Distance Education in Transition - Master of Distance Education ...

The Pedagogical Flexibility of the Virtual University
them. And the remainder are prepared to attend courses to acquire computer competency,
but have to be “bribed” and “motivated” by the university with USD 2 000 per year to do so.
Internet Universities
These are commercial enterprises which systematically inform potential students about
the availability of online degree courses offered by universities throughout the USA and
facilitate their enrolment at these universities. In other words, they are not engaged in
research, do not teach and do not confer degrees. They limit themselves to performing
the function of educational brokers.
� The Internet-University in Cambridge, MA.
This university was founded in 1996 and uses the net to establish links between potential
students, most of whom are working adults, and those degree courses which would suit
their needs, educational background and vocational experiences. The main functions of
this institution can be explained by mentioning that it operates three search engines:
(1) “Find a course”, (2) “Search by school”, and (3) “Search by degrees”. Its educational
relevance derives from its success in attracting students. In 1996 there were 27 co-operating
universities offering 705 courses. Just three years later there were 124 co-operating
universities offering 3 878 courses (Ritter, 1999, p. 103). Obviously, there is an enormously
growing demand for online degree courses in this country. In fact, the number of students
can be estimated at about 50 000 (Ritter, 1999, p. 103). This institution functions as a
“virtual super-university” or “virtual meta-university” which combines and concentrates
on the teaching power of a large number of universities.
� Western Governors Virtual University
This institution is called “the nation’s first exclusively virtual university”, but in reality
it is only an electronic clearing house for promoting interstate exchanges of net-based
courses. It was established in 1997 by a consortium of 18 western US states and 13
larger industrial corporations. In the first place its task is to serve as platform for
counselling students and brokering courses from other universities. At present, 375
certificate and 55 degree courses are provided. In addition, this institution is also a real
private, non-profit university with the privilege of providing courses and conferring its
own degrees. However, only 100 students have enrolled so far.
Virtual Universities
Morten Flate Paulsen (2000, p. 61) made an “International Analysis of Web-based
Education” commissioned by the European Community as part of the European Leonardo
da Vinci Programme. Paulsen analysed 130 institutions providing online courses. Although
there were seven universities among them that use the terms »virtual university« or
»online university« as part of their name, none of them was really a virtual university.
In these cases, virtual university is a bombastic term which indicates only that a
professor, or a teaching unit, has started to go digital. In most of these cases the net is
used only for performing or mediating a limited number of pedagogical functions.
Obviously, the use of the term »virtual university« is misleading here.
When a conventional university begins to transform into a net-based university it
certainly benefits from an academic infrastructure which has stood the test of time. This
means that there is an organic integration of scientific research, academic teaching and a
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