Copyright

Richard Heller

Published On

2026-05-05

Language

  • English

Print Length

20 pages

THEMA

  • JN
  • JNM
  • UYQ
  • JNA
  • JNK

BISAC

  • EDU015000
  • EDU040000
  • EDU016000
  • EDU032000
  • COM004000

Keywords

  • Distributed education
  • Online learning
  • Knowledge equity
  • Digital technology
  • University transformation
  • Open access

Digital infrastructure

Chapter of: Distributing Knowledge: Openness, Equity, and Higher Education Transformation

This chapter covers the digital transformation of higher education, the role of educational technology and the industry behind it, where AI fits in, the importance of the digital divide, and the new iteration and promise of the decentralised Web 3.0 and federated infrastructures. It concludes with the observation that distributing rather than centralising education research and publication is consistent with and facilitated by these new and evolving technologies and ways in which we communicate.

Contributors

Richard F. Heller

(author)
Emeritus Professor of Medicine at University of Newcastle Australia
Emeritus Professor of Public Health at University of Manchester
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3161-5967

Richard Heller, Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Newcastle, Australia and of Public Health, University of Manchester, UK, has a medical degree and doctorate from the University of London, United Kingdom. He was Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Community Medicine at the University of Newcastle, Australia and Professor of Public Health at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. Richard was also the founder and coordinator of the People’s Open Access Education Initiative (https://www.peoples-uni.org/), which aimed to provide Public Health capacity building in developing countries at low cost, through e-learning using open access resources on the internet, and leading to an MPH degree. Recent work has been in conjunction with the West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN) to develop Diamond Open Access initiatives for public health in Africa. He authored Distributed University for Sustainable Higher Education and was co-editor of Stories of Hope:- Reimagining Education, https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0462