"Meteoric Growth" for Online Ed

[Winston Smith]

We know Chip and his toe licker pals at DI must be wondering who this Online Ed guy is and what sort of viagra he took to achieve meteoric growth.

But this is actually an article about online education and how it is increasing in popularity.  Of particular interest was a comment following the story by "Muser of NM," who makes a point that often has been made here.  Real growth in DL will come when the cartel's accreditation monopoly is broken.

Study: Online Education Continues Its Meteoric Growth

By Jeff Greer
Posted January 26, 2010

Online college education is expanding—rapidly. More than 4.6 million college students were taking at least one online course at the start of the 2008-2009 school year. That's more than 1 in 4 college students, and it's a 17 percent increase from 2007.

Turns out it's the economy, stupid.

Two major factors for the soaring numbers in the 2008-2009 school year are the sour economy and the possibility of an H1N1 flu virus outbreak, according to the seventh annual Sloan Survey of Online Learning report, titled "Learning on Demand: Online Education in the United States in 2009." But, the survey's authors say, there is a lot more work to be done, and there's huge potential for online education to expand, especially at larger schools.

"For the past several years, all of the growth—90-plus percent—is coming from existing traditional schools that are growing their current offerings," says Jeff Seaman, one of the study's authors and codirector of the Babson Survey Research Group at Babson College. Seaman's coauthor, Elaine Allen, who is also a codirector of the Babson Survey Research Group, added that community colleges, for-profit schools, and master's programs have seen significant growth in online offerings.

With a higher demand for college-educated workers, colleges are more popular than ever. The higher-education population grew 1.2 percent between 2007 and 2009. And with public institutions dealing with dwindling budgets and laid-off workers trying to expand their skills, online education seems a natural, inexpensive fit. The study found that 50 percent of institutions with online education programs have seen their institutional budgets decrease, compared to 25 percent that have seen their budgets increase.

"What we hear now is that the issues that are related to [online education's challenges] have nothing to do with online itself," Seaman says. "Things like budget constraints—issues that apply to institutions as a whole."

The swine flu prompted many schools to develop contingency plans for pandemics on campus. The survey found that two thirds of schools have formal plans in place to deal with an outbreak. Substituting online courses for face-to-face classes is a component of 67 percent of those plans, the survey says. Allen says that only 2 percent of the schools surveyed had a disruption in classes caused by H1N1. She added, however, that such incidents as a recent outbreak of norovirus at Babson and the impact of Hurricane Katrina on Gulf Coast schools forced the utilization of contingency plans that involved online courses.

"When you have an online plan in place, classes go on as usual," Allen says.

Despite all the data that show significant growth and interest in online education, there are still some faculty members who balk at teaching on the Web. The study found that the acceptance of online ed by faculty has remained constant since the first survey was published in 2002. Fewer than one third of chief academic officers—meaning provosts, deans, and the like—believe their faculty accepts the value and legitimacy of online education, the report says.

However, a study published last year by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities—Sloan Commission on Online Learning indicated that faculty might not be so opposed to online ed. The study found that one third of public university professors had taught online courses and that more than half had recommended that students take such courses. Schools like Stanford University and the College of Charleston have a major presence on websites such as YouTube EDU.

"The biggest challenge for institutions is that, when 1 student in 4 is taking classes online, you must step up and begin to think strategically about this," says Frank Mayadas, a special adviser for the project from the Alfred Sloan Foundation. "The survey shows that the idea hasn't quite sunk in. ... Not enough [institutions] have thought strategically [about online education]. ... Many have, but there's still a gap between the reality of online learning and the strategic thinking across the board."

Muser of NM
Jan 27, 2010 14:01:17 PM

Other advantages of online

are elimination of fuel used and time spent for working adults to drive to a physical-plant college for classes, and the ability to view the computer on your own schedule.


The BIGGEST advantage, though, will be cost savings to students which will occur if and when society finds a way to break the "accreditation" lock heretofore owned by existing institutions.

Bits and bytes are not very expensive and most kinds of knowledge can be copied and transmitted this way to masses. The key is to get real knowledge on the cheap and have it "recognized" without paying a monopoly's toll for it. Time marches on, and so will this.

http://www.usnews.com/education/online-e...s/#3986118

[Don Dresden]

The BIGGEST advantage, though, will be cost savings to students which will occur if and when society finds a way to break the "accreditation" lock heretofore owned by existing institutions.

