The need for competitive skilled workers is leading colleges to develop a shared-skills data platform for both applied and technical learning and training that utilizes face-to-face, hybrid, online, and virtual reality as learning platforms.
Such is the case for Motlow State Community College in Tennessee. Dr. Michael Torrence, President of Motlow State presented his vision for immersive learning experiences at the recent virtual REMOTE Summit hosted by Arizona State University. Under his leadership, Motlow State has transformed into a cutting-edge, award winning institution that has now partnered with GlobalMindEd and T-Mobile for Education. Together, they created a new learning platform with an equity, access, and inclusion mindset that connects school to career.
This partnership is designed to expand learners’ worlds through immersive technology, AI, and other innovative ways to experience learning, motivation, and determination allowing students to better understand themselves, their peers, their faculty, managers at work, and local and global communities. The goal was to increase successful student outcomes, and that goal was accomplished during the pilot period.
At the heart of the transformation is the need to prepare students for today’s CTE and STEM enabled world. With its partners, Motlow State has created a digital learning platform that is a response to the shifting needs of higher education and the workforce for the creation of skilled workers for Tennessee industry.
The Metaversity
Working with GlobalMindEd, an inclusive success network that closes the equity gap by connecting students to role models, mentors, and internships, and T-Mobile’s hotspots, Samsung phones, and 5G coverage, Motlow State has launched a shared-skills data platform that “ties together K-12 education to the higher education ecosystem, and then transitioning to the workforce,” said Torrence.
The Metaversity has mapped learning to employment:
- Guided learning pathways provide learners with applied and technical learning that use face to face, hybrid, online, and virtual reality as learning platforms.
- A rich and dynamic social hub publishes skills and leads to workforce advancement as students connect with peers, mentors, and future employers.
- All learners receive a digital wallet, allowing them to stack, carry, and share their credentials as assets wherever they go.
This equity-centered proof converts learners’ skills into valuable currency in the labor market.
Who Benefits
Employers, learners, and educators all benefit from the Metaversity.
Employers have:
- Greater access to qualified talent across student demographics
- Enhanced talent acquisition, retention, development, and planning
- Early awareness for qualified candidates
- Better signaling for apprenticeships, internships and on-the-job training
Learners have:
- Greater access to relevant career opportunities
- Portable skills and credential portfolios
- Seamless GPS style mapping to goals, learning, jobs, and belonging
- Frictionless navigation through lifelong learning journeys
Educators have:
- Objective data to align program offerings with employment needs
- Improved engagement and responsiveness to changing industry needs
- More time to focus on students’ soft skill development
- Enhanced relational development between educators and students
Motlow State Community College has already realized improved student outcomes with the Metaversity and Torrence believes it will radically increase the efficiencies across the supply chain of learning, training, and recruitment in Tennessee. As a result the pilot is being rolled out into a full program.
For more articles from the REMOTE Summit, see:
Urban Serving Universities are Disrupting Structures for 21st Century Skills
Lessons Learned: 8 Strategies for Effective Instruction
Faculty Needs to Be Drivers of Institutional Change
Supporting Experimental Pedagogy with Social Animation Tools