Future of Online Education

http://chronicle.com/temp/email.php?id=z4uu085c3nzdyiwx479f1qkjavmaj75l

Interesting article on the future of online education. What do you think?

 

In my state, the University of Illinois at Springfield, a rural campus, was experiencing a steady decline in student enrollment. A few years ago, they began increasing the development of online courses, which have grown so much in popularity that the university has actually had a net increase in enrollment. They are now working on an initiative to offer a face-to-face and online version of every course in their catalog.

The article's claim that much of the development of online programs at not-for-profits universities is in reaction to competition by for-profits (especially U of Phoenix) is accurate.

 

Anthony,

Do you know if UIL - Springfield has set a timetable for implementing this initiative? Also, when you say "online version of every course in their catalog, does this include Science courses that would be traditionally taught in the classroom (i.e. Biology, Chemistry, Physics, etc..). If so, would it then be possible to obtain a Biology Degree without ever visiting the Springfield campus? Just curious!

Thanks,
Tom

 

Their choice of words is funny. So students were being "stolen" from non-profits. I'm surprised the author didn't say that students were being "kidnapped".

 

A thought

I see a continuim of institutions ranging from for-profts on one extreme to very traditional non-profits on the other. There are a growing number of what I call "aggressive non-profits" such as Nova, Baker and UMUC that occupy the middle ground and are growing rapidly.

Will the growth talked about in this article continue forever? I suspect not. There are some students and disciplines well served by DL - and others that aren't.

My biggest fear in all of this is the dilution of academic standards. It is one thing to make academic programs accessible to student. It is quite another to graduate people with MBAs that lack even the most basic knowledge of business topics like accounting and statistics. I sense a lot of programs are so "customer focused" that enforcing standards and making students take things they don't like (often anything with numbers) aren't high on their radar screens.

Regards - Andy

 

Everything Andy said.

 

Re: A thought

But Andy, there appears to be a huge market for degrees that don't take much effort to attain.

<SARCASM>Don't these students deserve to be credentialed just like everybody else?</SARCASM>

 

Re: A thought

Well, my biggest fear has something to do with giant flying insects but I think that the erosion of academic standards takes a close second place.

Seriously though, I agree with Andy. Everyone wants a Masters degree, whether they're capable of it or not. This is one of the problems I have with all those DL MBA programs. It seems to me that if someone were to shop around, they might find an MBA program somewhere that would enroll them, regardless of their record. Then they do that UofP cohort thing where they let some overachiever do all the work for the group and they coast on through (this is an oversimplification, I know, but it's been an identified problem with these programs from the start.)
Jack

 

Re: Re: A thought

Joann - You've made my day!

I remember a character in the classic comedy Hogan's Hero - perhaps someone will remember his name. He was a British commando that was a bit of a keystone cop. He always said - "Commando training was the tougest weekend of my life!". A single weekend doesn't make a hardened, legendary British Commando. Given the demand for degrees with little effort, I suspect some are looking for the same kind of thing today - Give me a doctorate with minimal effort.

I'm all in favor of DL providing access to higher education. Without it, I wouldn't be where I am today. But DL without high standards provides a false sense of accomplishment and food for critics.

Regards - Andy

 

Re: Re: Re: A thought

The characters name was Newkirk. The actor, Richard Dawson, went on to host that ever popular game show, Family Feud.
Jack

 

Re: Re: A thought

This is what happened to a buddy of mine that was working on his degree through one of UofP's on-site locations. Semester after semester he was placed in groups of 5 or 6, where only 2 or 3 students ended up doing all of the work. The other students would not show up for group meetings, did a poor job (if anything) on their portion of the coursework, and let the rest of the group carry them. My buddy would come to work everyday complaining about how these individuals were not contributing, not trying, and how he had to do, not only his share of the coursework, but theirs as well. I told him about TUI, he enrolled, and never looked back!

 

Re: Re: A thought

Joann - You've made my day!

I remember a character in the classic comedy Hogan's Hero - perhaps someone will remember his name. He was a British commando that was a bit of a keystone cop. He always said - "Commando training was the tougest weekend of my life!". A single weekend doesn't make a hardened, legendary British Commando. Given the demand for degrees with little effort, I suspect some are looking for the same kind of thing today - Give me a doctorate with minimal effort.

I'm all in favor of DL providing access to higher education. Without it, I wouldn't be where I am today. But DL without high standards provides a false sense of accomplishment and food for critics.

