Higher Ed Dialog

There continues to be resistance to moving the lion share of courses for working adults to the online format. I must admit, I am one who resists.  My assessment of the learning styles of working adults(who incidently must work full time to be able to afford to go back to school) has revealed that most of them prefer face to face learning and learn better via the discussion and project oriented  hands on collaboration strategies.  Where is the research that shows students who earn degrees online have mastered good communication skills? I have interviewed perspective instructors who are graduates with online MBA's who cannot present and use really poor grammar.  While I understand  enrollment( make that money) is the bottom line in keeping colleges and universities afloat, where do standards and skills fit into the picture?  .

Does anyone else see this as a problem?

Judy Richardson, Adjunct Instructor, College for Working Adults, William Penn University, Oksaloosa, Iowa

As one who has been working in the higher ed space for some time, I would agree that traditional higher education (excluding for-profits) are behind the demand curve in a number of critical areas including the ability to create a dynamic curriculum construct, content delivery, Web 2.0 and Social Media. Many of these institutions still consider an online degree to be of far less quality than the traditional delivery system. Yet, a recent NYT article reported that a recent long-term study of online degree methodologies showed learning and retention to be greater online that in the classroom. I have a client who still hasn't optimized their web site for search engines. It's time that traditional brick and mortar institutions take some lessons from some of the best online and for-profit players in the industry.

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