Abstract
<P class=abstract>Canada's postsecondary institutions are becoming increasingly involved with technology enhanced learning, generally under the rubric of distance education. Growth and activity in distance education stems from rapid developments in communication and information technologies such as videoconferencing and the Internet. This case study focuses on the use of new technologies, primarily within the context of higher education institutions operating in Canada's English speaking provinces. Capitalising on the interactive capabilities of "new" learning technologies, some distance education providers are starting to behave more like conventional educational institutions in terms of forming study groups and student cohorts. Conversely, new telecommunications technologies are having a reverse impact on traditional classroom settings, and as a result conventional universities are beginning to establish administrative structures reflective of those used by distance education providers. When viewed in tandem, these trends reflect growing convergence between conventional and distance learning modes, leading to the hybridisation of higher education in Canada.</P>
Highlights
Canada’s postsecondary institutions are becoming increasingly involved with technology enhanced learning, generally under the rubric of distance education
More and more postsecondary institutions in Canada have become involved with technology enhanced learning, generally under the rubric of distance education
A major reason for the growth of interest and activity in distance education is a result of rapid developments in what Agre (2000, pg 5) calls “radically improved technologies of information” – essentially computer based telecommunications technologies
Summary
University Planning Council, 1995) has been an example of this kind of approach. More recently we have the example of the Canadian Virtual University (http://www.cvu-uvc.ca/english.html. ). The University of Northern British Columbia, essentially campus based, regionally as well as centrally, is an example of the conventional style of distance education provision derived from on-campus operations, but with strategic efforts to facilitate the transfer of previously earned credits and to articulate programs with colleges in the northern British Columbia region. There are many reasons to regard this kind of rhetoric as far-fetched, even selfserving This particular quote was taken up verbatim in the report of The Advisory Committee for Online Learning, a joint creation of the Consortium on Public Expectations for Postsecondary Education of the Ministers of Education, Canada, (CMEC) and Industry Canada. The discussion presented here assumes a pedagogic view of the hybridisation of higher education It should, perhaps, be acknowledged that technology is substantially affecting the administrative and student support functions available to distant and on-campus students. Online access to course and program calendars, course descriptions, online registration, online library/ information services, and so on, are features valued whatever the modality of instructional delivery
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