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The Online Education Controversy and the Future of the University

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A Commentary to this article was published on 16 December 2015

A Commentary to this article was published on 29 October 2015

Abstract

The neo-liberal reform of the university has had a huge impact on higher education and promises still more changes in the future. Many of these changes have had a negative impact on academic careers, values, and the educational experience. Educational technology plays an important role in the defense of neo-liberal reform, less through actual accomplishment than as a rhetorical justification for supposed “progress.” This paper outlines the main claims and consequences of this rhetorical strategy and its actual effects on the university to date.

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Notes

  1. For more on this notion of divergent paths of development, see Feenberg (2012).

  2. For an account of the development of this program, see Hamilton and Feenberg (2012).

  3. Fortune Magazine, March 7, 1983.

  4. See, for example, Lyotard (1984, 13).

  5. For information on dropout rates, see https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/03/08/researchers-explore-who-taking-moocs-and-why-so-many-drop-out.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vancouver, Canada

    Andrew Feenberg

Authors
  1. Andrew Feenberg
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Correspondence to Andrew Feenberg.

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Feenberg, A. The Online Education Controversy and the Future of the University. Found Sci 22, 363–371 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-015-9444-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-015-9444-9

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