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Legitimation of distance education: a social history of the Open Learning Institute of British Columbia 1978-1988

University of British Columbia

As Canadian higher education expanded from the 1950s, new institutions sought institutional legitimacy, meaning credibility and prestige in relation to educational peers and the state. Three dimensions to institutional legitimacy were identified: hierarchies of institutions, curricula and pedagogies; horizontal status within institutional sectors and fields of knowledge; and external legitimacy in relation to the state. New distance education institutions have found institutional legitimacy unusually problematic because of widespread skepticism about an educational form in which teacher and learner are separated in time and/or space. Distance educators typically balance industrial organizational forms using modern communications technologies, with attention to individual learners and accessibility. The study examined how a new, publicly-funded, distance education institution acquires legitimacy. The British Columbia government established the Open Learning Institute in 1978, over extensive opposition, with an unusual mandate to teach programs from degree level to adult basic education at a distance. OLI never fitted easily into either university or college sector. Ambiguity persisted over its roles as credential-provider and service agency, but OLI quickly proved its popularity with students. Its leaders adopted existing norms and standards, especially those of the universities, while insisting on college characteristics of openness and accessibility. Government Restraint policies in the 1980s materially affected OLI’s curriculum and pedagogies, and contributed to continuing debates over OLI’s role as provincial coordinator of distance education.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2008-12-18

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/3095

Education

University of British Columbia

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