Recent predictions concerning tertiary teaching in the 21st Century describe radically different roles for academic staff, ranging from unbundling some of the traditional tasks instructors perform to the wholesale replacement of live instructors with digital holograms of academic ‘stars’ and other interactive learning objects. This paper includes a description of these prognostications and their implications for the academics today. It continues with a description of alternative models for effective tertiary teaching and their implications for the evolving role of the academic staff. Finally, a program of rigorous development research is recommended to increase the likelihood that academics will play a larger role is shaping their own future in tertiary teaching and learning environments.

Keywords: development research, learning environments, professoriate