So, what learning is needed for college graduates to successfully navigate the worlds of work and life in the 21st Century?  Are the needs of college learners different from the needs higher education institutions have historically served?  How are students changing? (see Oblinger (2003) new generation student characteristics) We believe that the global environment our students will enter affects the needs they have as learners.  Increasingly, graduates will be working in a global arena where they will be called on to both collaborate and compete with diverse groups of people from around the world. This environment of collaboration and competition spurs innovation and change and requires college graduates develop the ability to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing environment.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities recognized the challenges for education in the 21st century and formed a national panel of scholars, business leaders, government leaders, and educators to examine the types of learning needed by college graduates in the 21st Century (AAC&U, 2002).  The panel concluded that:

Students will continue to pursue different specializations in college.  But across all fields, the panel calls for higher education to help college students become intentional learners who can adapt to new environments, integrate knowledge from different sources, and continue learning throughout their lives.  To thrive in a complex world, these intentional learners should also become:

• Empowered through the mastery of intellectual and practical skills
• Informed by knowledge about the natural and social worlds and about forms of inquiry basic to these studies
• Responsible for their personal actions and for civic values (AAC&U, 2002, p xi).

Building on the work begun in "Greater Expectations", The National Leadership Council for Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP) reported that a consensus is emerging among educators and employers about what learning is needed for America's future (LEAP, 2007) stating that:

• In an era when knowledge is the key to the future, all students need the scope and depth of learning that will enable them to understand and navigate the dramatic forces - physical, cultural, economic, technological-that directly affect the quality, character, and perils of the world in which they live.
• In an economy where every industry - from the trades to advanced technology enterprises - is challenged to innovate or be displaced, all students need the kind of intellectual skills and capacities that enable them to get things done in the world, at a high level of effectiveness.
• In a democracy that is diverse, globally engaged, and dependent on citizen responsibility, all students need an informed concern for the larger good because nothing else will renew our fractured and diminished commons.
• In a world of daunting complexity, all students need practice in integrating and applying their learning to challenging and real-world problems.
• In a period of relentless change, all students need the kind of education that leads them to ask not just "how do we get this done?" but also "what is most worth doing?" (LEAP, 2007, p. 12).  

Pii is committed to partnering with faculty to prepare OU students for the 21st Century. To help address the academic needs of students, we are emphasizing developing course designs that meet academic course goals established by faculty and their departments through unique learning experiences that prepare students for of life and work in an increasingly complex global environment.   We have selected thematic emphasis areas for the next several years that will help faculty develop immersive learning activities that prepare our graduates for the complexities of career and life in a rapidly changing world. 

Service Learning, Writing Across the Curriculum, Inquiry Based Learning, Team Based Learning, and Technology Enhanced Learning are all instructional strategies that help students develop habits of mind that will prepare them in their roles as global citizens and global leaders.  Our new web site is designed to provide faculty a virtual organizational space to create and share instructional innovations that will prepare our students to make positive contributions to a global society.  For more information on how this will work, see the article "Pii Roadmap to Instructional Innovation: A Guide to the new Pii Web Environment".

  References:

Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).  "Greater Expectations: A New Vision        for Learning as a Nation Goes to College". Washington, DC: AAC&U. 2002.

National Leadership Council for Liberal Education & America's Promise (LEAP). "College Learning for     the New Global Century".  Washington, DC: AAC&U.  2007.