Distance Education in the Digital Era: Challenges, Misconceptions and Prospects – Sarah Guri-Rosenblit

Distance Education in the Digital Era: Challenges, Misconceptions and Prospects

Sarah Guri-Rosenblit

 

The presentation will examine the major challenges which are facing distance education providers in the digital era, with a special focus on the single-mode distance teaching universities that were founded on the model of the UKOU.  The challenges relate to:   an identity crisis caused by the blurring boundaries between distance and campus-based universities; the change of technological and instructional infrastructures which necessitates a total overhaul of existent premises; the move from national systems to a global landscape; the unclear mission of MOOCs and OER; and the urge to find appropriate parties for collaboration in the academic and corporate worlds. The presentation will relate as well to several misconceptions in the research conducted on the incorporation of the digital technologies in higher education, at both campus-based and distance teaching universities, such as research lacunas at the macro level, scarcity of studies on the impact of cultural and national contexts, ambiguity as to the difference between e-learning and distance education, lack of attention to e-teaching and digital literacy.  The presentation will conclude with highlighting major prospects of the online era for distance teaching universities.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *