Higher education is evolving continuously with the new age of digital exploration. Even though metaverse has been in existence for decades, it is now gaining heavy traction. Along with that, data science and cybersecurity are trends and have also captured the attention of the IT world.
Cybersecurity, data science, and the metaverse are exponential markets, where the global market size of cybersecurity is estimated to reach around $370 billion by 2028 growing at a CAGR of 12% from $153.16 billion in 2020, while the global data science market is expected to value a little over $80 billion by 2027 with a CAGR of 11.1% and the global metaverse market is predicted to expand at a CAGR of 41.7% from 2021 to 2030.
With these next big technologies and fast-growing lucrative markets, it is essential to reinvent the higher education of tomorrow to shape and future-proof it with advancing technologies like data science, cybersecurity, and the metaverse.
Cybersecurity:
Cybersecurity is a practice that aims to protect networks, systems, and programs from harmful digital attacks. These attacks usually access, change or destroy sensitive information and use it to extort money or use it to disrupt the flow of business if any. Cybersecurity in higher education will play a crucial role as the data of the students as well as teachers are sensitive and need to be protected when all the data is stored online. Over the years attackers have developed many innovative ideas, which causes tension in the higher education system.
Data science:
Data Science is a field that uses scientific methods and processes using algorithms and systems. It attracts insights, knowledge from structured and unstructured data. Data science applies the knowledge and insights acquired from this data to take action against a broad range of application domains. The techniques used by data science vary from the field of statistics, computer science, domain knowledge, etc. The implementation of data science in higher education will benefit the education system greatly. The future of data scientists, easy checking of plagiarism, implementation in research work are some ways data science will enhance the future world.
Metaverse:
Metaverse is a network of 3D virtual worlds that focuses on social connection. In the previous years, metaverse has been popular in the fiction world and now has gained its popularity on various virtual platforms. Metaverse includes technologies of virtual reality and augmented reality which aims to combine the physical and digital world. Metaverse has created its own space that even higher education has engaged in building technologies in the education system. Due to technological advancement and education classes being in a hybrid model, metaverse will help the education system greatly by using virtual and augmented reality.
Emerging technologies and higher education:
The future of higher education is more about hyper-personalization, with data science, metaverse, and cybersecurity solutions. In the growing ecosystem of digital spaces, networks, the metaverse is even deeper and would influence our daily activities and interactions in both physical and virtual worlds. This already has implications for higher education because of how it can be accessed by learners, how information is created, and the ways the learners will interact and connect.
Data Science adds benefit to semi-structured and unstructured data:
Data science on the other hand adds to the benefit of making more informed decisions about every individual student and analyzing the data to improve outcomes. It requires skills in math, computer science, and a lot more to understand what would drive a student’s behavior. Higher education is most likely to benefit from continuous real-time recommendations with semi-structured and unstructured data to learn from the metaverse and aid in predicting future outcomes.
Cybersecurity is an integral part of the digital world:
Cybersecurity will aid in securing the metaverse to protect the metaverse and the data from vulnerability. A decade from now cybersecurity would become an integral part of higher education. As hackers will be lurking behind every window screen, technology giants would take over higher education’s cybersecurity. This would leverage campus technologies, computing power with the collaboration of higher education.
Technologies are under continuous upgradation:
These technologies are still being developed, still being transformed to enable cybersecurity, data science, and the metaverse to achieve new heights. As these technologies come with a huge learning curve for higher education, these technologies are the future and organizations need to prepare enough to make sense of this new technological world.
