Royal Kasho Calling for the Integration of Emerging Technologies in RUB Colleges

Numerous universities have continuously delved into emerging technologies, adapting to the rapidly changing requisites of the 21st-century global landscape. The advent of online courses such as MOOCs, Edx, and Coursera, enabling worldwide student participation and learning, stands as a tangible outcome of seamless technology integration. These open educational resources have proven invaluable for educators and learners worldwide, facilitating sustained engagement in teaching and learning even amidst the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) adopted a virtual learning environment (VLE) technology across its constituent colleges as early as 2008, the full exploitation of VLE's features for course instruction had not been optimally realized, not even during the pandemic-induced circumstances. This gap persists despite over a decade of VLE availability, as observed by Pem et al. in 2021.

With the issuance of the Royal Kasho on Education Reform on December 17, 2020, there is an earnest call to seamlessly integrate emerging technologies into our education system. This beckons a concerted effort to prioritize the assimilation of advanced technologies, encompassing artificial intelligence (AI), augmented, virtual, and mixed reality (AR/VR/MR), the Internet of Things (IoT), and automation within RUB colleges. By embracing these technologies, we can elevate the quality of education and empower graduates with the aptitude to effectively address the demands of the contemporary job market.

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