Virtual Transformation: Web-Based Technology and Pedagogical Change

Abstract

are transforming post-secondary teaching and learning. According to the 2001 Campus Computing Survey (Green 2001), 20.6 percent of all college courses are using Web-based course management systems (a 40% increase from 2000). The International Data Corporation (2000) predicts that the number of colleges and universities offering online distance learning courses will increase from 1,500 in 1999 to over 3,300 in 2004. Sociological theories and concepts have an important role to play in analyzing and interpreting these developments. A central sociological proposition is that structural environments influence the social perceptions, roles, and relations of human actors. As increasing numbers of students and faculty find themselves operating in virtual learning environments, one might also expect to find some changing instructional dynamics. More specifically, there are a number of questions worth exploring: What are the relationships between the technical, the social, and the pedagogical infrastructures? How has the introduction of new