Abstract
Higher education is engulfed in change. At the same time that institutions of higher education are endeavoring to transform themselves by integrating information and communication technologies into curriculum delivery, student profiles are changing. Low income-ethnic populations are among the fastest growing segment of 18–24 year old students; male enrollments are lagging in comparison to female; and the “digital natives” have arrived. Also, as the Internet provides students with access to a myriad of global educational opportunities, the potential for serving virtual foreign students increases. These changes present challenges and opportunities to institutions of higher education, which strive to serve their constituents through fully online and blended learning formats and aspire to extend education to new markets as well. This paper raises implications for online learning related to changing student populations. It presents two fundamentals crucial for ensuring student success, as well as, access in an online environment. Finally, it recommends two change strategies.
Highlights
BACKGROUND FOR THE MOVE ONLINEAccess to education has been and remains a primary driver of the distance learning movement
The third situation deals with adult learners whose complex lives restrict their opportunities to access education through traditional pathways
Computers, the Internet, cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and digital cameras are merely tools and devices used in everyday life
Summary
Access to education has been and remains a primary driver of the distance learning movement. Examples of mega-universities are Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), with an estimated 500,000 students and the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK), with over 400,000 students. In both of these cases, the learner’s physical environment presented a need that online learning could address. The third situation deals with adult learners whose complex lives restrict their opportunities to access education through traditional pathways. This profile includes but is not limited to full-time employees, full-time parents, family caregivers—those who need the convenience and flexibility of learning and studying at times and places that work with their schedules. Many of the younger learners are not so much seeking access to education as they are a preferred way of learning, learning that aligns with the information age skills they have acquired [2]
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