Virtual Ivy Islands : Distance Education at Three Elite Research Universities

• In Event: 3429 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 14. Higher Education: Selective Institutions

Abstract

The incredible historical persistence of universities, and university hierarchies, requires special attention from researchers interested in organizations. Essential to this persistence is the ability to adapt and rearticulate usefulness in an ever changing political economy. While significant scholarship has been dedicated to the re-articulation of the university as an engine of economic development stemming from the connection between research, patents, and produces, much less attention has been paid how traditional universities have reimagined the teaching function at the core of their mission. Leveraging primary and secondary historical documents as well as original interviews with administrators responsible for strategic educational initiatives at three elite campus’ - Stanford, Harvard, and MIT - this paper evaluates how each organization managed pedagogical experimentation designed to broaden the traditional concept of the student. By focusing on an historical analysis of the roots of educational experimentation at three elite universities most closely associated with a recent spasm of pedagogical experimentation (the MOOC movement) this paper points to the tension between simultaneous legitimation projects, many of which are abound by local conditions and organizational histories. This paper shows how the cultural conditions created at Stanford for pedagogical experimentation using distance education were defined by porous bounders between industry and university curriculum. These conditions were seized upon by local entrepreneurs. In Cambridge, local social conflicts and strong history of corporate action lead to different strategies, pursued primarily due to the ascent of computer scientists within academic hierarchies.

Author

• Ben Hidru Gebre-Medhin, Stanford University