Transformations in Higher Education: Online Distance Learning

Higher education is undergoing radical shifts that are part of the larger wave of changes taking place in our society. The transformation affects all sectors of higher education, especially distance learning and how it relates to the University’s regular offerings. I begin with clarifying the terms commonly associated with distance learning and elaborate on two main instructional models of online distance learning. Locating the developments in distance learning within the broader transformations in higher education, I explore how the traditionshattering changes brought about by the potential of new technologies are impacting the tradition-bound activities of bricks and mortar campuses as they give rise to new organizational structures and new management styles in higher education.