Gregor Kiczales, a UBC computer science professor, summarizes a recent event at UBC on the future pedagogy and economics of higher education. The presentation, which featured Tony Bates and Eric Grimson, suggested that a main reason for a university like UBC to explore online learning is to improve the on-campus learning experience. Kiczales summarizes this argument by suggesting that much of what matters in a university education happens outside of lectures, that moving the traditionally passive part of lecture to video enables more active learning in the classroom, and that recent results from learning research are enabling us to do a better job designing the pre-class, in-class, and post-class material to increase engagement and learning.
https://flexible.learning.ubc.ca/digital-learning-blog/online-to-improve-on-campus/