Forbes: “Colleges Pull Away From The For-Profit Companies That Run Online Programs”

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Steve King, Dec 29, 2021.

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  1. Steve King

    Steve King Member

    According to a recent Forbes article, Colleges Pull Away From The For-Profit Companies That Run Online Programs, many of these for-profit “companies that sell marketing, technology, enrollment and other services to colleges for their online programs – commonly known as OPM, online program management companies” – pocket at least 50% of students’ tuition and enrollment fees.

    Now, colleges and universities are setting up their own OPMs.

    One interesting observation from this article was the outsized enrollment of a handful of online programs. North Carolina estimates that “nearly half of all state residents taking college classes online were doing so at out of state institutions. And most of those were enrolled at dubious for-profit or weakly regarded non-profit colleges such as Liberty University, Strayer University, University of Southern New Hampshire, University of Phoenix or Grand Canyon University. Those five entities alone enrolled about 25,000 North Carolinians in their online programs as of 2019.

    “In other words, North Carolina’s schools were, still are, losing out to low quality out of state online education businesses and losing money to OPM companies on the students they kept in state,” the article summarized.

    Steve
     
  2. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

    Calling those schools "dubious for-profit or weakly regarded non-profit colleges", ouch.

    I don't understand how the internal OPM model would work though. Schools in the state would be able to "trade" coursework with each other, offering pre-built courses and using the revenue generated from enrollment to build additional courses? It seems like being a nonprofit doesn't absolve the OPM model from the issues involving declining academic standards and making money taking precedent over education.
     
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  3. DrSchmoe

    DrSchmoe Member

    It's too bad Forbes is condoning misinformation. First of all, Forbes is into finance and investing, so they have no business talking about education. Secondly, they completely twisted the information from their source. I read the source and it says there is a demand for innovative and flexible programs in North Carolina, and those colleges were listed alongside North Carolina schools. I had a hint that the author was talking out of his hat when he typed "University of Southern New Hampshire". Replace"hat" with the actual three-letter word.
     
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  4. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    More broadly, if the reporting on higher education in general interest outlets doesn't convince you of the pervasiveness of Gell-Mann Amnesia, I don't know what will.
     
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  5. Steve King

    Steve King Member

    Gell-Mann Amnesia is so real! I can’t remember a large incident I’ve worked as a firefighter that was reported in the media without a significant error. Worse, nobody was trying to hide something about the incidents I saw firsthand. The truth was easily discoverable (e.g. the location of the event) without a countervailing narrative to obfuscate what happened. Yet, still, the news stories included at least one significant factual error.

    Now, imagine how riddled with errors every article must be when the subject is less straightforward (like the subjective view of quality).
     
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  6. Vonnegut

    Vonnegut Well-Known Member

    Heck, I’ve seen Incident Commanders shaking their heads at erroneous media statements from their own Public Information Officers!
     
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