Regards - Andy

 

Re: Re: Re: A thought

Colonel Crittendon, played by the wonderful Bernard Fox (who was also in Bewitched as Dr. Bombay).

As for "easy degrees," this argument is almost always put forth by those who have already done theirs. While Andy's desire for maintaining high standards is admirable, stating that way implies there are programs lacking sufficient rigor--that there are programs failing to meet this standard.

Which ones?

(I recall reading once that Nova University--as NSU was once known--was a "mail drop diploma mill." Hyperbole and not true even then, but expressive of the same sentiments.)

 

To my knowledge, there is no timetable established for the complete implementation, although they have been actively pursuing (and getting) grants to assist in the initiative. Since my institution (Northeastern) has been put as a partner in one of the grants, I will be able to find out more as I interact with my counterparts at Springfield. It is an exciting proposal that will need a high degree of leadership to implement. UIS currently offers online degrees in nine of their 39 disciplines (over 200 online courses). Their first online science degree is environmental studies. They currently offer online courses in biology and chemistry, but I do not know how they are doing the labs. UIS does not offer a degree in physics.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: A thought

Rich,

Don't you think that students who are searching for "easy degrees" by distance learning are damaging the credibility of the institution they eventually attend? Especially if they go on to recommend this degree to others as an "easy degree" (what ever that means.) Isn't there a solid reasoning why prestigious academic institutions concentrate on promoting the quality of academics rather than how easy their degrees are to complete? Even if easy doesn't mean a lack of academic rigor calling a degree "easy" seems slanderous to me.

I think we would be better off reminding those who are searching for easy degrees that any degree that is really easy to get is not a degree that is worth very much. The actual worth of a degree to both the student AND their eventual employer is whether or not the student is able to succeed in the face of a credible challenge.

Maybe some employer's have forgotten why they require a degree. I don't thank the original purpose of requiring a degree is the credential it represents, but rather because it proves something about the person who has the degree. What does completing an "easy degree" prove? If I were an employer, I would want the employee's resume to say something about how well they handle and dispatch adversity as well as to indicate the applicant's knowledge of my company's issues. How does having an "easy degree" address either of those things?

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A thought

Please, which degrees are "easy"? Which are less demanding than all the rest? Where is that line drawn?

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A thought

I know what you are getting at, but I've never said that any particular degree was easy. However, I do believe it is damaging to a school's reputation for people to think an institution offers the "easiest" degree. Like I said before -- whatever that is. Unfortunately, I fear that people searching for an "easy" degree are doing a disservice to the institution they choose. Also because this is a forum that primarly deals with distance learning degrees, I fear it also does a disservice to distance learning degrees in general. As a student (remember I haven't completed any degree as of yet) we need to be able to trumpet the value of our academic achievements not just say that it fulfills a checkbox for employment. To be able to honestly say that my education was worthwhile it needs to be an honest challenge. Otherwise, it only has value because of an employer's willingness to make unwitting assumptions.

So, when I see people inquiring about "easy degrees" it rubs me the wrong way because of what it implies about the degree they eventually pursue, irregardless of whether the degree is actually "easy".

 

Re: Re: A thought

Damn, Jack! I almost fell out of my chair when I read that.

It isn't just masters degrees. There's this idea buzzing around that any reasonably alert adult sort of automatically deserves a bachelors degree.

Combine that feeling of undergraduate entitlement with the tendency for masters degrees to turn into little 30-unit first-degrees with 'graduate level' attitude, and we got some problems abrewin'.

Actually, I don't have any trouble with the idea that pretty much anyone of normal intelligence is capable of earning a degree. I strongly support the idea of extending everyone the opportunity to do so.

I would just like the degrees that they earn to continue to mean something.

And none of this really has anything to do with DL or with the profit/non-profit distinction.

 

Tom has already raised the problem of labs and hands-on practical courses.

But if the initiative is to offer an online version of every lecture course in the university's catalog, then it makes sense to me.

I think that's probably going to be the tendency at many universities in years to come. Lecture sections will migrate online and may actually replace physical lectures entirely at some schools.

The day may come when physical campuses are basically laboratory establishments. Subjects like history, literature, philosophy and mathematics that are classroom-lecture based might migrate to a largely online format. Even science and engineering programs may move their lecture and discussion sections online, with students only stepping on campus to smell the stinks and get their hands dirty.

If there's any truth to that prediction, then what we will be seeing in years to come is DL and B&M education merging and becoming one.

 

Bill,
It's just a matter of time, unless some haughty Ivy league school ends up owning the manufacturing rights to electricity!
-Gavin