Page 4 - The Managed Learning Environment Strategic Gain_

Educational institutions, and in this example the Business School, are
potentially facing an organisational trap stemming from the idea that a
strategy based on online learning is a cure-all for the ills which confront these
institutions, e.g. falling retention rates and cash flow. To some extent this
view is augmented by Bonk, 2004 when he observed that, “many universities
that fail to keep pace with technological advances will close” He tempered
this view by saying that universities will close because of, for example, lower
state funding or the inability of university bureaucracies to respond to rapidly-
changing student learning demands involving technology. However, no matter
what the causal base of institutional closure the dynamics of change appear
to be racing ahead of Business School strategy with the result that there
tends to emerge a pressure to view technologies such as Web CT as a
panacea, providing a convenient, if ill defined basis for emergent strategy
(Quote 2).