Reimagining Digital Learning for Sustainable Development: How Upskilling, Data Analytics, and Educational Technologies Close the Skills Gap

Sheila Jagannathan is the Head of the Open Learning Campus at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., USA. She serves as the organization's focal point on digital learning and issues at the intersection of technology use and education in emerging countries. She is an internationally recognized thought leader, advisor, author and a forward-thinking senior education leader with over 35 years of experience in leading capacity building, knowledge management, data, social learning and transformation change across public and private organizations. She has been responsible for designing and implementing world-class solutions in challenging global environments, resulting in performance and productivity improvements. Sheila also provides policy advice and technical assistance to World Bank country-level capacity building programs (both government and training centers of excellence seeking to introduce technologies in their educational systems) in, East Asia, China, the Middle East and North Africa, Africa and South Asia. Her current areas of interest and activity include: skilling and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, 60-year curricula, corporate talent management, diversity & inclusion, organizational development, MOOCs, experiential pedagogy, online/hybrid strategies, multimodal and social learning environments, immersive learning (AR/VR), use of artificial education in education, big data analytics, LXPs, LMS, and learning ecosystems. She has written articles for various peer-reviewed publications and journals. She is on the advisory board and planning committees of major professional associations of learning such as the Canadian Foreign Service Institute, Global Distance Learning Network, Indian National Skills Development Council, George Mason University, E-learning Africa, (Annual International Conference for developing E-learning capacities in Africa), International Conference on e-learning (ICEL), and Skills Development Councils.