Reinventing education for the post-Covid era

Every challenge is an opportunity. Covid-19 has made the institutions of higher learning switch to creative education and technology that delivers great content and engages students effectively. While several educational institutions have resisted change in the past and followed their old-school-methods of learning, the current times have compelled them to do what is the need of the hour.

Innovation and creativity in education can help our existing generation of students to keep getting quality education, no matter where the disruptions take them. The optimum use of new technologies such as IoT and AI enrolled in the advanced curricula today translates into the unique needs that students require to hone their skills and deliver the best solutions to the evolving needs of the markets.

Professional institutions of learning, have always been active in preparing the students for the existing and new creative practices of tomorrow. Providing students with multiple extra-curriculum courses certified by universities worldwide ensures that students develop their knowledge to the evolving needs of the professional market. And fortunately, the tools to ensure such disruptive learning are at our hands.

Creative fields

In the present times, the world has changed rapidly, so has the role of the educational Institutions. The creative industry and its impact on the existing societies will always remain in a constant evolution. Therefore, the role of educators in delivering advanced teaching methodologies to the students becomes more relevant, especially in the field of creative studies such as Fashion, Media, New-Age Business and Design. The innovative use of creativity in delivering much advanced curricula to the students will eventually help them in solving even the highly complex problems of our times.

In a nutshell, innovation is the result of any design process. And the potential of the innovation and creativity in delivering solutions to the complex challenges, stays much more relevant now than ever before. Hence, the importance of creative studies in overall development of the students diversifies with new practices. It provides a broader canvas to the students to inculcate new innovations and improve their intellect.

The educators also need to work towards preparing students to be more independent, collaborative, and self-aware.

Role of students

Students also need to be more open to learn and adapt themselves to changing modes of education and advanced technology. They need to indulge themselves in research and become more creative and innovative. For instance, creative design as a process has two phases: an analytical phase of finding and discovery, and a synthetic phase of invention and making.

The students must embrace both these phases and involve themselves in re-thinking, experiencing new innovations, reflecting and re-learning. Students of creative studies should practice the skills taught online more independently. This will help them in becoming more proactive while improving their workflow and time management.

(The author is dean, School of Creative Practice, Pearl Academy )