The relevance of current education towards the needs of 21st century society is questioned as most schools, especially in developing countries that offer their students homogenizing learning experiences in the 19th century style. This paper presents the results of a mixed-method study focused on identifying the main features of 21st century education as a concept that should promote lifelong learning experiences. The method combined a systematic literature review, survey application, visits to innovative schools and interviews with international educational experts. Results show the relevance of a soft skills-centered and purpose-oriented curricula, the activation of personal learning paths and the minimization of instruction in favor of research as a teaching approach. It is noteworthy that, although most of the results are widely discussed in the literature, they are currently presented with new possibilities of implementation and with a greater innovation potential, due to the technological evolution of our time.

The suspension of face-to-face classes in universities and schools derived from the current health crisis related to Covid-19 has prompted a process of migration of academic activities to virtual environments. This has revealed a general lack of understanding in both the family and academic environments regarding the relationship between distance and virtual Education, generating tensions between families and educational institutions. This article presents some theoretical insights about Open Educational Practices (OEP) from an emerging perspective by revising their connections with Distance Education and E-learning. The current international discussion on OEP is mainly focused on technological integration and expanding free access to knowledge, while today’s inter-connected world requires more flexibility, sharing, collaborative feedback and autonomy in learning. A fresh perspective on Open Educational Practices based on the participation of students in crowd-based collaborative learning communities is proposed as an alternative to face in-house confinement context challenges.

de implementación debido a la evolución del desarrollo tecnológico actual. Algunas de las bellas durmientes educativas a destacar son: las rutas personales de aprendizaje, la enseñanza basada en la investigación, el currículo abierto, flexible y apoyado digitalmente y el aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida.

Guaranteeing quality in Higher Education in today’s globalized and uncertain context strains universities worldwide. Assurance of Learning (AoL) and Curricular Alignment (CA) are some of intimately related key concepts embedded in this situation. Albeit being pervasive in today’s complex Higher Education ecosystem, AoL is not understood the same way everywhere. In order to explore its related meanings a scholarly literature analysis was carried out using text-mining techniques on 576,180 terms of 167 peer reviewed articles. Results reveals that research on AoL/CA is focusing on accreditation-oriented operationalization of assessment rather than synergically synchronizing the Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) with teaching and assessment as it should be. Evidence shows that AACSB accreditation guidelines have the heaviest impact on AoL/CA research which entails that a single point of view is globally driving what should otherwise be a dialogue in a diverse international academic ecosystem.

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