Online Degrees vs. Traditional Degrees: No Significant Difference

Posted by Henry

November 4, 2008

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Study after study has consistently come to the same conclusion that there is no significant difference in outcomes between learning in a traditional classroom and learning online. (However, there are some who raise valid points about how we ask the question, but they address technology and the role it plays, not the outcomes.)

As shocking as it may sound, very few college professors outside the school of education have taken any course in the history, theory, or psychology of education, much less have any expertise in the latest and greatest tools and techniques. They are hired on the basis of their experise in their chosen discipline, and generally are tenured on the merits of their ongoing research and productivity (publications). That system seems to be working quite well, although I’ll grant you that many of them could use a few pointers about preparing the course syllabus, lecture notes and other course materials, and public speaking - like projecting from the diaphragm and speaking to the audience not the blackboard. Their content makes up for all these deficiencies, and aren’t irelevant or very important in distance learning.

In the traditional model, professors can develop a new course single-handedly over the span of a semester or two; most of the work will be in defining the course syllabus - the textbook, sequence of topics, readings and assignments, with the actual lecture impromptu with only an outline and possibly lecture notes as a handout that can be done/updated as a last minute preparation in a hour or two (often by TA’s, not the professor); fine tuning and improvement are iterative for the life of the course - which may very well be years or decades.

For that to happen in the online model as a multimedia production, in the absence of pre-existing materials, you really need a team of experts, a lot of time, and a lot of money; you have to anticipate problems over every last jot and tittle, and get it right the first time or it quickly becomes a blackhole for all your ’spare’ time and probably every member of the development team; mistakes are deadly, changes very time consuming and costly. Effectively co-ordinating all that just hasn’t become the norm. Happily, most of the material can very effectively be presented in a text-based format, and even a rank amateur can produce streaming audio and video of an updated ‘live’ lecture.

Properly done, you can teach anything to anyone anywhere at any time through distance learning. That’s demonstrable fact. But where this comes off the hinges and starts to fall apart is in presuming that the lessons alone are all anyone needs - completely neglecting the value of unscripted interaction between the student and professor and less formally among students. While this is not central to getting an education, and technically it is feasible to go through college and graduate school without ever asking a question in class or sections, why would anyone really want to?

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