Modular, Skills-Based Learning

Future Directions

Time

Spring 2025

From single-discipline degrees to modular, skills-based learning

Examined how traditional single-discipline degree models fall short in a skills-based economy and proposed a modular, interdisciplinary alternative. Using the lens of wicked problems, the project identified leverage points for systemic change in higher education and outlined a more flexible model for curriculum design, student agency, and hybrid skill development.

Context

Higher education remains largely organized around discipline-bound degree pathways, even as workforce demands increasingly value interdisciplinary and hybrid skills.

Problem

Single-discipline degree structures are rigid and slow to adapt, making it harder for students to build cross-disciplinary knowledge and flexible skill combinations.

Process

Framed the issue through the lens of wicked problems
Synthesized research on workforce change and interdisciplinary learning
Mapped a modular alternative across core, disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and applied learning
Identified barriers in governance, funding, and faculty reward systems
Proposed leverage points for systemic change

Deliverables

Research paper with problem framing, a modular learning model, and systems-level recommendations for higher education

Outcomes

Produced a future-facing proposal that connected workforce change, interdisciplinary learning, and institutional design, while identifying specific structures that would need to change.

Reflection

This project pushed me to think at the level of educational systems rather than individual courses. It reinforced that meaningful innovation in higher education depends not only on new curricular ideas, but on changing the structures and values that keep older models in place.

Context

Higher education remains largely organized around discipline-bound degree pathways, even as workforce demands increasingly value interdisciplinary and hybrid skills.

Problem

Single-discipline degree structures are rigid and slow to adapt, making it harder for students to build cross-disciplinary knowledge and flexible skill combinations.

Process

Framed the issue through the lens of wicked problems
Synthesized research on workforce change and interdisciplinary learning
Mapped a modular alternative across core, disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and applied learning
Identified barriers in governance, funding, and faculty reward systems
Proposed leverage points for systemic change

Deliverables

Research paper with problem framing, a modular learning model, and systems-level recommendations for higher education

Outcomes

Produced a future-facing proposal that connected workforce change, interdisciplinary learning, and institutional design, while identifying specific structures that would need to change.

Reflection

Modular, Skills-Based Learning

What this project shows

Applying systems thinking through wicked problems
Using the Three Horizons Framework to frame change
Proposing modular, future-facing learning structures

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Chinese Cooking-And-Language Kit

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Institution Design - Future Earth Lab