met by information and communication technologies (ICTs) that opened up the avenue for innovation and experimentation in education. One such innovation is online learning and massive open online courses (MOOCs) that represent immense opportunities in education. With their advent, even the permanent relevance of physical classrooms has been questioned. The purpose of this paper is to answer to all these questions and attempts to fill gaps in the understanding of the future of education. Design/methodology/approach The paper came into being after a review of literature pertaining to the changing ecosystem of education and an analysis of newer platforms like MOOCs. The paper surveyed books, scholarly articles, reports, conference proceedings and online databases in the area of education and related technological developments. Findings The existence of MOOCs in the education landscape cannot be ignored. This is proven by the fact that MOOC enrollment surpassed 35 million users in 2015. MOOCs were considered a popular concept in the developed world to start with. But, today MOOCs are being offered by universities in developing nations too. As the number of participant countries increases, MOOCs in vernacular languages are being developed to overcome the language barrier. The paper found that the online model cannot replace the brick and mortar model completely. Rather, it will complement it by providing an enriching experience to various stakeholders, including the learner and the instructor. In the future, students will have the advantage of a blended classroom where the best of online and offline models converge into an optimal experience. Research limitations/implications As the theme of the paper is new and the educational landscape continues to evolve, it is very difficult to determine the pace of transformation of education. However, the authors have tried to suggest a conceptual framework for the future in education, subject to empirical validation. Practical implications This paper helps us understand that we are in a rapidly evolving scenario where innovations have the potential to disrupt the existing model. Such disruptions can have behavioral, economical and social ramifications. A better understanding of such alterations will help academicians equip themselves for evolving classrooms and the changing nature of their jobs. The new ICT enabled ecosystem will also try to overcome issues related to the quality of education and knowledge dissemination. Originality/value The present paper is a comprehensive study of the opportunities and challenges posed by emerging classrooms.