Globalization of Online Higher Ed

I've taught in the US and overseas for extended periods, and been an adjunct online teacher and course developer for the last five years. My experience is that online higher ed has grown tremendously. At the same time, I think there's lots of room for improvement. I'm personally and professionally drawn to furthering my formal education and researching the globalization of online higher ed at the PhD level.

Toward this end, my first request is that DegreeInfo members may kindly direct me to general sources where I may learn more about global trends in online higher ed.

As well, a "basic" question I have is:
Can online higher ed be said to be driven by a specific nation or nation(s)? Related: Can any nation(s) be said to dominate online higher ed?

An "odd" question:
Is it possible to roughly rank in order L. America, Africa, Mid East, Asia, in terms of stage of online higher ed development?

"Wild & Crazy" questions:
Is there/could there be: a condition of national specialization in online higher ed e.g. Italian design, Japanese production, US entrepreneurship? (I apologize in advance for the stereotyping!)
Is there already/will there be: offshoring of online higher ed functions?
Evidence of protectionism of online higher ed?
Might online higher ed play a significant role in less developed nation economic development?

Any light shed on any of the above, however brief, is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Mark Friedman

 

Hi Mark,

Welcome to the board.

For a couple of non-US starting points have a look at the University of London's Centre for Distance Education.

Pop "Globalization" or some other similar keyword in the search bar (top right of screen) - it'll through back at you most of the references for the papers that have been written on this subject. N.B. This is open access at the moment but the Centre for Distance Education is intended as a federal resource for the academics at the University of London so it may become password protected in the future.

Another website worth a look at is the Observatory on Borderless Higer Education - you'll need to be at an institution that is a paid up member, however.

In terms of the answers to your questions I'd largely agree with what Steve said, however:

I think here it depends what you mean by dominate - if it's student numbers. My thoughts are that it's individual companies and institutions that dominate / will dominate rather than countries - however I'd guess that these organisations will be based in a relatively small number of countries - US, Europe (esp. countries in which English, Chinese or Spanish is prevalent, i.e. stereotypes inevitable here but Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands more likely than France, Portugal etc.), Korea, Japan, Malaysia etc.

Once you start to think in these terms ranking in order of development takes on a different meaning and it also makes it easier to think about organisations specialisms and stereotyping.

Internationally GATS/GATT should mean there isn't any. However protectionism comes in many forms and I think that it's inevitable that there will be some at the country level, and some internationally. To get an idea of what I mean think about public institutions generally compared to private institutions. Also think about how organisations like the UKeU come in to being, the grants and funding of HE by governments or grants and funding to online ed. projects by the EU etc. and finally think about the degree recognition processes in place in various countries around the world.

All the best,

Brendan

 

This might be too narrow a topic for a dissertation, but it could make an interesting article.

In the USA, HR functions often are outsourced to companies like Oasis or Adecco. If the HR firm requires employees to have US bank accounts and Social Security Numbers, and there is a ready supply of domestic instructors, then globalization could be slowed. How prevalent are HR firms in higher education?

A broader and more obvious topic is wage disparity. In the USA an online adjunct earns $1,000 - 2,000 per class, typically. University professors in Russia earn as little as $2,500 - 5,000 per year.

A) US schools could pick up offshore talent at a discount and realize cost savings.

B) Professors outside the USA could triple their salaries by picking up a couple online courses each semester at the US compensation rate.

C) some combination of A and B, above.

Alternatively, a non-US university could partner with a small liberal arts college in the USA to provide online instruction. In this way, the US college would be able to offer an array of courses that are beyond its current resources to provide, and the non-US university could share the revenue generated by tuition.

None of this is the norm at this time. It would be interesting to survey US college administrators to find out why.