The Future of Education

This contribution studies the new forms of work that arise as a consequence of the pandemic, and presents how students in education can be prepared for these forms of work. More and more discussions concern adjustments to remote work. This also applies to the academy, which then has a responsibility, not only to change work towards distance forms, but also train students in these for their future professional career. A survey was conducted during the autumn semester of 2020 when a course in Software Engineering, which normally is dependent on physical meetings, was forced to be given completely online. The outcome was documented by the teachers during the course through continuous discussions and investigations, and was later compiled into a conference contribution, which is currently in a peer-review process [1]. Among the discussions it was mentioned that we may experience a ‘game-changer’, and more precisely that in the future we may work globally and distributed, i.e., independently of a localized office. Globally, it is possible to see discussions regarding such a 'game-changer'. At the World Economic Forum's Davos Agenda 25-29 January, 2021, the possible future labor market was discussed via the article [2]. This as a reflection on the situation that has arisen that the pandemic has contributed to, and future possible consequences of this. Similar discussions on the expansion of remote work, are covered, e.g., in [3] and [4], which in turn demands for new responsibilities at academia, with respect to adjustments in courses to meet challenges of future remote work. The contribution presents changes in teaching so that this corresponds well with a shift in the IT-industry towards remote working. New teaching elements are implemented in larger project courses, where the focus is on online-based development with modern tools for testing and integration. Process models that were previously seen as flexible and efficient, but have been dependent on physical meetings, are adjusted to be able to be performed distributed and remote. Studies of corresponding changes in the regional IT-industry are reported, as well as psycho-social consequences of the new forms of working.

Keywords: Software Engineering, Distributed Development, Future Remote Work Methods, Agile Online.

References:

1. Einarson D., & Teljega M., Effects of Migrating Large-Scaled Project Groups to Online Development Teams, submitted to The 17th International CDIO Conference
2. Vijayakumar C., Workplace disrupted – five themes that will define the future of work, World Economic Forum, The Davos Agenda 2021. 14 Jan 2021
3. Sault S., What you need to know about the future of work, , World Economic Forum, The Davos Agenda 2021. 24 Jan 2021
4. Evans K. (contact), Third Annual “Future Workforce Report” Sheds Light on How Younger Generations are Reshaping the Future of Work, UpWork