For John, BLUF: On Line is good. Nothing to see here; just move along.
From the site Minding the Campus, Mr Peter Sacks asks Is Online Learning for Steerage? Steerage?
The InstaPundit quotes this from the article:
Thus, it seems likely that lower-income and budget-strapped students will make the most use of online learning technologies. This is all well and good to the extent that more students will have access to higher education. Still, online college programs could further stratify our higher education system, dividing those educated at an “authentic” full-fare university and those who received their degrees from online programs.He then notes: : "The thing about traveling steerage is, you still get there. And the current system is really pretty stratified already."We can therefore anticipate the formation of three distinct groups of students. Well-off students will attend the few colleges and universities that are wealthy enough to eschew standardization and automation. They alone will have real relationships with great faculty. A second, less wealthy group of students will use online courses for their general education and attend “authentic” institutions for a short while. For poorer students, online learning could well become the main course. They will attend institutions that, strictly speaking, grant post-high school credentials to the coach class.
Yes, it is not a great way to learn, but it is a way to learn and when you are done you have a leg up on those who didn't try. Thrice over because you have the knowledge, you have the credential, and you have demonstrated a toughness and persistence that any sound employer should admire.
Regards — Cliff
On-line degrees have long been stigmatized by the "correspondence" HS diplomas and credit for "life time experiences." The stigma is that these sorts of programs are little more than "paper-mill" post HS GED experiences.
ReplyDeleteI strenuously disagree with that view although today there are plenty of pay your quarter and get a degree institutions scattered around the landscape. U of Phoenix has done a credible job of becoming and remaining respectable, however, in the big world of business, an MBA from U of Phoenix will never measure up to the "name" schools. Sad, because the knowledge gained from Phoenix is very likely the same as if not more complete than one gets at, say, HBR.
Small, private schools fare little better than their on-line competitors. But, they are gaining and in many cases surpassing their snooty, upper class brethren. Southern New Hampshire University is one of those who have pole vaulted into the rarefied air of higher education, to include Master's and Doctoral programs. They have recently been recognized as a leader if not sole practitioner of "competence based eduction" rather than "seat time" in a standard "curriculum" leading to a specified degree. Under the SNHU program, you arrange your own schedule, complete assigned work, but then rather than take the traditional "knowledge tests" such as a mid-term or final, you instead demonstrate competency in the subject matter. This is something I have long championed, particularly at DRC when I was heading up an online training and education design and development team. Being able to regurgitate data on command is NOT competency. It is barely "knowledge" in that it is the end state of literal rote memorization without any defined purpose..other than passing a test. Competence requires analysis and synthesis of solutions to relevant problems using information learned. Where or how you learn it is of little significance. SNHU aims to establish a benchmark in American higher education by emphasizing not what you know, but what you can do with what you know....and being able to acquire that capability without the expense of sitting passively through a required number of classes and courses.
This should also go a long way toward reversing the trend dominant today in which we have literally millions of graduates with BA's and BS's......who are functionally and occupationally illiterate. AND..we are well on the way to creating the same discouraging post graduate performance deficit with the various and sundry Master's and Doctoral programs. Pretty sad...but then higher education has long been very little about "education" and more about money.