Global Marketing of Higher Education E-Learning

Introduction

In the 21^st century technology and education must work seamlessly to seize a disrupted future for students and society (Aguilers-Barchet, 2012). The 21^st century is knowledge-based in which learning is critical for every segment of society and knowledge continually becomes obsolete (Allaism, 2017). Technologies have accelerated tremendously during the last decade with changes in development and delivery include, altered instructional methods and the expansion of support services for e-learning activities (Zhao, 2015). In the current scenario of globalization and the mushrooming of educational enterprise, the critical need is to provide quality education through proper systems utilization (Tekleselassie, Roberts, & Richardson, 2014). It is absolutely essential to have enlightened, far-sighted and highly qualified persons and systems to handle matters related to education at all levels, particularly in global higher education (Richardson, Jenkins, & Lemoine, 2017). Current technology clearly provides the means for acquiring greater amounts of information with more efficiency than ever before (Altbach, 2016). Data and information are more readily available and more quickly accessible today, but that does not mean they are used more effectively and efficiently (Dee, 2016).

There are two challenges facing universities that will determine the above-mentioned transformation: (1) the shift from teaching to learning (Eaton, Habinek, Goldstein, Dioun, Santibáñez, Godoy, & Osley-Thomas, 2016); and (2) the use of technology (Dede, 2011). Three forces exist that will also change universities in the future: (1) the high costs of undergraduate education (Barringer, 2016; (2) the demand to document and improve student learning outcomes (Kirkwood, 2014); and (3) the effective use of information technology to change how students learn and how faculty teach (Flavin, 2017).

Most countries face a new and unique demographic shift in population that is more mobile more informed, often better educated, and more open to new ideas (Lumby & Foskett, 2016). Coupled with changing economic challenges, higher education institutions faced a daunting task of accommodating these changes in difficult funding times (Marginson, 2016). The population change coupled with the globalization of the world’s economy has now created new opportunities, as well as unique challenges for higher education institutions some of which are uniquely placed to become the change agents of the future in a diverse, multicultural and global society (Siu & García, 2017; Zhu, 2015).

As a result, the traditional path to obtaining a college degree is quickly becoming the exception rather than the rule because universities are now faced with providing educational opportunities to not only more students, but a more diverse population of students (Bates, 2010). To realize their purpose, university administrators construct rigorous analysis to ensure that educational opportunities are available to underrepresented or non-represented groups (Kauppinen, 2014) and implement practices to bridge the educational gap using creative activities to reach out to nontraditional students and a diverse and global population (Carroll & Jarvis, 2013). Universities are constantly turning to technology as one of the primary means for initiating and maintaining contact with this new, diverse, often economically challenged student populations (Means, 2017).