Classroom

Technology Defines Much of Higher Education’s New Normal [#Infographic]

Today’s college students have more options than their 1980s counterparts had, but their time is also stretched more thinly across the school day.

D. Frank Smith

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Frank is a social media journalist for the CDW family of technology magazine websites.

A lot has changed about the typical college experience over the past 30 years.

A new infographic from Flat World Education highlights the differences in college costs, student demographics and factors affecting work-life balance, among other features of college life, between college students of the 1980s and those of today.

Technology has helped foster growth in the education world, but it has also increased the workload. According to the infographic, two out of three college students today use a smartphone for school work — a capability that didn't exist even 10 years ago, let alone 30. The data also shows that 45 percent of today’s students will take at least one online course, whereas learning in the 1980s was confined to classrooms.

Take a trip back to the Reagan years and see how higher education has changed: