Sandcastle competitions

This commentary discusses reasons that lead scholars to feel entitled to make judgements in areas where they have little or no expertise. Three current reports about the future of online learning are considered, issued by the Global Learning Council, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Gates Foundation. Two of these publications contain contradictions and confusion that may simply be due to lack of awareness of distance education (DE) and online learning research. The third report gives good evidence but has been criticized for being too academic. The conflicting standards and criteria evident in such writings may be due to institutional pressures to promote policies and principles despite lack of supportive evidence, and to weaknesses in the DE literature itself. As major institutional policies about online learning are likely to be based on the recommendations of such reports, it is important for DE specialists to challenge them where appropriate.