Dear Commons Community,
EDUCAUSE has just published its Horizon Report for 2025. Based on a survey of global leaders, merging trends and key technologies and practices are identified. This report surfaces not only what is changing but how and why these shifts are happening. Here is an excerpt from the Executive Summary.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Higher education is moving through a period defined not by a single disruption but by a complex layering of global trends.
From climate instability to shifting global economic dynamics, institutions are facing pressures that stretch far beyond the campus gates. At the same time, institutions, educators, and students alike are navigating challenges including shifting learner expectations, demographic changes, workforce realignments, and persistent questions about the value of higher education.
Technological advancement, particularly in AI and virtual reality, is reshaping how students engage with content, how cognition is understood, and how learning itself is documented and valued. Political and regulatory landscapes are evolving in ways that both challenge and redefine the role of higher education. Taken together, these forces form a backdrop of a field that no longer enjoys the luxury of being able to evolve slowly.
This year’s teaching and learning Horizon Report captures the spirit of transformation through the lens of emerging trends, key technologies and practices, and scenario-based foresight. This report surfaces not only what is changing but how and why these shifts are happening. The insights and provocations offered here reflect the perspectives of a global panel of experts who brought deep knowledge and diverse experiences to bear. Their contributions, grounded in modified Delphi methodology supported by tools from the Institute for the Future, illuminate multiple possible futures and the choices institutions face now to shape the learning landscape of tomorrow.
Key Technologies and Practices
After trends were established, panelists were asked to describe the key technologies and practices they believed would have a significant impact on the future of teaching and
learning, especially focusing on those that would accelerate or impede the trends. The results of the panel vote brought six technologies/practices to the top of a long list:
- AI Tools for Teaching and Learning
- Faculty Development for Generative AI
- AI Governance
- Shoring Up Cybersecurity
- Evolving Teaching Practices
- Critical Digital Literacy
Panelists were then asked to identify the ways in which stakeholders might leverage the technology or practice to support teaching and learning; potential risks higher education stakeholders might face when implementing that particular technology or practice; and, finally, the potential impact on creating a welcoming environment.
The entire report is 55 pages long and is worth a read.
Tony
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