The virtual university: A State of the art

Abstract

Abstract Educational interest in the Internet is exploding among instructors, learners, and educational institutions internationally. The advent of the World Wide Web in 1992 was a watershed in the development of online education. Its ease of use made the Internet accessible to the general public, and its powerful graphic capabilities expanded the range of disciplines that could be offered totally or partially online (by enabling virtual labs, studios, animations, etc.). The invention of the Web thus coincides with the growth spurt in online education. Nonetheless, there are urgent technological and pedagogical issues that must be addressed if the field of online education is to mature and to meet the high expectations of the population that expects to benefit by participating in it. Much of the online post-secondary education available at the end of the 20th century had been created piecemeal. Despite rapidly growing interest, proliferation of software rather than proof or evidence of the methods that produce the best results characterized the field. Knowledge about the most powerful pedagogical models and technological environments to support effective online education and best practice remained limited. This chapter begins with a discussion of the state of the art of online education today, especially online post-secondary education. Then it focuses on the Virtual-U, a Web-based environment designed to provide a flexible integrated framework to support active collaborative learning and knowledge construction in a wide range of disciplines. The chapter describes the basic architecture of the system and the results of four years of Virtual-U field trials in 14 institutions with more than 450 courses taught by 250 faculty to a total of 15 000 students. Finally, it describes alternative forms of virtual universities and issues in their implementation, while many university faculty and instructors are beginning to adopt Web-based instruction in their course offerings. Virtual universities are a distinct phenomenon. The discussion includes the implications of the Virtual-U results for the pedagogical and technological developments needed to establish engaging, effective, and productive virtual universities.