Bits and bytes are not very expensive and most kinds of knowledge can be copied and transmitted this way to masses. The key is to get real knowledge on the cheap and have it "recognized" without paying a monopoly's toll for it. Time marches on, and so will this.

From (of all places) the Al Franken State, Minnesota's Republican governor Tim Pawlenty sees technology causing "massive decentralization" for higher education.   (What's that, like sentencing Dixie to Dublin and Steve to Taft?)  

Competition, deregulation?  In the far left wing lunatic world of higher education?  We'll believe it when we see it, but let's hope Gov. Pawlenty's prediction of $199 online college courses comes true.  

A paradigm shift is ahead for higher education

By LORI STURDEVANT, Star Tribune
Last update: January 23, 2010 - 11:20 PM

...State higher ed spending this biennium compared with the last one is down nearly 9 percent. It's the second big squeeze on state higher ed appropriations in six years. In fact, state schools have been riding a retrenchment roller coaster for decades.

Not to worry, volunteered noted higher ed futurist Tim Pawlenty at a Jan. 15 news conference. Going to college is about to be replaced by logging on.

"You're going to have the equivalent of iTunes in higher education, where instead of buying a song for 99 cents, you're going to be able to click on Econ 101 for probably $199 or $399," the governor predicted.

"Unleashing technology ... will massively decentralize the delivery of higher education in our country. The idea that we're going to be here 20 years from now talking about how many more buildings can we put up is going to come into conflict with this new frontier."

Bona fide education forecasters say that Pawlenty isn't all wrong about an explosion of online learning -- though they're not as sanguine as he is about its cost-saving potential or effectiveness.

They see the possibility of yet another big change coming -- the weaning of American public universities from direct government subsidies.

A 2009 book making the rounds among vice presidents at the U argues that American universities' relationship with state governments is hindering productivity and eroding quality on campus.

In "Saving Alma Mater," former Miami University of Ohio President James Garland argues that public support should flow to students, not schools, and that the redemptive force of competition should be unleashed.

"The business model of public higher education, no matter how successful it was in prior decades, is not working now, and no amount of yearning ... will make it work in the future," Garland wrote.

The case he makes draws from his Ohio experience, but could have been written about public colleges in Minnesota or most other states. He cites unaffordable tuition, outdated buildings, lagging salaries, a talent drain to well-heeled private institutions and change-averse campus governance.

Either all of that will get worse, driving once-proud American higher education to mediocrity, or something big will change the game, Garland argues. His idea is, in essence, deregulation, accompanied by a high-tuition/high-financial-aid business model.

Other ideas are out there, each with pluses and minuses: Closing campuses. System merger or shakeup. New governance structures. New revenue sources. (Condos on campus, anyone?)

So the Minnesota higher ed picture for 2011 and beyond is new leaders, new technology, new structural and governance possibilities, less state money -- and more responsibility than ever for the future well-being of this state. If Minnesota can't keep its edge in well-educated workers and job-generating research, it won't have an edge.

Who's going to grab an idea, craft a plausible plan for saving Minnesota's alma maters and run with it? To the score or so who are running already for governor: This jolt is for you.

[ham]

"You're going to have the equivalent of iTunes in higher education, where instead of buying a song for 99 cents, you're going to be able to click on Econ 101 for probably $199 or $399," the governor predicted.

What the teaching company has been doing for ages.

As some said

Personally I find that I learn a lot more when I can study in an environment of my own choosing and creation, get up and take a whiz when I need to, go get a sandwich when I'm hungry, turn on the radio and/or the stereo when the mood strikes, or just blow it off and go work out when I've had enough.

I don't see that my learning experience would be improved at all if I first had to fight traffic, try to find a parking place, wonder if thieves or vandals will select my vehicle for their attention today, dodge proselytes and perverts on the way to class, involuntarily listen to some deviant's political indoctrination disguised as part of the class, sit at a desk designed for a midget, rub elbows and make small talk with people to whom I wouldn't give the time of day otherwise, etc. etc.

Obviously tenured, political hacks don't like it.
I recently downloaded a documentary that to my surprise contained a lot of stale political rhetoric...I just fast forwarded past it. Online education is just like that.
It is a fact that there is very little in matters of Chicano, African, genocide, queer, GLBT, women etc studies in online education, if any at all.
And that crap is what endears one hack to those in power and gives him tenure.