On-Line Education and the Future of Higher Education

1. On-Line Education and the Future of Higher Education Martin Snyder, Senior Associate General Secretary

2. Today’s Presenters • Martin Snyder, AAUP National Staff • David Hughes, Rutgers University • Dwaine Plaza, Oregon State University • David Raffo, Portland Sate University

3. Disclaimer • Personal Experience: I love teaching on-line and I think it works for the right audience. • On-line education is NOT the problem, but how we implement it IS. • Barriers to Adoption of Online Learning Systems in U.S. Higher Education (Ithaka S+R, May 2012) http://www.sr.ithaka.org/research-publications/barriers-adoption-online-learning-systems-us-higher-education

4. Barriers to Adoption of Online Learning Systems in U.S. Higher Education (May 2012) “The purpose of this study is to explore the key obstacles that stand in the way of widespread adoption of highly interactive, adaptive, online learning systems [ILOs] at traditional colleges and universities. Such systems rely heavily on machine-guided instruction to substitute, but usually only in part, for traditional faculty. We believe such systems have the potential to improve faculty productivity and lower instructional costs without sacrificing educational quality.” [Emphasis added.]

5. Snyder: Overview of the Issues • Academic Freedom • Who controls the curriculum and syllabus design? • What flexibility and discretion does the individual faculty member have? • Governance • Who decides whether to offer on-line courses? • Who decides what to teach on-line?

6. Overview of the Issues • Intellectual Property • Who owns the course material? • What control does the faculty member have over future uses of the course material? • Workload • How is faculty workload calculated for on-line courses? • For hybrid courses? • How should faculty be compensated for developing and teaching on-line courses?

7. Overview of the Issues • Technical problems • How can student identities be verified? • Is on-site testing available/required? • What certification system is in place? • Badges? Certificates? Credits? • Finances • Will on-line education cure the “cost disease”? • Is unbundling a realistic option? • Are wage slaves the answer?

8. Managing Costs “Relatively few institutions view online education primarily as a way to reduce the cost of instruction, especially for traditional students. In fact, many of those interviewed believe that online courses are at least as expensive to teach as traditional courses—and that is no doubt true of online systems that do not, in fact, substitute machine guidance for some substantial part of day-to-day faculty guidance. To the extent that managing costs is a consideration, the reduction in facilities expenses is generally seen as the principal benefit.” [Ithaka, Barriers]

9. Overview of the Issues • Quality of Education • Will on-line education improve the quality of student education? • Will it retain more students and lead to better graduation rates?

10. Improving Learning Outcomes “Yet, aside from a few institutions’ references to improvements in retention or pass rates, most interviewees did not explicitly mention a desire for better learning outcomes as a main factor behind their decisions to increase their online offerings. While a few institutions cited what they saw as preliminary evidence that their online courses had similar, if not lower, withdrawal rates as their face-to-face courses, the belief that students in online courses may learn the material better than their traditional-format counterparts did not appear to be widely held.” [Ithaka, Barriers]

11. Overview of the Issues • Quality of Education • Will MOOCs save the world? • Does one size fit all? • Will on-line education “destroy the soul” of education? • Will on-line education for the masses create a bi-polar educational system that further stratifies American society?