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Storms clouds on the digital education horizon

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Abstract

ALTHOUGH DIGITAL EDUCATION is growing across all sectors of higher education, many unresolved challenges remain unresolved. This paper focuses on five of them:

  1. 1.

    faculty workload in online teaching,

  2. 2.

    the continued dominance of traditional pedagogy in digital higher education,

  3. 3.

    the weak state of assessment of outcomes in e-learning initiatives,

  4. 4.

    flaws in the accreditation process of distance and flexible learning programs and institutions, and

  5. 5.

    the disappointing state of educational research in the area. The paper concludes with recommendations for a strong development research model to address these and associated challenges.

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Correspondence to Thomas C. Reeves.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas C. Reeves is a Professor of Instructional Technology at The University of Georgia where he teaches program evaluation, multimedia design, and research methods. Since receiving his PhD at Syracuse University in 1979, he has developed and evaluated numerous interactive multimedia programs for education and training. In addition to papers and workshops in the USA, he has been an invited speaker in other countries, including Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, England, Finland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and Taiwan. His research interests include: evaluation of instructional technology for education and training, socially responsible research goals and methods in education, mental models and cognitive tools, and applications of instructional technology in developing countries.

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Reeves, T.C. Storms clouds on the digital education horizon. J. Comput. High. Educ. 15, 3–26 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02940850

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