Some of the education establishment is upset about for-profit & online ed again

:angryfire: Over at the Chronicle they're upset with Straighterline CEO comments!
Let's Deregulate Online Learning - Online Learning - The Chronicle of Higher Education

 

I find it ironic that the author of this article is the founder of StraighterLine. A previous thread complained about all the errors contained within the online coursework!

 

There are some errors in the content at Straighterline, however there are errors in all college textbooks. This is why I was always forced to buy the latest book. My esteemed professors wrote some of these books and they took at least ten revisions to get them correct. I think they had errors put in there just to force students to buy new books instead of used books, but thats the conspiracy theorist in me speaking.

The model is changing. At some point, the stranglehold that traditional 19th century universities have on our higher education system will be over and people will be able to learn and prove their knowledge in new and exciting ways. Straighterline is a low cost, high quality content provider. Their model is perfectly suited for undergrad courses where multiple choice exams and quizzes are the norm with a few essays sprinkled in.
I also like NCU for graduate study since it is totally online and emphasizes a high degree of independent scholarly research and writing.
I often wondered why schools charge so much for online courses. State schools are subsidized by local and federal tax dollars so even though the in-state tuition may be reasonable, the actual profit they receive from a semi-canned online course has got to be high.
Straighterline charges a modest amount in comparison and benefits from no rent-seeking behaviors like the state schools do.