Ready or Not

The Role of Online Learning in Higher Education

INTRODUCTION

Whatever you call it – online, digital, virtual, e-learning – it has been a rough ride. In the 1990’s, champions imagined a near-future of dramatically better access to higher education, a wealth of online learning resources and plummeting costs. All over the world, students would be able to enrol at the best universities, and all but the top institutions would perish. Reality proved a bit more complicated.

Twenty years on, bricks-and-mortar universities are very much alive, and most international students still travel, but it is undeniable that online learning is growing in popularity. Internet access has surged, bandwidth exploded and smartphones are ubiquitous. MOOCs, adaptive learning and AI-based student advising are the latest examples of online education. A growing number of traditional universities are partnering with the private sector to launch online degrees.

Is online higher education about to realise its promise?

The OBHE’s 2017 Global Forum will reassess the potential of online and blended learning in higher education, to meet the needs of domestic and international students. Drawing on a unique series of country studies from around the world, this event is an opportunity to engage with the latest data, learn from experience, and consider new models and technologies.

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