The electronic academy revisited
Blaise Cronin
Dean and Professor of Information Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA.
Email: bcronin@indiana.edu
Abstract
Fifteen years ago the author published an article in Aslib Proceedings entitled, `The electronic academy', which assessed trends in distance education and open learning. The paper provided an overview of the then dominant delivery technologies (e.g., broadcast television, videotext, audiographics, teleconferencing) and also engaged the issues of cost and quality. It is instructive to revisit that article and reflect on the extent to which the world has moved on, particularly in terms of technology and pedagogy. Naturally, the 1984 article made no mention of either the Internet or the World Wide Web, both of which are necessarily centre-stage today in any serious discussion of asynchronous or network-based learning. While technological advances have played an important part in accelerating the adoption of new modalities of remote learning, there are other factors (e.g., economic, socio-cultural) to be taken into account. This article offers a wide-angled review of developments in distance education and distributed learning: specifically, it describes the structural dynamics of the emerging virtual marketplace for perpetual learning products and services. Though written from a primarily North American perspective, the paper highlights thinking and practice globally.
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