The goal of student education goes beyond the individual person’s learning. The academic impact has become an international factor that has consequences in venues such as politics and finances because of the natural connection between education and fields like technology, healthcare, and general sciences.

Countries that are perceived to have higher learning metrics throughout the world also typically have better funding to apply towards societal improvements through technology, but, like the proverbial wheel, these higher learning metrics are attached to better funding of education. Because of the discrepancies between funding opportunities in developing countries and other areas considered to be more technologically advanced, it’s important to be able to compare apples to apples by having learning metrics that are consistent and better framed. This would help societies make a greater academic impact on a global scale, and what’s good for one nation can also be good for another when they are cooperating together for their society’s best interests.

Tying Politics and Economics with Learning Gains

Learning metrics are interconnected with money in many political arenas. The most obvious of these is the drive that effective instruction and in-depth knowledge guides the government’s decisions on which policies to institute, which ones to change, and which areas to add more funding versus detract current spending in. It makes sense, but when the learning gains are not accurate, consistent, or fully understood, it can result in detrimental consequences.

Because so much of politics and economics are hooked to learning gains, it’s important to have consistency on a global scale in how these metrics are measured.

The Challenges to a Global Learning Metric System

Getting worldwide agreement on any subject, even one as important as how to measure education gains to help drive better societal infrastructures, is a difficult endeavor. Yet, developing methodology that everyone can agree on for this essential factor in every government, regardless of socioeconomic status or political agenda, would go a long way in easing a lot of tensions between nations.

Still, those challenges exist and there are many nuances that must be addressed in order for a global learning metric system to be put into place, such as:

●      Quality assurance with a unanimous definition of what defines high-quality work and who would be the judge of this factor

●      Accountability between all nations regarding full transparency in the design of curriculum, the outcomes and methods used to reach those outcomes, and the application of the results

●      Sharing methods of instruction, including cooperative research in order to develop an approach to pedagogy that can be used by anyone, anywhere

Still, there are potential obstacles to this adopted frame of learning metrics, even should one be instituted, because of the unrest between some nations and the sensitivity of the research.

It’s possible that higher education institutions amongst the countries would find ways to ensure the learning metrics benefit their country of origin in order to reap the political and economic, as well as technological, benefits.

The Need Remains

Even with all of these challenges, there’s a global understanding that this remains a need that should be continued to be worked towards. There must be a way to measure learning gains on a universal level in order to accurately compare growth from country to country. This consistent measurement can drive meaningful learning and measure the quality of instruction that is disseminated throughout the world.

With a common framework of learning metrics, governments could make crucial decisions based on the findings obtained through research of individual departments and collected data. Policy decisions would be informed, the ability to work on global or national issues such as climate change or nonrenewable resources would be more specifically addressed, and strategies that guide better educational practices could be implemented with evidence-based pedagogy.

Impactio Connects Researchers Around the World

Academic researchers around the world understand that even though there’s not a consistent learning metric yet, there’s still a need for collaboration for the good of all. Through Impactio, a program designed specifically for scholars, these experts can connect, collaborate, and share ideas easily.

Impactio is an all-in-one platform that lets you input your research accomplishments into sections and subsections, create charts, tables, and graphs from your citations and publications data, and publish your work as a professional profile.

With Impactio, you can spend more time working on global challenges that could impact the greater good and less time putting the work together.