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OnlineEducation-ArticlefromIssuesandControversiesDatabase.docxLast Updated: October 17, 2008
Online Education: Does online education help students?
Introduction
SUPPORTERS ARGUE
The flexibility of the format benefits students, particularly older ones who have full-time jobs or families. The ability to review materials such as past lectures online is also advantageous. Since students use the Internet in many other ways, it is logical for them to use it to attend school as well.
OPPONENTS ARGUE
Taking classes online deprives students of the full educational experience, which involves relating to other people in addition to absorbing information. Online education's merits have been exaggerated, partly by profit-seeking online colleges. It is also vulnerable to abuse by bogus colleges granting fraudulent diplomas.
Every semester, millions of U.S. students take at least one college course online. That number, estimated at almost 3.5 million in the fall of 2006, represents a growing share of all college students. The emergence of online education is the latest chapter in the development of distance learning, the process of receiving schooling at locations remote from physical schools or campuses. Its rapid growth has provoked debate over the effect it is having on higher education.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, the term "distance learning" generally referred to students watching courses delivered via satellite on a television monitor located far from the school itself. The development of online technology revolutionized that teaching method, however, providing an ideal format for virtual education. As a result, discussions of distance learning today tend to revolve around students taking classes online.
Some distance learning classes are offered by schools that are entirely online. Others are offered by more traditional schools. Indeed, at many schools the line between classroom and online education has become blurred in recent years, as many traditional, on-campus classroom instructors make information available to their students online or conduct discussions there.
Like traditional colleges, online colleges must be accredited by government-approved agencies. However, non-accredited colleges offering distance learning programs have proliferated in recent years. While their promotional literature can make them seem like conventional schools, those so-called "diploma mills" are often criticized as little more than companies that sell diplomas and certificates to students for a profit, requiring little or no course work in exchange. In 1992, Congress passed legislation denying federal aid to students studying at schools offering all or most of their courses through distance learning. It has since lifted the ban, however, as legitimate online schools have become more established.
Some schools and educators also seek to take distance learning in new directions by offering either their own online course materials or online classes to the general public for free. While not in the mainstream of the distance learning movement, those ideas point to possible new directions for it.
Supporters of distance learning say that it makes college classes more convenient for people, often older than traditional college students, who seek to balance school with work and family and have demanding schedules. Distance learning allows students to continue working and to save money on commuting expenses such as gasoline, making it more affordable as well, they add. Supporters also argue that distance learning facilitates studying by making course materials—such as video recordings or transcripts of class lectures—available online for students to review at their convenience. Overall, the Internet is a logical way to reach students because they already use it to conduct much of their business and leisure activity, they say.
Critics of distance learning counter that students taking classes online are deprived of valuable human interactions found in the classroom. They argue that distance learning's merits have been exaggerated, partly through the lobbying efforts of online colleges, which they say were instrumental in lifting the ban on federal funding for such schools. In addition, many people worry that students could cheat on tests when they are not sitting in classrooms. Congress has passed legislation that could mandate technology that would verify that distance-learning students are not getting outside help when they take tests. That move has raised privacy concerns. Distance learning is also vulnerable to fraud from diploma mills, they say, and they question whether degrees earned through distance learning are respected enough to be valuable to students.
History of Distance Learning
Modern distance learning has its roots in what are known as correspondence courses. Originally developed in the 19th century, correspondence courses offered students the chance to take part in higher education through the mail. Those courses were sometimes offered by established universities, and in other cases operated independently. One well-known correspondence organization, the International Correspondence Schools of Scranton, Pa., began as a newspaper column to educate miners on safety; the publisher started a correspondence course after the newspaper was overwhelmed by letters from miners seeking more information.
Over time, mail-based correspondence courses adapted to new technologies, eventually giving rise to online courses. For instance, the University Continuing Education Association, begun in 1915 as a network of traditional colleges offering correspondence courses by mail, today coordinates online courses. Radio and video technology have also been used to teach classes remotely.
