Eng 102 Topic Analysis

Jessica Leonard

English 102

Professor Tudor

March 5, 2012

Online Education: A Step Forward or a Step Back?

            In 2008, nearly 20 percent of undergraduates had been involved in an online class, (Radford) and in 2010 there were more than 6 million students enrolled in distance learning, according to the info graphic put out by I.E. Allen and J. Seaman.  With enrollment in distance learning higher than ever, there are still issues holding back the growth of online education.  Online and traditional classes may have some similarities, but also many differences.  Online courses are not flawless and they possess positive and negative qualities.  Educators and students are split in support of online classes in comparison to traditional.

Technology is part of our everyday lives.  Students use cell phones to text and laptops or tablets in many social aspects.  Since the concept of the internet is common in most households today, it makes sense many higher education institutions are pushing to create online environments for the traditional classroom.  Many schools are discovering that not only are these online classes popular with the students, but they are very popular among some school administrators (Jenkins).

According to college professor, Rob Jenkins, in the article “Why Are So Many Students Still Failing Online?” some schools seem to be consumed by the idea of online because it is cheap.  Online courses save the school money by charging the same as a traditional course credit, but having many more student slots available for enrollment.  For-profit schools fit into the online niche nicely by taking it a step further and making profits, so many offer full online degrees as well as classes.  Jenkins is concerned though that this approach is blinding some colleges and causing them to be more concerned with the college budget than the quality of education in the online courses.  Jenkins claims that only 50 percent of students are successful in passing online.

Many reasons exist to support why many students are failing online.  Jenkins believes one main reason is because some students do not have enough self-discipline to make it through a course that requires them to be a self-starter, have good time management skills, reading skills, and technical skills.  He has proposed that colleges should be pre-screening students before taking online classes; just like schools test students to see if they are ready for traditional courses.  His proposal has been met with negativity.  If institutions limit which students can learn online, it will also limit the school’s enrollment.

A list of other factors also influences the reason students could be failing online.  Not everyone has the same skills technically.  In a study done by Davison Mupinga and Bassou El Mansour, professors at Indiana State University, in “Students’ Positive and Negative Experiences in Hybrid and Online Classes” they find one of the biggest negative impacts effecting online courses is “technology hiccups”.  These hiccups include unreliable Internet Service Providers and trouble with the college’s online learning platform, such as Blackboard.

Communication between student and teacher was also a concern during the study by Davidson and El Mansour.  Students stated that feedback is slower online rather than asking questions face-to-face.  Also, some felt that not being in an actual classroom took the personal experience away of student teacher relationships, one-on-one time, and the social aspects that you would find in a traditional college classroom. Other negative aspects found of distance learning include: cost of infrastructure upgrades to the school and some hands-on classes are hard to translate online (El Mansour and Mupinga).

There are many other educators and students who argue that online learning are the best way to move forward.  Shown in the info graphic by Allen and Seaman, “65.5% of CAO’s in 2011, agreed that online education is critical to their institution’s long-term strategy.”  These statistics link to the fact that Jenkins claims: that schools need online classes to meet the institutions future goals.

Students are also positive about distance learning.  The convenience of taking courses online is the biggest factor.  For one, there is no need to leave the house and for students with limited time or small amounts of gas money this can be a life saver.  Students who have children, full-time jobs, or who are disabled find the convenience of online courses unparalleled to the traditional way of going to class. In fact, in 2008 78.9 percent of employed students took courses online compared to 21 percent that were not employed (Radford).   Also taken into consideration is the fact that most students have many devices to work with, such as laptops and tablets, to make it even more convenient to complete schoolwork.  For those that have lost their job and are looking for a new career, some current online degrees are faster to complete than a traditional classroom setting.

A recent study done by Dana Thomson in “Beyond the Classroom Walls: Teachers’ and Students’ Perspectives on How Online Learning Can Meet the Needs of Gifted Students” explores how online learning helps gifted students.  Thomson found many positive outcomes for advanced students who used online learning to reach their potential.  These results show that students were able to have more individualized lessons with the teachers, rather than sharing a classroom with other students.  Other positive factors found in the study found that students were able to work more at their own pace and also had more control over their work.

The Lumina Foundation is an independent organization that “strives to help people achieve their potential by expanding access to and success in education beyond high school.”(Lumina Foundation)  In a recent article, “Lumina Describes How Far States Have to Go to Meet College-Completion Goals” Sara Hebelwrites that a lot of progress must be made to reach the Lumina Foundations goal of “increasing the proportion of American adults with a college degree to 60 percent by 2025.”  With the technology at our fingers and online classes being taken more each year, this could be a major reason to push forward with online degrees.  According to Lumina Foundation, to obtain their goal, more adults will have to return to college from the workforce to acquire a degree.  With the convenience of online learning this may be the only way today’s working adults can attain this goal.

Both sides of the subject provide clear positive and negative reasons on why online courses work well or do not work well.  Since society and technology go hand-in-hand in this day and age, the ways of traditional face-to-face classrooms may be a thing of the past.  Research into actual statistics of failing grades compared to online and traditional ways of learning will give more insight into this controversy.  Since 2002, based on the info graphic from Allen and Seaman, there has been a steady rise in disagreements from educators about the logistics of learning online.  More first-hand experience from current online students will be a deciding factor, because after-all, if the student is not happy, then who will there be to take the course?  Can distance and classroom learning co-exist and be successful, such as a hybrid course?  Can traditional college courses continue to exist with online enrollment steadily rising?  After asking these questions and digging through the positive and negative aspects of online classes, the main issue remains:  Are online classes the best for our future?

 

Works Cited

Allen, I.E., and J. Seaman. Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States, 2011

            Survey. Info graphic. Babson Survey Research Group. Pearson Learning Solutions. 2011.

Web. 13 Feb. 2012.

El Mansour, Bassou, and Davison M. Mupinga. “Students’ Positive And Negative Experiences

In Hybrid And Online Classes.” College Student Journal 41.1 (2007): 242-248. Academic

            Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 15 Feb.2012.

Hebel, Sara. “Lumina Describes How Far States Have to Go to Meet College-Completion

Goals.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. 21 Sept. 2010. Web. 3 Mar. 2012.

Jenkins, Rob. “Why Are So Many Students Still Failing Online?.” The Chronicle of Higher

            Education. 22 May 2011. Web. 15 Feb. 2012.

Lumina Foundation. “About Us.” Lumina Foundation. Web. 3 Mar. 2012.

Radford, Alexandria Walton. National Center for Education Statistics. Stats In Brief: Learning at

a Distance. Undergraduate Enrollment in Distance Education Courses and Degree

Programs.  US Dept. of Education, 5 Oct. 2011. Web. 13 Feb. 2012.

Thomson, Dana L. “Beyond the Classroom Walls: Teachers’ and Students’ Perspective on How

Online Learning can Meet the Needs of Gifted Students.” Journal of Advanced

 Academics 21.4 (2010): 662-712.  Academic Search Premier. Web. 1 Mar. 2012.