The Once & Future University - A conversation with Barbara Bichelmeyer
Channel: Center for Online Innovation in Learning
Date: 2015-05-01

When Stanford President John Hennessey declared in 2013 that “a tsunami is coming,” he was referring to the impact of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on higher education. Now that MOOC-hysteria has died down, increasing rhetoric indicates that competency-based education (CBE) is seen by many as the new silver bullet. Still, there are many opinions to counter-balance claims the sky is falling, such as the recent Chronicle of Higher Education article titled “The End of College? Not So Fast” by Donald Heller, Dean of the College of Education at Michigan State University.

What is really going on in higher education, and how do we make sense of it all?

In this COIL Conversation, Barbara Bichelmeyer provides a brief history of higher education to explain how we came to have the infrastructure in which we currently labor. At just the moment in history when this model is straining from its own weight, a complex array of factors have converged to pressure the university as we know it to re-examine mission and reign in operations. We explore these inter-related factors, which include the shifting demographics of university students, shrinking revenue sources, calls for greater accountability, and the impact of the Internet. We discuss the impact each of these factors is having on the institution of higher education, with a particular focus on the Internet. Ultimately, we consider what leverage points will be key to responding to these disruptions in order to move successfully into the new reality of higher education.

Dr. Bichelmeyer brings a unique perspective to this subject. Since 1989, she has studied the processes and impacts of integrating new technologies on educational systems. She is a tenured full professor in the Department of Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University-Bloomington. Since 2007, she has served in various academic administrative positions at IU, such as Associate Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs for IU-Bloomington, and Interim Chancellor of IU-Southeast, with responsibilities for integrating new technologies into academic affairs of the university. She currently serves the seven campuses of Indiana University as Executive Associate Vice President for University Academic and Regional Campus Affairs, and Senior Director of the IU Office of Online Education.

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