Online school. Has it come into it's own?

[sanantone]

I guess the skepticism about online education comes from the well-researched psychological phenomenon called ‘justification of effort.’ People who have put the efforts (physically, mentally & financially) to graduate from a B&M school want to justify their own efforts. If they willingly accept that our online education is probably as good as theirs, then it can feel very unsettling to think that they need not have gone through so much. I guess that is probably also why even the traditional universities are sometimes skeptical of people with online degrees.

That could be it for some people, but I think most of the skepticism is rooted in the history of online education initially being dominated by for-profit schools with predatory marketing practices. They had low graduation rates and high student loan default rates. A lot of their students wrote terribly, and employers noticed.

Now, I see more people accepting of online education because you can earn degrees from traditional universities. There are still some misconceptions, however. There's a belief that there is rampant cheating in online programs. I just present people with research that shows that on-campus students are just as likely to cheat. Online students tend to cheat on unproctored exams; on-campus students tend to pay people to write their papers and do other written assignments. In recent years, many schools have started utilizing online proctoring services at least for final exams. Some online programs rely on papers instead of exams to mitigate cheating. 

You'll always have the old school people who value the socratic method and classroom discussions. To them, discussion boards are not a good alternative.

[Supermind]

Makes a lot of sense. One of the arguments presented by a good friend of mine is that online education creates the illusion of life going on your terms, when in the ‘real world’, you fit yourself into the flow of life. He was pointing out that I seem to have the ‘luxury’ of taking a proctored exam whenever I feel well prepared and ready. Hypothetically, that means, I could also study one subject for a whole year before attempting an exam. Whereas, the traditional education system has dates set for exams, and you need to race against time to prepare yourself for those tests. He was kind of skeptical that I don’t seem to get stressed over tests at all, because I will attempt an exam whenever I am confident. I had to disagree and tell him that there are several exams/certification programs these days, that are offered year round, and could be taken whenever one is ready. But it made me think as to how many different reasons people need to conjure up to resist this changing trend in education. Embracing change is always so difficult!

[cookderosa]

My husband teaches culinary arts and the students come to class every day, do their work in lab- but 100% of their quizzes, submissions, and handouts are in their online portal. If you're not tech-savvy, you're screwed.

[ChilliDawg]

Makes a lot of sense. One of the arguments presented by a good friend of mine is that online education creates the illusion of life going on my terms, when in the ‘real world’, you fit yourself into the flow of life. He was pointing out that I seem to have the ‘luxury’ of taking a proctored exam whenever I feel well prepared and ready. Hypothetically, that means, I could also study one subject for a whole year before attempting an exam. Whereas, the traditional education system has dates set for exams, and you need to race against time to prepare yourself for those tests. He was kind of skeptical that I don’t seem to get stressed over tests at all, because I will attempt an exam whenever I am confident. I had to disagree and tell him that there are several exams/certification programs these days, that are offered year round, and could be taken whenever one is ready. But it made me think as to how many different reasons people need to conjure up to resist this changing trend in education. Embracing change is always so difficult!

I think that both you and Sanantone have made some great points. 

Regarding your most recent post, I look at it as the people who take traditional courses are always in a rush and in a panic to PASS A TEST.  I mean, cramming for tests is nothing new.  I can't tell you how many times in the work environment I have heard people talk about a college class that they took two decades ago, and say "I forgot that material the minute the test was over".   In an online capacity, with self paced courses, you have the option of rushing through the course if you know the material well, or slowing down and spending as much time needed to retain a subject that you are weak in.  An example, I have always been weak in History.   I will fly through ANY tech course. But history, I struggle to retain information.  I recently took the Study.Com Upper Level History of the Holocaust.  I throughly enjoyed it. I read some things over and over.  By the time it was finished, I could ace the tests. A classroom course would have never allowed me to do the same.  

As for traditional colleges and Professors......I see them starting to move towards being more accepting about online formats.  For many reasons.  This generation coming into college right now is demanding it.  Parents are demanding it.  We are now starting to see parents that have themselves adopted to telecommuting for work.   Another practice which was widely frowned upon years ago.

