Perspectives On Higher Education In The Digital Age

This volume consists of a series of seventeen essays examining the future of higher education, especially as impacted by the rapid advance and pervasive presence of digital resources. There can be little disagreement that information, communication and instructional technologies are already having a significant impact on schools and colleges, and what is occurring today will have a profound influence not only on educational structures in the future, but also on teaching and learning processes. As a consequence, all stakeholders in the educational enterprise will be affected. The 26 authors and co-authors represented within, all of whom are recognized scholars and practitioners in the field of distance education, attempt here to pose relevant questions and provide thoughtful, and sometimes provocative, responses. These contributors write from diverse perspectives, representing several countries and continents, as well as varied organizational and cultural settings, offering both micro and macro views on the topics they address.

The European higher education sector is moving online, but to what extent? Are the digital disruptions seen in other sectors of relevance for both academics and management in higher education? How far are we from fully seizing the opportunities that an online transition could offer? This insightful book presents a broad perspective on existing academic practices, and discusses how and where the move online has been successful, and the lessons that can be learned.

The book deals with the digital turn in higher education: One aim of this book is to address the challenge by providing a multi-disciplinary, international perspective on higher education during the digital turn. It presents epistemological, ethical and theoretical approaches, and best practice examples, from universities in different countries using different learning strategies. The book can be understood as an international and interdisciplinary collection providing heuristic strategies for handling the digitalization of higher education in theory and in practice.

This book presents different perspectives of online business education - how it is designed, delivered and how it supports advances in management disciplines. The authors describe online platforms in their provision of timely, excellent and relevant business education. The book starts by examining the emergence of online business education. It offers insights for use to business educators in design and implementation of online learning. It presents and discusses technologies for class facilitation and collaboration including tools used to bring content and issues to life. Disruptive approaches and new directions in online business education are examined. The book is ideal for business educators, administrators, as well as business practitioners that have an interest in delivering high quality business education using online platforms and tools. On the Line: Business Education in the Digital Age is divided into three sections. Section 1 presents papers on “why” business education is viable and sustainable in today’s context. Treating education as a service, this section describes new techniques for creating a better online business education experience. It also looks at the role advanced data analytics can play in enhancing the quality of online business education. Section 2 delves into “how” online business education works. It presents conceptual models for teaching in specific disciplines, learning design that describes what business educators do and how programs work. This section also addresses performance assessments and quality assurance measures that help to demonstrate the efficacy of online pedagogy. Practical applied papers are used in this section to highlight the use of learning platforms, tools and their application specific to businesses that build knowledge and skills and make students ‘work ready’. Finally Section 3 of the book addresses the “so what?” or the outcomes and impacts of online business education. This section targets where business education needs to take learning next, for example to support sustainable business, ethical decision making and inclusive and collaborative leadership. Chapters deal with topics such as how distributed online environments may work better to support knowledge and soft skill building directly relevant for organizations today. Other learning outcomes showing the value of online business education are discussed. Academics, alumni and consultants from over fifteen institutions and organizations around the world contributed to this book.

"This book provides a comprehensive framework of trends and issues related to adult learning"--Provided by publisher.

Academic management and administrative processes rely heavily on technology in business offices, virtual laboratories, digital libraries, and the like. Technology also has an impact upon teaching, freeing classrooms from constraints of time and space. Yet many university leaders are hesitant to set technology as a priority. This book is designed to address the subject from a perspective appropriate to leaders. An important concept covered here is that the new advances in information technology drive a significant restructuring of our social institutions, which will provide access to knowledge and education that was formerly restricted to the privileged. The generation raised with this technology demands new approaches to teaching and learning-this poses a unique challenge to traditional faculty members. The authors of this book believe "It is our collective challenge as scholars, educators, and academic leaders to develop a strategic framework capable of understanding and shaping the impact that this extraordinary technology will have on our institutions." They believe that academic institutions will change in form and character, and that such changes will affect the mission, function, and possibly even the concept of the university. The role of leadership is to both see over the horizon and adapt leadership styles to an environment of constant change. Leadership must formulate a clear and consistent institutional vision.

Digital Technology and the Contemporary University examines the often messy realities of higher education in the ‘digital age’. Drawing on a variety of theoretical and empirical perspectives, the book explores the intimate links between digital technology and wider shifts within contemporary higher education – not least the continued rise of the managerialist ‘bureaucratic’ university. It highlights the ways that these new trends can be challenged, and possibly changed altogether. Addressing a persistent gap in higher education and educational technology research, where digital technology is rarely subject to an appropriately critical approach, Degrees of Digitization offers an alternative reading of the social, political, economic and cultural issues surrounding universities and technology. The book highlights emerging themes that are beginning to be recognised and discussed in academia, but as yet have not been explored thoroughly. Over the course of eight wide-ranging chapters the book addresses issues such as: The role of digital technology in university reform; Digital technologies and the organisation of universities; Digital technology and the working lives of university staff; Digital technology and the ‘student experience’; Reimagining the place of digital technology within the contemporary university. This book will be of great interest to all students, academic researchers and writers working in the areas of education studies and/or educational technology, as well as being essential reading for anyone working in the areas of higher education research and digital media research.