چکیده (انگلیسی):

A commonly accepted definition of online learning is that students have access to learning
experiences in: time, place, pace, learning style, content, assessment, and pathways (Chen, 2003).
Although this is true, there is a considerable concern about the level of abstraction involved in
online education. Critics of flexible learning call it just another fad (Zemsky & Massy, 2004).
These criticisms are founded in claims that online learning failed to launch a pedagogical
revolution or attract students in masses. Further, some argue that it is a training and not
educational tool. With all the buzz of successes and failures, flexible learning will continue to
have an increasingly important role in higher education. Given the many fallacies about online
learning, this paper argues that flexibility and transferability are prevailing traits in this explosion
of knowledge. There is, simultaneously, a growing concern that online or flexible education has
not raised learners’ level of abstraction. This paper concludes with a call for further investigation
into flexibility/transferability and the effectiveness of institutions to align faculty development
models and infrastructure with the new science of learning as well as to equip faculty with
techniques to enhance level of abstraction.