Schools were afraid to lose students to online for-profits.  Now they realize that they can actually increase their own profit margin by going online delivery.  Professors realize that they are still needed to mentor and grade lessons.  Maybe from the comfort of their own home.  Online schooling has opened up different types of jobs.   My wife's B&M school has seen students who are full-time living on campus and one of their parents gets ill.  Cancer or another dread disease.  they would like to go home to be with mom, but they have no options to continue their schooling online.  This many time results in withdraw from courses.  This is putting massive pressure on the school to adopt an online program, and do it quick.

[sanantone]

When I taught on ground at a career school, most of my students were economically disadvantaged. We transitioned from doing everything on paper to doing everything on Canvas. Even though you would expect people in their late teens and early 20s to be tech savvy, these students were not. They hated the transition to Canvas because they weren't computer literate. Most of them had neither computers nor the Internet at home.

[davewill]

Makes a lot of sense. One of the arguments presented by a good friend of mine is that online education creates the illusion of life going on your terms, when in the ‘real world’, you fit yourself into the flow of life. He was pointing out that I seem to have the ‘luxury’ of taking a proctored exam whenever I feel well prepared and ready. Hypothetically, that means, I could also study one subject for a whole year before attempting an exam. Whereas, the traditional education system has dates set for exams, and you need to race against time to prepare yourself for those tests. He was kind of skeptical that I don’t seem to get stressed over tests at all, because I will attempt an exam whenever I am confident. I had to disagree and tell him that there are several exams/certification programs these days, that are offered year round, and could be taken whenever one is ready. But it made me think as to how many different reasons people need to conjure up to resist this changing trend in education. Embracing change is always so difficult!

This is one of the many reasons I strongly dislike the pay per term model that SL, Study.com and even WGU uses. It puts the time pressure back on by making it more expensive to take your time.

[sanantone]

Most online classes aren't self-paced, so that's another misconception Supermind's friend has.

[Muldoon]

Makes a lot of sense. One of the arguments presented by a good friend of mine is that online education creates the illusion of life going on your terms, when in the ‘real world’, you fit yourself into the flow of life. He was pointing out that I seem to have the ‘luxury’ of taking a proctored exam whenever I feel well prepared and ready. Hypothetically, that means, I could also study one subject for a whole year before attempting an exam. Whereas, the traditional education system has dates set for exams, and you need to race against time to prepare yourself for those tests. He was kind of skeptical that I don’t seem to get stressed over tests at all, because I will attempt an exam whenever I am confident. I had to disagree and tell him that there are several exams/certification programs these days, that are offered year round, and could be taken whenever one is ready. But it made me think as to how many different reasons people need to conjure up to resist this changing trend in education. Embracing change is always so difficult!

This is one of the many reasons I strongly dislike the pay per term model that SL, Study.com and even WGU uses. It puts the time pressure back on by making it more expensive to take your time.

I agree completely. I have a hard time with monthly subscription models. That's why I've been trying to focus on CLEP and Davar because I'd rather pay once, take a test, and be done with it, rather than have set deadlines each month before I'm charged again.

[Jenniferinfl]

Acceptance still lags in some areas.

In Florida they were refusing to let WGU graduate sit for the CPA test or deciding on a case by case basis which credits would count for upper level. They only finally approved about 24 accounting credits from WGU so that you don't have to go to a board review to get permission to take the test. That didn't happen until 2017, even though WGU checked all the boxes, it still wasn't enough for the Florida CPA board.

This was the resolution
http://www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/CPA...Signed.pdf
http://www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/CPA...signed.pdf

So, yeah, there's still some resistance to an online education unfortunately.

[sanantone]

Acceptance still lags in some areas.

In Florida they were refusing to let WGU graduate sit for the CPA test or deciding on a case by case basis which credits would count for upper level. They only finally approved about 24 accounting credits from WGU so that you don't have to go to a board review to get permission to take the test. That didn't happen until 2017, even though WGU checked all the boxes, it still wasn't enough for the Florida CPA board.

This was the resolution
http://www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/CPA...Signed.pdf
http://www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/CPA...signed.pdf

So, yeah, there's still some resistance to an online education unfortunately.

I don't know why, but Texas requires 15 accounting credits taken butt-in-seat as if that will make any difference. I don't know if this is still the case, but the State Bar of Texas wouldn't accept online law degrees. There weren't any online ABA-accredited JD programs until very recently, but Texas also accepted foreign law degrees. I thought I found a loophole and could complete an online LLB from the UK, lol.