Promesas globales y retos regionales de la universidad virtual en América Latina

Abstract

Internet has revolutionized distance learning, and in Mexico as well as other places in Latin America online higher education presents itself as an opportunity to overcome the limitations of conventional education. The relativization of physical space, the permanent connectivity, the borderless flow of information, and the individualization and personalization of services, appear to designate online university as the future of education. However, this paper critically discusses the idea of the inevitable absorption of conventional higher education by this system. Under the assumption that the reach of online university decreases when it is not treated like an option with requirements of its own, but rather as an online extension of the expectations of conventional education, the evaluation and the work of students and teachers online comes under analysis.