[AISWorld] CFP: Politics of On-line Education – International Journal of E-Politics (IJEP)

[Celia R. Livermore]

CALL FOR PAPERS 


Special Issue on the Politics of On-line Education – International Journal of E-Politics (IJEP) 


Special issue editor: Kristina Setzekorn - ksetzekorn at kaplan.edu , School of Business and Information Technology, Kaplan University 

SUBMISSION DUE DATE: February 1, 2016 
PUBLICATION: International Journal of E-Politics 

OBJECTIVE OF THE THEMED ISSUE: 
This special issue invites submissions related to the Politics of On-line Education. Terms are broadly defined for this special issue. “Politics” references issues related to influence and power. “Online education” generally refers to any web-based learning, including credit and non-credit classes, offered by public and private, for profit and non-profit institutions. Thus, appropriate articles may reference power and influence related to wholly online or hybrid offerings, be they free (e.g., MOOCs), or not free. 

Regardless of the specific offering, on-line education is a disruptive technology (Christensen, 1997; Evans & Wurster, 2000) that makes education widely accessible (Smith, 2014).This impacts the Higher Education industry, global economies and society in general. Higher Education is integral to productivity and innovation, at individual and collective levels. Thus, education’s shift away from scarcity affects the differential earnings and influence of all concerned. Online education impacts, and is impacted by, such shifting power structures, as well as globalization. 

This special issue’s objective is to explore online education’s impact on, and its political implications at, various levels, including individual, regulatory, social and cultural. These implications are on and between individuals, within and between organizations, and within and between governments, and combinations of these. 

We are interested in topics that include (but are not limited to) the following: 
· Accreditation, Regulation, Federal Financial Aid 
· Impact on organizational and industry structure within the Higher Education industry 
· Strategic implications/ opportunities/ challenges/ prescriptions for traditional and online, public and private Higher Education organizations 
· Shifting higher education business models’ impacts (e.g., economic, social, psychological) on administrator, faculty, staff and student roles and power, e.g., implications of adjunctification’s un-bundling of work (course design, seminars, grading, mentoring, advising, governance, research, service, etc.). 
· Implications from shifting cross-subsidies associated with new models (e.g., large lower-level introduction courses subsidize small upper-level specialized courses –what happens when the introductory courses are waived in competency-based scenarios or MOOCs are accepted for credit?). 
· Power issues associated with shifting education models, e.g., competency based degrees, MOOCs, hybrid programs, etc. Who wins, who loses? What potential strategies exist for students and faculty, and entrant and incumbent institutions? 
· “The next billion”—i.e., online education’s potential to efficiently educate financially- and/or technologically-challenged students, both in developed and developing regions. To what extent is this happening? What are the political implications of this flattening of opportunity? What policies/ strategies can enhance or diminish this potential? 
· Online education’s colonialization and resulting potential for cultural homogenization. Transplanting developed regions’ educational models and resources to other cultures may cause the latter (colonialized) to resemble the former (colonial). What are the trade-offs? What strategies are used to resist this colonialization and homogenization? 
· Gender issues—Are women more highly represented as online students, faculty and administrators? Why or why not? What are the political and performance implications? 
· Diversity/ demographic issues – Are people of color more (or less?) represented as online students, faculty and administrators? Why or why not? Are there empirical differences in their success in either venue? Are folks of different ages or socioeconomic levels more or less highly represented in online venues, why, and what factors might explain this differential representation and success? 
· Religious issues associated with online learning, possibly combined with globalization, racial and gender aspects. 
· Virtual education workers’ political issues in dealing with each other, with supervisors and subordinates. What happens when information is un-bundled from people and places, and flows more freely? Who wins and who loses? What political games inhibit and lubricate these information flows? 
· Politics of Open Source materials –Who owns, who uses, who benefits, who loses, who controls, …these resources? 

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE: 
Researchers from any field of enquiry that deals with the politics of online education broadly defined are invited to submit papers for this themed issue. All submissions are due by February 1, 2016. 

All queries to Special Issue Editor 
Kristina Setzekorn ksetzekorn at kaplan.edu , School of Business and Information Technology, Kaplan University 

Full papers to be submitted electronically to: ksetzekorn at kaplan.edu or ksetzekorn at gmail.com . 

Founder: 
Celia Romm Livermore, School of Business Administration, Wayne State University, Detroit, USA 

Editor-in-Chief: 
Yasmin Ibrahim, School of Business and Management, Queen Mary, University of London. 

Published: Quarterly (both in Print and Electronic form) 

PUBLISHER: 
The International Journal of E-Politics is published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference) and “Medical Information Science Reference” imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com . 

REFERENCES: 
Christensen, Clayton M. (1997) The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. 
Evans, P., & Wurster, T. S. (2000). Blown to bits: How the new economics of information transforms strategy . Harvard Business Press 
Smith, P. (2014), The coming era of personalized learning paths. Educause review , 49(6), 


Celia Romm Livermore (PhD) 
Founder, International Journal of E-Politics (IJEP) 
School of Business Administration 
Wayne State University - Detroit, MI, 48202, USA 
IJEP site: www.igi-global.com/IJEP