One of the problems with distance learning most often cited by critics is its potential for fraud. Law enforcement has targeted diploma-mill operators in recent high-profile cases. In 2005, for instance, federal authorities indicted the operators of what they alleged was a diploma mill that had made millions of dollars selling fraudulent diplomas for more than a decade. The organization had granted diplomas from more than 100 fictitious colleges with plausible-sounding names, such as St. Regis University, Ameritech University and James Monroe University. Customers could purchase the degrees without completing any academic work.
Those diploma mills have caused the government concern for several reasons. In a 2004 survey of 2% of federal government employees, the Government Accountability Office found that 463 of them had degrees purchased from diploma mills, and that the majority worked at the Department of Defense. Federal authorities also worry that terrorists abroad could purchase what appear to be legitimate credentials from U.S. universities and gain entry to the U.S. on the basis of those false credentials.
Government concern over diploma mills gave rise to a law passed in 1992. Known popularly as the "50% rule," it cut off federal aid to college students who took more than half their classes through distance learning. It also withheld aid from colleges where more than half the students were in distance learning programs.
Over the following decade and a half, however, the perception of online colleges began to change. The growth of the Internet made it easier both for schools to reach prospective students and for students to take classes from home. Legitimate online schools grew in popularity, as did the practice of established schools offering classes online. According to the Sloan Consortium, a group that works to further online education, online college enrollment as a percentage of total college enrollment grew by 10% in just the four years between 2002 and 2006.
In 1998, Congress authorized an experiment called the Distance Education Demonstration Program. The program lifted the 50% rule for a handful of colleges and reported on the effects. Participants in the program included two large online schools: the University of Phoenix and Walden University. The study found that the schools' enrollments had grown significantly since the rule was lifted. That convinced lawmakers and the Department of Education that distance learning was a valuable way to enroll more students in college. In 2006, Congress revoked the 50% rule, giving online schools the chance to qualify for federal funding. [See Online University Attracts Attention (sidebar)]
Traditional schools, meanwhile, have experimented with various ways to offer classes online. Some have offered students the chance to take courses online that count toward a degree. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the most respected institutions of higher learning in the U.S., on the other hand, attracted widespread attention when it announced in 2001 that it would begin a program of "open courseware," providing course materials such as lectures and class syllabi online free to the public. Other schools' online programs have had rocky starts; the University of Illinois, for example, faced difficulties in getting faculty members to participate in the Global Campus program it launched in early 2008.
MIT's open courseware idea helped inspire a still-experimental movement known as Open Teaching, in which a handful of professors have taught classes online both to enrolled students and to members of the public who participate for free. Under Open Teaching, non-enrolled participants do not receive formal credit but do, in some cases, receive a certificate showing they took the course. Although some argue that Open Teaching could represent the beginning of a new approach to higher education, it has yet to be embraced by the educational establishment.
Making sure that students do not take advantage of the unconventional format to cheat remains a point of concern. In July 2008, Congress passed the Higher Education Opportunity Act, part of which requires schools that offer online courses to ensure that students do their own work. While it is not yet clear to what extent the Education Department will enforce the requirement, some anti-cheating technologies already exist. One type of software gathers information about students from databases and asks them personal questions. Others recognize students' typing patterns, read their fingerprints or even use cameras to record their images while they are taking tests. Privacy advocates and some groups representing colleges have complained that the measures violate students' privacy. They have also challenged the idea that cheating is any more widespread on tests taken by distance learners than on tests taken in large classrooms.
Although most of the discussion of distance learning involves higher education, the approach has been introduced to some middle and high schools as well. Online courses at that level are usually overseen either by a state's school system or by for-profit online schools. Some students at the pre-college level take classes online so they can keep up with their course work while participating in major sports or academic competitions far from home. Others take advanced classes in subjects not offered in their regular schools. Still others study online because they have been kept out of school for medical or disciplinary reasons.
