Anoush Margaryan: Learning Practices in the platform economy (LeaP) research programme

Learning in the Platform Economy (LeaP) interdisciplinary, international and cross-sectoral research programme is focused on advancing the understanding, conceptualisation, methodology and policy of learning practices in the platform economy, in particular online labour platforms. The scope of LeAP includes both workplace learning practices within platform economy settings and learning practices in educational settings aimed at preparing people to function effectively within the workplace.  It is expected that, at least in the short and medium-term, rather than replacing the conventional economy, the platform economy will continue to co-exist with the conventional economy in the form of variously-constellated digital ecosystems.  The challenge this poses to educational institutions such as CBS is to ensure that students are fit for working in and able to shape and lead this emergent hybrid economy through a well-honed set of skills, knowledge, dispositions, mindsets, attitudes and capabilities.  The aim of the LeAP programme is to identify, collect, analyse and systematise empirical evidence to improve our understanding of workplace learning practices within this emergent and hitherto under-theorised form of work and to develop new approaches to teaching and learning that foster the skills, dispositions and mindsets required to function productively within crowd workplaces. LeaP leads research around three interrelated themes:

Theme 1. Workplace learning practices in online labour platforms

• What, how, why and who with do workers learn in online labour platforms?

Theme 2. Artificial Intelligence, skills and work

• What are the opportunities and challenges of emerging AI systems for work and learning practices?
• What skills are necessitated by the introduction of AI technologies in the workplaces and how do workers presently acquire or should acquire these in the future?

Theme 3. Aligning higher education and emergent work practices

• What pedagogies can best support students in developing the skills, knowledge and dispositions required in platform workplaces?
• What are the higher education policy implications of the emergent work and learning practices, and what are the differential roles of the key actors and stakeholders – students, academics, administrators, employers, platforms, national and supranational governments- in enhancing the alignment between higher education and the workplace?