In the 1980s, online education was the purview of academically based initiatives. These were largely peripheral to mainstream universities, freeing them from the managerial agendas and practical constraints that often guide innovation in large institutions. They were exploratory, involving the creation of an original pedagogical model and the…

Examining cases in educational technology from computer assisted instruction to MOOCs, this volume shows how social interests frame reform programs and realign organizational and pedagogical strategies around them to produce a particular environment for change in higher education. Technology is a contingent product rather than a driver of such…