**7. Reflections on the profession vis-a-vis digital society**

We can entrust the ability to recognize learner styles, learner abilities, comprehension and understanding in Artificial Intelligence (AI) as it continues its ascent towards enhanced intelligence in almost all facets of our digital life in this case Higher Education and Course building. In that token, Instructor (*as Designers*) and Technologists can look into Chris Stary's [13] research on the Scholion Project as one guide looking into the design and implementation of his constructivist-based project that aids learners taking into account learners' mental models, cognition and metacognition.

In this second half of this decade, AI's recognition capability has gone far beyond its early beginnings that it is now termed the Age of the Machine. Much similar to Elon Musk's Tesla, the machine can now build other machines. Thinking about this new reality in education also means the teaching and learning can now rid of a lot

of the mundane tasks in: course creation (*by instructors*), course management (*by LMS's*), course participation (students), grading and course evaluation methodology, and issuing valid certification. The machine age that will make our transition to a fully digital society brings with it a whole slew of new realities as well for the professional. The expectations from each of us has become compounded to an extent that a degree certificate attached to an individual that requires skills are also updated be it technical, socialization, community, or connectivity [21].

Professional degree certificates (*undergraduate and graduate*) now also comes with it the responsibilities of skills upgrading on a continuing basis; of being in communities attached to that profession; of being in the know in those communities; of being socialized in the platforms of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn to not just being there but being a part of the larger whole comprised of billions of people in the world. To think about it in terms of how AI responds to that changed perspective is to assume that all these interactions are captured by the AI machine and adds it in terms of quantifiable data, making new assumptions about the added data in effect, understanding ourselves more from that newly captured information producing an updated profile of a person's learners style based on captured cognitive functions and user action decisions as opposed to self-reported learner style [22].

Schneider [21] points out that through data analytics, these learner characteristics can be extracted automatically from user's ongoing interaction to perform a variety of transactions (*from finding a route using GPS* (*geographical positioning system) or learning online to online banking transaction*) in day-to-day lives. When these patterns of user interaction are validated, a method called "user nudging" could be used much like adaptive computing that "adjusts to serving user tasks based on prior action," that is, nudging would guide user actions by giving choices through prompts.

Denning [23] summarizes it brilliantly that to truly survive in the age of machines where the knowledge worker conducts work on highly intelligent machines, new expectations come to the fore that requires pragmatism in belongingness, ever adapting skillsets that changes as the system changes, community building based on chosen areas of belongingness (professional, leisure, or recreational), and last but not least, willingness to mentor, to display your skills to the person that needs it so that the next learner improves the knowledge to the next and so on and so forth.

### **8. Conclusion**

#### **8.1 Security concerns with respect to PLErify, MOOC, and tech tools**

Security breaches from China, North/South Korea, and Russia are a threat to our tech-enabled life. These countries' very advanced cyber-surveillance and intrusion system have penetrated US cyber defense system potentially undoing major education technology advancements. The industry needs to come up with a very strong authentication system as well as cyber-blocking mechanisms beyond the obvious firewalls.

Without a strong cyber security strategy attached to all these tech innovations, any attempts at technologizing higher education would face enormous challenges. China's breaches covered the entire hardware/software and telecommunication ecosystem (home routers included) baffling Europe, the US, and Australia. A solution that has been proposed is virtualization and containerization. If virtualization and containerization provides a guarantee for the safety and security of cumulative progress and strides made in the education sector and if we are willing to adapt to rapid changes demanded of us as educators, faculty, and students, then the future will certainly be bright.

**63**

USA

**Author details**

Maria Lorna A. Kunnath

provided the original work is properly cited.

*Personalizing Course Design, Build and Delivery Using PLErify*

further publication of my manuscript with them. Thank you.

After incorporating additional critique (style, formatting, and punctuation) from my children who are both writers in their own right, I finally produced my chapter contribution to the book 2019 Engineering Design and Innovation Methods at IntechOpen. I take this opportunity to convey my deep heartfelt appreciation to IntechOpen's generous partial publication waiver which assisted me in pursuing

For being my constant inspiration and for whom I am constantly reminded that we must perform our responsibility as trustful stewards of technology for the future of the young generation and the forthcoming ones thereafter, I dedicate this work to my children Avinash A. Kunnath (AB Mathematics, University of California Berkeley, 2008) and Ameeta A. Kunnath (BEngg Structures, University of California San Diego, 2015) who, along with members of their generation, will continue the work in their chosen careers and professions to improve various facets of our digital society we are all part of as technology continuously shapes and

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85414*

impacts our modern lives by the minute.

**Acknowledgements**

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

Owner, CEO, Founder of MLAKEDUSOLN ELEARNOVATE, Davis, California,

\*Address all correspondence to: mlkunnath@elearnovate.com
