Implications of Internet Technologies for Higher Education: North American perspectives

Internet-based technologies are triggering significant changes in higher education. While in some cases the applications are limited to enhancing face-to-face instruction (Level I applications) or to enhancing existing distance education provision (Level II), in other cases instruction is taking place entirely online (Level III). As higher education institutions seek to exploit these different levels of application of emerging information technologies to deliver education courses and programmes at a distance, they are encountering a number of difficulties. This article presents what a number of higher and distance education observers in North America consider the most pertinent issues related to Internet technologies. The relevance of those issues for an existing distance teaching university, Athabasca University - Canada's Open University, is also discussed.