How Online Universities Really Stack Up

Personally I would only take online classes if they were from a traditional non-profit institution.  I have a dislike those corporate online schools that you see advertising all over.  I had a friend who worked as an “Admission Officer” at one of these places; he basically told me that the only real criteria they focus on when looking at “student” are: can the person pay, can they get financial aid (loans), or can they get someone to co-sign a loan.  All these places only focus on cost and how much money they can make from their customers.  These learning corporations are the main reason there is a stigma attached to online education since they cheapen the higher learning process.  Second, I think online education only works with certain fields (liberal art, business, humanities, and IT).  Lastly, everyone learns differently so might learn better in a traditional classroom, while others in an online environment.  We just have to let the student embrace what works best for them base on their age and life experience.

Great exchange of ideas. Thanks Janine.

I'd like to sift through segmentation and highlight perhaps a new paradigm with some paradoxes.  

There is a need to segment the many purposes of online.edu:  A first approach would be to tier the knowledge needs of various audiences.  The now famous Khan Academy on YouTube is a great example of one knowledge tier where an audience can go to learn/re-learn something very specific.

For the experienced professional, online classes can be essential to updating a skillset.
For traditional students, online material can present a level of engagement through marrying the online/offline platforms which, in turn, can yield higher productivity.

For the undergraduate student though, there is so much more than data/information/technologies or knowledge transfer.  Right now for example, I benefit from your great article/resources.  But a meeting in person is so much more cognitive and individuated, as an authentic teacher or mentor feels/intuits the student in the moment.  (Does this economics work in a university class of 120+ students?)  Can the system improve from re-configuring the human interface in a new model of engagement?  

At a higher level, we are also in the midst of evolutionary change - with a multitude of motivations for students as I read between these lines:

To take a programmatic angle, the online.edu trend brings something akin to object-based learning:  It was much more difficult in the brick and mortar days to actually criss-cross fields in search of learning 'modules' to amalgamate into a ‘secret’ potion! 

Nowadays, one can hunt across fields and technologies to put together a new specialty.  This is a great value-add in a cross-functional age - looking to master complexity.

Having said that, traditional multi-disciplinary studies don’t afford the depth required to delve into many disciplines - something which takes years to master/evolve into.  And this begs a deeper question:  Cost.  It becomes evident in the USA that as we lead the world in the production of knowledge, our universities are becoming unaffordable and may themselves not be able to sustain this cost structure.

Online allows the student not only to engage at his/her own pace, but with varying levels of engagements.  Eventually the Universities will evolve the educators’ tenure model -  to perhaps one of field/domain engineer or master coordinator – facilitating a platform of ‘web 2.0’ collaboration towards thought leadership and new knowledge production.  (The challenge will be figuring out a way to monetize this participation.)

But even in the totally virtual worlds, there is an affinity towards meeting in person:   Can a Web2.0 education make up for something sought out in the top schools:  meeting/getting-to-know future captains of industry.

We can see parts of this collaborative model at work better in the private sector (where a highly educated workforce is contracted.)   Such example is intel.  Intel overcame the limits of computing beyond materials and process engineering boundaries through their famed town hall meetings – (where cross-functional engineers hammer at a bottleneck.)

So in concluding, there are many study needs - all the way to the social perspectives of Universities as the R&D centers for tomorrow corporate success stories.  A student then needs to evaluate/tier his/her needs and compare them to the Univerisities knowledge levels, the platform models and optimal configuration for personal engagement. There are varying ROIs accordingly.

...Give or take generational aptitudes: the younger generations - Gen Y/D (etc.) the ‘multi-taskers’ criss crossing the fields of knowledge to shape tomorrow's world...ideal for object-based learning!

I agree about the stigma.  I don't know that I would give any person extra consideration--and maybe give them less--if they had an online degree.  Now, if the online degree is from a school with an on-ground program, too, the method of obtaining the degree wouldn't be evident on a resume, I guess.

I've taught several MBA courses for a local university and tomorrow start my very first online one.  I'll have a better feel in a couple of months, I guess, but this is feeling a bit lightweight at this point compared to on-ground.

Part of going to a University is being indoctrinated into the rhythm of classes, quizzes, papers and competition with peers.   That regimentation drives people to complete courses.

Now, the question arises, does online learning have to simulate university classes? 

Or can we use the technology in brand new ways?    Is online learning merely a 30 minute video of an instructor with some PowerPoint slides and a web form/quiz?  

Why can't learning be a 3-D rendered interactive massively multiplayer game like Second Life?   Why can't learning be measured in smaller units like axioms, rather than textbook chapters and credits?   We can be much more fungible.

In the early days of cinema, people filmed movie like they were stage plays...but then they moved on and discovered all that cameras could do.   Can the same happen in online learning?

Thanks, nasimson, for sharing about MIT OpenCourseWare and how you have used it.  Agreed, it is a very good site and a great learning resource for any educator or student.

Not an online university at all, but MIT has shared its many courses (two thousand courses to be exact) online: ocw.mit.edu
OpenCourseware is a great philanthropic initiative on e-learning. Anyone can use these materials as the license is creative commons.

For non-degree seeking learners, teachers, and on-land students, this is a great resource. I have been teaching Supply Chain for last three years and I have been using these materials. The quality, depth & variety of the courses is excellent.

The point I am trying to establish is, in addition to the formal learning, through the informal learning people have gained much more & much longer since.

LOL, Kurtkeys, so true, so true!  I actually found colleges  (for-profit, which is a whole other discussion which you've touched upon), that offered some of your course list online..."hands on courses, like Motorcycle repair, Mechanical Engineering, Gunsmithing and Micro-Miniature Electronics Repair and soldering."  The only way to combine a hands-on practicum is with the blended learning model requiring an on land element to the course.  Thanks for bringing up some very good points!

Janine,

Thank you for the engaging and informative post. I would like to add that there is a stigma attached to on-line degrees. Mainly because of all the fraudulent degrees and diploma systems that came before the Accredited Colleges and Universities came on-line. Not to mention the distain held by alums that slept through enough classroom sessions to get 2 or more PhDs have for the online scholars.

I will agree that student self motivation is a consideration in successful on-line schooling. I would like to add that the subject of the training is a very important point. Courses in Computer Science lend themselves well to on-line training. But Hands on courses, like Motorcycle repair, Mechanical Engineering, Gunsmithing and  Micro-Miniature Electronics Repair and soldering may not be feasable or well suited to on-line training. Would you go to a brain surgeon who had gotten his degree from the HARVARD ON-LINE DOCTOR SCHOOL?

Respectfully,

Kurt

Princess_dascho, what if the best of both worlds, on-line and on land, gets combined? The on-line degree industry is still young and developing best practices.  I would love to see the convenience of on-line along with the interaction of face-to-face or some communication method that is real-time.  This is sometimes referred to as blended learning.

Nowadays, although many students from third word countries prefer distance learning, I rather prefer "on-site"  traditional schooling because it promotes more interaction and face-to- face communication. I think that people learn better when they interact with each other in traditional classroom. They learn from their peers, from their teachers and can have direct hand-on the new technolgy available in western countries.

But the reality is that not everybody can afford to travel in those countries and distance learning seems to be the only option.