Posted on by e.truong · 2 Comments

W12: Internationalization of Online Learning

I recently read a book by Jeffrey Selingo, who is an editor at the Chronicle of Higher Education, titled College Un:Bound. The book speaks about the current state of higher education in the United States and what it means for students and the higher education system in the future. Selingo’s main argument is that with the advent of technology and the increasing financial burden on students, higher education and the college experience will become un-bundled or unbound as Selingo refers to it. The un-bundling of higher education means that the path to obtaining a degree will become less concentrated to one campus; rather he believes that students will take a less direct route in obtaining their degrees and will be able to customize their education based on their budget. Institutions, such as community colleges, for-profits institutions and online education providers, will increasingly play a larger role in higher education because they can offer courses at a lower costs compared to a regular four-year institution.

Although, Selingo takes on American perspective, this trend of the un-bundling of higher education is also an international trend which is made clear in this week’s reading. From the “Bridges to the Future” excerpt, one of the topics it touches on is the ever-increasing role technology is playing in education. Under the heading of the diversification of higher education, the author talks about how online education providers such as Khan Academy, Udacity and edX are able to enroll thousands of student from all over the world and offers them a path towards obtaining a degree.  One of the main issues of internationalizing higher education is the issue is the issue of access and that not every student has the opportunity to travel abroad. The expansion and internationalization of online education is a very viable solution to this access problem because it is the most cost effective for the student and the institution. Also, with the way many of these courses are created, they can be as interactive as a traditional face-to-face course.  However, Wildavsky’s article about MOOC’s, are access issues with online education as well. Not every country has reliable internet connections and computers that support web-based education, such as parts of Africa that are not as developed. However, the internet has become a necessity in life and reliable internet and affordable computers will slowly be available everywhere.  Online education has the most potential to be internationalized because it can solve the issue of access.

Posted on by m.parsowith

W12, Blog 12: Melissa Parsowith (Article Response)

This week’s readings, “Bridges to the Future” and “IHE at Twenty: Higher Education’s Future” both provided lots of thoughtful analysis regarding the future of global Higher Education. As we have previously discussed in this course, there are many moving parts which play a role in the internationalization of Higher Education. As mentioned in “Bridges to the Future,” there are several emerging themes to consider for the field of global Higher Education. As the world around us changes politically and economically, so does the capability for providing educational services, both at home and overseas. We must consider many things when discussing higher education and its future as a global entity. We must dissect the concept of internationalization itself, the impacts of emerging technologies, the changes in the study abroad field, as well as the broad notion of global citizenship just to name a few of several important topics. On top of all of these things, one must also consider potential limitations like financial constraints, policy hurdles, governmental involvement and support (or lack thereof) as well as competency and assessment challenges. As both articles reiterate, the future of international higher education seems bright, but those in the field are not without reservations.

Something that I found most interesting about both of these articles was that they prompted the reader to think critically and to ask the important questions. For instance, in “Bridges to the Future,” the author writes “Key questions emerge in this area: Will institutions remain institution-centric or move to global-centric? How do global efforts align with the institutional mission? What competencies are needed for institutions to engage as global citizens in the world?” (p.458) In IHE at Twenty, they add “There is a dichotomy between the necessity of education and supporting elite research institutions.” (p.4) How will we ensure that both aspects of Higher Education are appropriately supported? Although the articles do not have direct solutions to all of these questions, I think it is wonderful that these concepts are being introduced in a way which forces the reader to make their own interpretations of the information.

In a similar article titled, “Global: The big challenges for higher education” the author continues on the same train of thought by bringing up another concerning and thought-provoking issue: the fairness involved in the accessibility of higher education, especially globally. She writes, “”It is still the case for most systems that despite massification, access is primarily for people from advanced socio-economic groups. So the issue of fairness in access to higher education remains.” (MacGregor, 2010, p.1) I find the question of fairness to be one which requires much more thought and research, but wanted to bring it up to show the evolution of the questions involved here, and how complex the topic can be.