Esuring Quality of Online Education Programs
In spring 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic swept across the country, colleges and universities swiftly shuttered their campuses to students, unsure of for how long or what was coming next. As faculty scrambled to continue their courses virtually, they utilized emergency remote learning to deliver course content like lectures and seminars, facilitated online assessments, and…
Read MoreIt’s Past Due for Online Education Students and Programs To Be Appreciated
Starting in the 1990s—which is a relatively long time ago for me and many Millenials (I went to elementary school in the ‘90s!)—the budding pathway of distance education and later online education for undergraduate and graduate degrees became one that students began to take at many institutions. In 1995, more than one-third of US institutions…
Read MoreHow the Pandemic Experience Could be an Opportunity to Improve Online Learning: Let’s Not Waste It!
Who would have guessed that it would take a pandemic to expose online education as a critical modality to keep students connected to their educational studies? Well, it happened, and online education is proving to be an effective extension or alternative to the traditional classroom that many of us in higher education have recognized for…
Read MoreIs Online Higher Education Working? Only Data Will Tell
As thousands of colleges and millions of college students prepare for a fall semester that will likely be partially or fully online, it may not have been comforting to see the President of the United States’ recent tweet: This tweet reflects a few realities. The first is that while the promise of online higher education…
Read MoreAccountability in a Post-Pandemic Landscape
Every day, colleges and universities are facing new and difficult realities as they address the unprecedented circumstances brought about by COVID-19. There are countless emerging concerns that require immediate attention and resources. Accreditation agencies have made extraordinary efforts to embrace flexibility and innovation while remaining focused on the essentials: an institution’s capacity to carry out…
Read MoreCOVID-19 Accelerated Online Learning, But Where Do We Go From Here?
Shifting Indiana’s higher education learning system to an online delivery model overnight would have seemed impossible at the beginning of 2020. Yet here we are, reckoning with the impact of our campuses shut down for months on end with classes hastily pushed online and uncertainty about what will happen in the fall. The fallout of…
Read MorePowerful Together: Competency-Based Education and Online Delivery
Higher education—and sweeping aspects of American life—were upended seemingly overnight in March. Millions of students started the month on campuses across the country and ended it on computers at home. Now, after institutional leaders have absorbed the initial shock and navigated through the spring and into summer, they’re looking to map out an uncertain future…
Read MorePolicies Needed for Online Learners in 2020
Online learning plays a critical role for today’s students by offering greater flexibility to accommodate work schedules and, in many cases, creating more affordable pathways to credentials. However, concerns over quality and potential bad actors have inspired repeated attempts to regulate distance education in a manner that appropriately balances innovation with quality assurance and consumer…
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