What is the future for universities, given the shift to thinking more seriously about the potential for online learning? The creation of EdX and all this talk about flipped classrooms are just the beginning. Everyone is talking and speculating… what will happen? Here at the Bok Center we are readying for what David Brooks is calling a tsunami.

The big question is how academics and professionals thinking about the scholarship of teaching and learning choose to approach this potential. Brooks prefers to take an optimistic view, as do we:

But it also compels colleges to focus on the rest of the learning 
process, which is where the real value lies. In an online world, 
colleges have to think hard about how they are going to take
 communication, which comes over the Web, and turn it into learning,
which is a complex social and emotional process.

 How are they going to blend online information with face-to-face
 discussion, tutoring, debate, coaching, writing and projects? How are 
they going to build the social capital that leads to vibrant learning 
communities? Online education could potentially push colleges up the 
value chain — away from information transmission and up to higher 
things.

What do you think? Stay tuned! Exciting times ahead.