The Negentropic Professor and the Online Curriculum

Abstract

Entropy, the notion of a gradual decline toward disorder, randomness and, eventual collapse, affects all human, living and social systems, including universities. While strictly speaking, entropy is a measure rather than a construct; it has been understood in more metaphorical colloquial ways and has been applied to concepts within the social sciences, such as education. One of the primary negentropic forces in today's university is the enrollment increases that online classes bring as a form of order and integration. This paper focuses on negentropy as it is lived out through online learning, strategically applied in higher education contexts. This paper briefly reviews the literature on faculty work, presents a definition of negentropic faculty work, and proposes the application of this kind of faculty work within the online higher education space.