Posted by: Jonathan Shaw
The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed what many anticipated would be a lasting revolution in higher education, as institutions globally embraced open-access platforms and emergency digital learning infrastructures as a crucial lifeline. This rapid pivot initially suggested the dawn of a new educational paradigm capable of overcoming institutional inertia and democratizing learning on a massive scale. However, years later, this promise has significantly diminished, with enrollments in open platforms stagnating, dropout rates remaining high, and universities largely returning to traditional campus-based instruction, prompting an exploration into why this digital transformation ultimately faltered. This article argues that the failure lies not in technological shortcomings but in an unaddressed ideological crisis within education itself, where the shift online merely digitized existing inequities and prioritized technical convenience over fundamental structural reform.
