Blockchain technology is argued to be the next “big” digital technology trend that will challenge a number of organizations, including higher education institutions. In contrast, higher education institutions have a history of being slow to adopt new digital technologies in the organizational apparatus. The question that remains discussing is whether universities will approach blockchain technologies in ways that are different from traditional research and education. This paper intends to discuss three particular ways in which blockchain may challenge higher education institution. The paper questions whether blockchain technologies can democratize and automate learning process, reduce costly bureaucracy and be adopted in higher education institutions. In sum, the intent is to invite to a discussion on blockchain and address whether or in what ways higher education institutions should adopt blockchain technologies as a digital technology.

Although MOOCs have been around for a decade, the use of MOOCs in teacher training is a new development. In 2015, a Norwegian teacher education received internal funding to develop a MOOC intended for blended learning, which we call bMOOC. The bMOOC consisted of four different modules, and the course content was created internally by highly competent teacher trainers. One goal with the bMOOC was to familiarize teacher students and teacher educators with the concept of blended learning. Another goal was to support students' academic writing processes across courses and possibly take some of the workload connected to instruction and feedback off the teacher trainers. The article analyzes the outcome of the implementation of the bMOOC, which shows low user adoption rate and low course completion. The study questions whether teacher educators see the pedagogical value in MOOCs and whether teacher students have enough digital competence to make use of online learning objects in formal learning.

While technological change in organizations is fast and eminent to most people, the adoption of Massive Open Online Courses, micro-credentials, and flexible and scalable online courses, appear to be comparatively slow in Higher Education in the Nordic countries. To explore this phenomenon, we completed 10 qualitative interviews at ten different higher education institutions across Norway in fall 2020. The informants were strategically selected among employees who had been involved in open platform technology, MOOC production and support for faculties. Adopting thematic analyses, we found entrepreneurs who positioned themselves in pockets of innovation with the intention to transform teaching and learning. Rather than seeing technological innovations as “more of the same”, the entrepreneurs embraced the possibilities emerging in new educational practices. Inspired by New Institutionalism, we focused on the organizational conditions for MOOC production. The entrepreneurs often entered interpretive struggles at higher organizational levels in competition with other stakeholders. Despite national initiatives and funding, many stakeholders questioned the value of MOOCs. Our study points to discrepancies in understanding the disruptive and transformative change that new technology can bring to study programs and lifelong learning. The informants also experienced insufficient support from leaders and lamented the lack of a national platform for open online access. We link these findings to embedded theories, belief systems and discourses in educational cultures and management in Higher Education.

This study used New Institutional Theory to explore how entrepreneurial activities in support units contribute to digital transformation in higher education in Norway. We describe how entrepreneurs initiated and operationalized support for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), micro-credentials and fully online courses in pockets of innovation within existing institutional arrangements. An ambition was to understand why capacity building for digital transformation in a country described by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as digitally mature is lagging behind other countries. We obtained our data from qualitative interviews with faculties and staff involved in fully online course production. The informants were chosen through strategic sampling from support units and faculties, where they filled different roles in the production of such online courses. Our findings describe entrepreneurial activities that strongly contributed to the emerging social field of digital transformation. Located in pockets of innovation, the entrepreneurs provided open digital platforms, a pedagogy for online course design and support for faculties who engaged in online course production. Yet, the findings also confirm previous research pointing out how the lack of supportive leadership may impede successful digital transformation in higher education institutions. The study concludes with a model for digital maturity which may be useful to researchers and stakeholders. The model can also support entrepreneurial processes in online environments.

No abstract