Supporters Argue: Distance Learning Works
Supporters of distance learning say that it expands the variety of students able to take classes and receive degrees. Many of the students attracted to distance learning are older than most undergraduates, they note, and have obligations, such as jobs and children, that make it harder for them to attend classes in person. With distance learning, such "nontraditional" students can take classes at their convenience and, more generally, attend college later in life—after starting a career or a family, for instance—supporters say. "Students are finding this is a very good way for them to get courses at the time they would like them," says Sam Smith, a member of the Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board.
Another advantage of distance learning is geographical, supporters assert. Students who are kept home most of the time due to illness or disability, as well as those living in geographically isolated areas, can all benefit, they note. For example, they say, the government runs various distance learning programs for military personnel.
One of the primary advantages of distance learning is economic, proponents argue. Students who, as young adults, are forced to work full time to support themselves might not be able to attend classes in the traditional fashion, they say. In addition, they argue, recent increases in the price of gasoline have made distance learning a more attractive option for students who live off campus, since it allows them to avoid the increased costs of commuting by car. That allows students to offset the costs of online classes, which are not necessarily cheaper than regular classes, and are sometimes even more expensive, supporters maintain.
Distance learning can help conserve school resources as well, advocates say, particularly at the pre-college level. Overcrowded classrooms and teacher shortages—serious problems at many public schools—can be solved by online education, they suggest, which can improve the quality of education that students receive overall.
Supporters also dispute the claim, made by critics of distance learning, that it offers students a lower quality of education than traditional classes do. By providing lectures and other material online, they argue, distance learning classes may be even more intensive than their traditional counterparts. In addition, online classes can make a certain amount of information available to the wider public, enhancing the public's overall educational level, they say.
The fact that students already use the Internet for other purposes makes online education an ideal format, proponents contend. Particularly among younger students, they say, being online is second nature. Supporters argue that students are often more comfortable, and therefore more engaged, reading lectures and making comments online than they would be in an actual classroom. "They're very much accustomed to using [the Internet] for recreation, for communication," says Liz Pape, chief executive officer of Massachusetts-based Virtual High School. "So now, if we train our teachers properly, they can use technology as a tool for delivering engaging information."
Opponents Argue: Distance Learning Does Not Work
Critics of distance learning contend that there are major drawbacks to taking classes online. For one thing, they say, the courses require students to be self-motivated, making it less likely that many of them will receive the full benefit of the classes. For another, they add, online students miss out on some of the experiences of a traditional classroom. It is harder for students taking online courses to connect to teachers and other students, they argue. "People who are really behind this drive to online education don't realize that the education process is more about developing a relationship than about delivering the material," says Connel Fullenkamp, an associate professor of economics at Duke University in Durham, N.C. Fullenkamp favors classes that are partly, but not completely, online.
Critics argue that, with for-profit online schools, there is a financial incentive to exaggerate the advantages of distance learning, while downplaying the problems it presents. "This is a growth industry and you get rich not by being skeptical, but by being enthusiastic," says Henry Levin, director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Columbia University in New York City. The future of distance learning should be determined more by educational value than by profitability, critics contend.
Because many online schools are for-profit, opponents say, their interaction with the government resembles that of businesses more than that of traditional colleges. Not-for-profit schools are barred from making campaign donations, they note, but for-profit schools give large amounts of money to lawmakers. That has given online schools unprecedented access to government, they charge. When the ban on federal aid for students at online schools was lifted in 2006, they note, the chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor was Rep. Howard McKeon (R, Calif.), a close ally of the online college industry. McKeon co-sponsored the legislation with another industry ally, Rep. John Boehner (R, Ohio). The power of online schools to influence Congress suggests that the 2006 law may have been passed less to benefit students than to benefit the colleges, critics say.
The problem with treating online schools as equivalent to traditional schools is that doing so could help the less scrupulous organizations perpetuate fraud, critics warn. Diploma mills and other deceptive organizations can use access to federal funds to increase their enrollments, they say. As an example, they cite an online school known as the Masters Institute, which participated in the 2003 test program giving aid to students at some online institutions; enrollment at the Masters Institute grew once the program began, but the school was later the subject of fraud allegations.
