Growing artificial Intelligence at work justifies online learning

Nov 17, 2020

Universities should place a strong emphasis on practical skills by incorporating practical work into the curricular and by changing the grading system to reflect that.

Without a doubt, the attack on the lives of the businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, justifies more need for advancement in technology in our workplaces. This means, the way we lecture students, should be in tandem with the changing technology and the change in the way we have to teach these students. 

Businesses would not function without high speed internet, smartphones, tablets, office productivity suites, electronic money transfer, email and the World Wide Web. 
My focus in this article, is to remind all fellow lecturers and policy makers, that the times have changed and we may not completely go back to the olden times of doing things. 

The impact of technology in the workplace range from the tools we use to collaborate, communicate and connect with others to the tools we use to connect buyers with goods. In a word, advanced technology in the workplace has made business processes highly integrated, and more streamlined. The cumulative effect of this is the dramatic improvement in productivity within the workspace and across the globe. 

Not long ago, companies drowned in paperwork and because the process was manual and inefficient, the data needed to make critical decisions were not available. Today, with COVID-19, which has not made the issue any lighter, means that the document automation and powerful search engines, it is easy to find any data in a split second, regardless of how large the dataset. 

Not long ago, it was not possible to hold geographically dispersed meetings without everyone traveling to a central location. As of today, most companies are using Zoom, Teams and several other technologies such as Skype, Goto Meetings.
 With advanced technology, what used to take hours now takes only a few minutes.
 Here are some advanced technologies that impact the workplace, which I would want to bring to the attention of students and lecturers. 

Process Automation: There are two types of process automation: Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Business Process Automation (BPM.) RPA automates tasks that are repetitive and time-consuming. BPM is the automation of end-to-end business processes. Automation impacts the workplace by increasing efficiency, reducing human error, and lowering operational costs. It enables enterprises by allowing employees to focus on high-value functions such as strategic decision-making and creative problem-solving. 

Communication Technology (CT): CT allows the rapid sharing of information either within an organization or with business partners and customers. Smartphones, social networking sites and other communication applications have enabled faster dialogue among employees, management, customers, suppliers and distributors. By enabling faster transmission, clarification and use of information, decisions are made faster and business transactions are completed at a faster rate.

Cloud technology: The cost of storing the huge amount of data that the use of advanced technology in the workplace can generate is high if the traditional approach of in-house data storage is utilized. Cloud computing, the outsourcing of an organizations technical infrastructure to the cloud, reduces the cost of data storage and access. Cloud platforms are designed to shift workspaces into the global village, increase remote access to data and applications and ensure security and reliability for the enterprise.

What should be done?
The use of advanced technologies in the workplace requires people with a new type of skill sets: the ability to be flexible; Ability to read, write and most importantly, problem solve and make decisions from data. We have also seen that with advanced technologies, jobs will become less routine and emphasis will be placed on those who are adept with technology and with human skills and demonstrate advanced expertise.

As we look towards the near future, amidst the awakening of COVI-19, we see advances in Artificial Intelligence-driven technologies being integrated increasingly into factories and businesses. Robotics and Machine-learning are also here and together, they will increase the range and amount of work that can be done by smart machines. 

With advanced technology enabling remote workers, people are no longer limited to looking for jobs in their immediate environment, they can use the internet to find remote jobs or positions available to freelancers from anywhere.

Universities can help students to prepare for this brave new world by moving away from a traditional education that prepares students for the industrial age that is bygone to transitioning to the new age. Universities can do this by changing what they teach and how they teach.

Transition to the New Age 
To train for the present and for the future universities must be future-focused. A review of what most universities teach seem to be out of touch with the requirements of modern day society. When revising curricular, universities must ensure that students will learn the skills needed to communicate well, have the confidence and skills to design and use the new tools for communicating, collaborating, securing data, analyzing and interpreting data. 

Universities should teach the skills and problem-solving ability needed for the jobs of today and for the future. Teaching should use multiple techniques to inculcate creativity, passion, experience, expertise, and skill sets needed for the job market. 

Rote learning, cramming, dictating to students will not produce innovators and competent operators of the advanced technology used in industry. Companies are seeking graduates with problem-solving ability and task performance competencies, not students who can regurgitate irrelevant facts.

Universities should place a strong emphasis on practical skills by incorporating practical work into the curricular and by changing the grading system to reflect the importance of practical. At present, the 70/30 or 60/40 grading system favors theory rather than practice. This should be reversed so that practicals take 70% or 60% of the marks. As is abundantly clear, the traditional grading system where emphasis is placed on theory has not worked well and will not prepare students for the current or future job market. 

It is only by moving away from an old-fashioned traditional approach to teaching to a more relevant, interactive mode of learning that our universities can prepare our students for the change that is taking place and will continue to take place.

The writer is the Vice Chancellor for the International University of East Africa 

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