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

The Pedagogical Flexibility of the Virtual University
� Online campus of the University of Phoenix
The University of Phoenix is a for-profit university established for the benefit of
working adults in the USA and abroad. It caters for 62 000 students. One section of this
institution is the Online Campus with 6 000 students. Course materials are produced at
the headquarters in Phoenix by a small core of permanent staff. The majority of staff
members are hired on a part-time basis only for each individual course. Quite often they
are practice-oriented instructors from industrial companies. They teach and provide for
support functions. Basically, students are engaged in flexible self study. There is a great
deal of feedback for them and group work is provided for. A rigid system of control and
permanent assessment is administered. One BA degree and three MA degrees can be
conferred. The graduation rate is 65 percent.
� Other virtual distance teaching universities
Other well-known virtual distance teaching universities are the Open University in the
United Kingdom, the University of Maryland University College, the Catalan Open
University, and the Open University of Hong Kong.
Where is all This Leading us?
At this point we become acutely aware that, technologically speaking, it is already
possible to digitise practically all the relevant teaching, support and administrative
functions of a conventional university. However, pedagogically speaking, the question
arises whether this is really to be desired. Can we bear the responsibility for fundamental
changes of higher education which will be the inevitable consequence of such a
complete degree of digitisation? Will we not lose some constitutive elements of the
learning process which we still deem to be significant? In other words, is the quest for a
fully developed virtual university, the “most wired” college, a sound, reasonable and
sensible one?
Will we not miss some of the qualities of real learning spaces, the feelings of belonging
and security, the interaction with persons of flesh and blood, the face-to-face dialogue,
the experience of working together with fellow students in the same room, the strong
sense of community, the intense feeling of being an active and accepted partner in a
scientific discourse, the meeting with original and authentic scholars (Peters, 2000a, p.
181)?
The question whether studying for a degree should take place entirely at home in
digitised learning environments is still open for debate. Perhaps the virtual university of
the future should be based significantly on online courses, but also employ other forms
of learning which might compensate for its obvious deficiencies.
Summary: Flexibility Gained
Generally speaking, these four institutional and organisational patterns have something
in common as they contribute to the flexibility of the university as an institution in the
same ways. They are able to extend their reach and have the potential to offer more
flexible learning opportunities to more students. But each of them also shows specific
dimensions of flexibility.
The “ThinkPad universities” are still far from being virtual universities, because the
computers were introduced for the benefit of the campus-based students only in order to
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