Kia Smythe: Online study and the loneliness of the long distance freshman

  The ever increasing availability and power of home computing and the internet means that 31% of all higher education students in the U.S. now take at least one course online. Whilst the growth rate for online enrollments may have recently slowed a little, it still far exceeds the growth of the overall higher education student population. These trends mean that 65% of all higher education institutes include online learning as a fundamental part of their long term strategies.

  Despite this, there is a vocal minority of academic leaders concerned that the quality of online instruction simply does not measure up to equivalent courses delivered face-to-face in traditional bricks-and-mortar colleges. Overall, academics’ opinions on the respective quality of learning outcomes from traditional versus online tuition appear to be rather subjective – influenced more by whether or not their particular institution offers online programs, rather than on any hard evidence of lower attainment or standards of the online cohort.

  The simple fact of the matter is that online tuition is both here to stay and will continue to expand; driven as much by economics as by any other single factor.