The Disruptive Power of Online Education

The higher education sector is being disrupted through the effect that technological innovations have on the educational market. As digital and mobile technologies are developing further, higher education institutions must embrace these developments to meet the needs of their learners and to not become irrelevant. In higher education, disruptive effects are mainly visible on a program/product level, with an increasing number of programs including some element of online education. Disruptive effects also become evident on a pedagogical level, where student engagement, collaboration and social learning, gamification and serious games, competency-based learning, teacher training, and overcoming geosocial divides are high on the agenda. This book considers the effect of online elements and their design on university business models and internationalization, course design, massive open online courses (MOOCs), and the scalability of online programs. It also explores how higher education institutions across the globe respond and react to the challenges and opportunities evolving in online education.