Online Education May Transform Higher Education.

I found this little gem on Facebook of all places and thought I'd pass it along:

Online Education May Transform Higher Ed - US News and World Report

 

Very interesting article NorCal. I moved this over to the Distance Learning forum so more people would see it.

 

I felt the same way...where has this person been?

 

Written for the person that has just woke from a 15 year coma!

Is the author writing this piece for those whom have been in a fifteen year coma!

 

It's illegal to make money!

From what I can gather in this article, the U.S. Dept of Ed. is trying to force for profits to show that their degrees have some weight in the real world. I am pretty sure there are universities of all kinds that have worthless degrees (and by worthless I mean they have no practical use or application in society). I think the article failed to discuss the other underlying issue; the saturation of degree offerings in over staffed career fields (hello online MBA's). The problem I see is that there is starting to become a demand for top level salary for mid to level level degree programs. In our society, name recognition is the tipping point for a lot of degrees, yet there seems to be some wishful thinking that an online MBA from a typical for profit school can command the same type of salary as an MBA from Duke, PSU, etc.

That isn't to say there aren't some good programs out there that people are unaware of, but you as a degree holder cannot demand of a hiring authority to give you the same respect as other candidates simply because you think all MBA's are created equal. I use the MBA because, from what I've researched and gathered from this board, the MBA is one of the most offered degree programs that are both online and B&M with a fierce debate going on about the worth of them. One could easily replace MBA with M.Ed, MPH, MPA, etc and come to the same conclusion.

 

Please forgive a stupid question, but we are fortunate enough to have some pretty well educated individuals here on DegreeInfo, has anyone here ever considered writing a piece and having it submitted to Newsweek or another major publication that outline the current state of online education?

 

The annual Sloan-C reports tend to provide the most widely cited data on the current state of online education. USNWR and Newsweek usually run popular snippets. Most of us involved in the field of distance learning tend to focus our attention on publishing in refereed scholarly journals.

 

But what if they don't publish an accurate account that tells the WHOLE story?

 

Since when did the whole truth ever sell ad space? IMO, a well balanced and fair representation is not entertaining enough for the popular media. That's why they focus on anything that can be perceived as sensational, regardless of whether it's true and fair.

 

Fair enough, you have a good point.

 

Oh, thanks, but I'm not arguing against you; I'm continuing on in the same vein that I thought you were on. Sort of agreeing with you. I wish some of the brilliant minds around here on DI would publish in the way your suggested, I'm just not sure the media would want it. I'm afraid it would be too well-balanced and not sensational enough. The media only wants to hear about nasty, greedy people who are scamming the public, even if it's inaccurate.

 

Sounds like a job for a DL Super hero like Anthony Piña, Ed.D, lol. :wave:

J/K

:beerchug:

 

That was who I was thinking about, too. (except for the super-hero part!) :smile:

 

Oh please...you are far too kind. There are a number of good books that give a large scale view of DL. I do have an edited book coming out later this year (with Al Mizell of Nova Southeastern) on the "real life" experiences of those who teach and administer DL courses and programs. My publications tend to be more focused. The latest one was on online student identity verification--keeps you on the edge of your seat, right Of course, thanks to the influence of my colleagues on Degreeinfo, I have a couple of journal articles on diploma mills.

 

Which I think I speak for everyone on this forum when I say thanks.

 

Additional information on the book would be appreciated. I am looking to get my PHD in Information Systems from Nova mostly via DL, this book would be a good read for me.