Critics add that whatever the merits of distance learning, it is still new and unproven enough to be widely regarded with suspicion. For that reason, they say, a degree earned online should not carry the same weight as one that comes from attending traditional classes. For instance, they point to a 2004 study by Margaret DeFleur of Boston University and Jonathan Adams of Florida State University, who interviewed 160 college officials for graduate programs. They found that only around 50% of the schools said they would admit students who had taken half the courses required for their degrees online; only around 10% would admit students who had taken all their required courses online.
Another charge leveled at online education is that it has the potential to violate students' privacy. The recently passed Higher Education Act could encourage schools to require cameras and other monitoring devices in the homes of students to prevent cheating, they note. That highlights a central problem of verifying student honesty in distance learning, they say.
Issues Remain Unresolved
Unresolved questions regarding distance learning remain. Observers debate whether the problems historically associated with the format—such as fraud by diploma mills and allegations of cheating—have really been solved, and whether proposed solutions to some of those problems, such as monitoring students at home, will lead to new controversies.
Another question involves the future of initiatives such as open courseware and Open Teaching, and to what extent schools and individual professors will see fit to make courses available to the general public. Some envision online education as profoundly changing the way people are taught. Higher education might become less about degrees and credentials, they suggest, and more about receiving specific information from established experts. Others predict resistance from colleges themselves to such a transformation.
In little more than a decade, distance learning has established itself as a major component of higher education. It now seems poised to change higher education, and education in general, in significant ways.
Bibliography
Dillon, Sam. "High Cost of Driving Ignites Online Classes Boom." New York Times, July 11, 2008, www.nytimes.com.
------. "Online Colleges Receive a Boost from Congress." New York Times, March 1, 2006, www.nytimes.com.
Foster, Andrea. "New Systems Keep a Close Eye on Online Students at Home." Chronicle of Higher Education, July 25, 2008, chronicle.com.
Lederman, Doug. "Expanding Access Via Distance Ed." Inside Higher Ed, April 13, 2005, www.insidehighered.com.
Moser, Kate. "Online Courses Aren't Just for Home-Schoolers Anymore." Christian Science Monitor, March 30, 2006, www.csmonitor.com.
Schemo, Diana. "Diploma Mill Concerns Extend Beyond Fraud." New York Times, June 29, 2008, www.nytimes.com.
Tice, Carol. "Online Universities." Seattle Times, October 26, 2007, seattletimes.nwsource.com.
Young, Jeffrey. "When Professors Print Their Own Diplomas, Who Needs Universities?" Chronicle of Higher Education, September 25, 2008, chronicle.com.
Zhao, Emmeline. "Duke Eyes Possibility of More Online Offerings." Duke Chronicle, February 13, 2008, www.dukechronicle.com.
Additional Sources
Additional information about online education can be found in the following source:
Bradley, Jo, and Jackie Galbraith, eds. The Open Classroom: Distance Learning in Schools. London: Taylor & Francis, Inc., 2003.
Information on how to contact organizations that are either mentioned in the discussion of online education or can provide additional information on the subject is listed below:
The Sloan Consortium, Inc. One Olin Way--MH262 Needham, Mass. 02492-1200 Telephone: (781) 292-2523 Internet: www.sloan-c.org
National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education Box 181, 230 Thompson Hall Teachers College, Columbia University 525 West 120th Street New York, NY 10027-6696 Telephone: (212) 678-3259 Internet: www.ncspe.org
Keywords
For further information about the ongoing debate over online education, search for the following words and terms in electronic databases and other publications:
College accreditation Diploma mills Distance Education Demonstration Program Open Teaching
Citation Information MLA
"Online Education: Does online education help students?" Issues & Controversies, Infobase, 17 Oct. 2008, https://icof.infobaselearning.com/recordurl.aspx?ID=1959.
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