{"id":17391,"date":"2015-03-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teachonlinecn.wpengine.com\/tools-trends\/articles\/debunking-the-myth-about-a-creative-destruction-of-higher-education-with-technology-as-the-driver\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T12:35:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T17:35:00","slug":"debunking-myth-about-creative-destruction-higher-education-technology-driver","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/teachonline.ca\/fr\/tools-trends\/articles\/debunking-myth-about-creative-destruction-higher-education-technology-driver\/","title":{"rendered":"Debunking the Myth about a Creative Destruction of Higher Education with Technology as the Driver"},"content":{"rendered":"

A variety of commentators are suggesting we are witnessing a major transformation in higher education.<\/p>\n

Thomas Friedman, of the New York Times<\/em>, has written that he sees the end of the university as we know it and the beginning of an \u201cunbundling\u201d of college and university education enabling any student to build their qualifications from courses taken anywhere in the world. Others, such as Clayton Christensen, are also writing about the creative destruction of higher education. Indeed, he suggests that:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cA creative destruction is happening in higher education with technology as the trigger and the driver.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The basic proposition of these writers and commentators is that technology, along with shifts in the demographics of those attending colleges and universities and both societal and individual financial circumstances, created a \u201cperfect storm\u201d for colleges and universities and their response is to reinvent themselves and change the fundamentals of how they function.<\/p>\n

How convincing is the evidence that technology is leading to the transformation of colleges and universities? Does the rhetoric of \u201ccreative destruction\u201d and \u201ctransformation\u201d match with our experience of the post-secondary system in the developed world?<\/p>\n

There is little convincing evidence that a real transformation of programs, colleges and universities is occurring because of technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Evidence against Transformation<\/h2>\n

Nine specific observations illustrate this point:<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n
  1. While blended learning is growing, it is not fundamentally changing timetables, program design, use of physical space, collective agreements or the way in which academic staff are hired, supervised and supported.\n

    \t\u00a0<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  2. There has been no substantial unbundling of programs and courses. For most institutions, residency requirements are still in place ensuring a significant number of courses within a program must be taken at the host institution.\n

    \t\u00a0<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  3. The transformation of program and course requirements, such that students can mix and match courses from a range of institutions, countries or system, is not occurring.\n

    \t\u00a0<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  4. Student assessment in 2015 looks very similar to the way it looked in 1995, the year the Internet \u201ctook off\u201d.\n

    \t\u00a0<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  5. The boundary between colleges and universities has become slightly more blurred, so that mobility between these two solitudes becomes commonplace, both ways \u2013 but this is neither endemic nor substantive. There are still real divides.\n

    \t\u00a0<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  6. Only modest moves are taking place to improve the transfer of credits, prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) and work-based learning accreditation. Yes, the use of \u201cbadges\u201d is out there, but it does not threaten the building blocks of the present system in any fundamental way.\n

    \t\u00a0<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  7. There is little evidence that massive open online courses (MOOCs) are being accepted for credit in institutions.\n

    \t\u00a0<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  8. Rapid growth in the use of competency-based assessment is not occurring.\n

    \t\u00a0<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  9. Students are not demonstrating for technology enhanced learning or petitioning the Senates and Academic Councils of institutions for a different model of teaching and learning.<\/li>\n

    \n<\/ol>\n

    Indeed, it is much more common to see, and be engaged with, students in conversations and debates about:<\/p>\n