Dismissal of online learning still a thing?

[MNomadic]

I was over at the Student Doctor Forum. Boy, what a place full of snobs and jokers who think they're brilliant.

I posted some thoughts and observations of how there appears to be a strong slant there against online learning. In that, I posed the question: "what would be the difference between a total classroom setting versus an online setting if both types of students got the same hands-on experience?

Nobody was listening so they all seemed to miss that part, one condescendingly accused me of not understanding the importance of hands-on training when my question specifically detailed my understanding of its importance, lol. Some even said they'd throw away any resume where they suspected the degree was earned in an online program. It's like these people are living under a rock. One person actually thought you could become a Nurse totally online and even tried to make a joke about not wanting to be the person who has to get their blood checked by a person who never did it before. The funny part was, the person didn't know that Nurses have to learn that in-person even if they're learning online.

I thought we'd come far enough by now that this wouldn't be much of a problem, but that is a large group of people--albeit a group of self-absorbed know-it-alls who all believe they're geniuses--all seeming to unanimously have a very strong slant against online learning and those who earned their degree this way.

So I pose the question here: If an online learner took the same necessary in-person training as the brick-and-mortar learner (Say for, studying as a Nurse, Clinical Psychologist, or any other type of profession that requires residency to be competent) what then would be the problem with the online learner's path to the degree/certification/licensure, etc? What would make the online learner supposedly "inferior"?

At that point, assuming a pure B&M learner and an online learner both had equal hands on/clinical experience and an equal learning curriculum, it would really only come down to a person's individual factors such as learning styles and ability to self motivate. That's why neither method is right for everyone and people should never assume that just because one method worked for them, it should be used on everyone.

The best example of this is MIT and their Supply Chain Management Master's. They offered the first portion as an online "Micromaster" credential through edx. They then accepted 40 graduates from the online program to do the final semester on campus alongside 40 students who had been doing residential the whole time and found that both groups performed similarly.

http://news.mit.edu/2018/first-class-exc...ogram-0713