Castles Made of Sand
We’ve all seen them—the banner ads and pop-up ads for online universities like Capella or the University of Phoenix. They promise college degrees—even advanced degrees like Master’s degrees and Doctorates—in a minimal amount of time. They appeal to adults who work full time or who haven’t had the opportunity, time, or money to attend a traditional college or university. They are tempting, but are such programs really worth it?
I believe they are not. Online universities give the impression that they offer an educational experience equivalent to a traditional, brick-and-mortar college or university, but they do not.
Before I write any further, let me distinguish between those online universities, like Capella, which only exist online, from online programs and degrees offered by many traditional colleges and universities nowadays. A degree or certificate from an online program offered by an accredited, established school can usually be trusted more than a degree from a purely online school. It is those purely online schools that I am referring to here.
I am also not some luddite railing against technology. As a teacher myself, I can’t imagine teaching without technology, and I have been quick to embrace online applications like blogs, wikis, and online word processors. Technology is great and I make use of it in my classrooms whenever reasonable.
So, what is the problem with these online universities? Well, first of all, you need to understand that these “universities” are for-profit businesses, first and foremost. Now, it is true that all institutions of higher education are businesses to some extent—if they weren’t then they wouldn’t be charging tuition. But for an online university, the bottom line is indeed the bottom line. In order to pull in as many students/customers as possible, they set their standards for students low—they will take anyone who is willing to pay. If you contact a representative—or are contacted by one—you often aren’t speaking to a guidance counselor who has your best educational interests at heart, you are speaking to a salesperson who has to meet a quota and bring in as many paying customers as possible, or, like a telemarketer, they are promptly fired.
But isn’t this like a community college? Don’t community colleges also accept anyone with a high school diploma or GED and an open checkbook? Yes, but there is one very important difference between online colleges and community colleges—the community in which they are based. Community colleges are rooted in a particular city or a particular region. It is in their best interests to provide the best education they can to their students because those students will go out into the community and demonstrate the quality and effectiveness of the education they received. Online universities may accept students from across the nation—perhaps even around the world. At the end of the day, a corporation headquartered in one state doesn’t care whether a student in another state can achieve his or her career goals. The corporation has made it money, and there are still 49 other states filled with potential customers.
If you are going to pay money for your own education, then you need to be sure that you are receiving the highest quality of education possible. As someone who has received a Ph.D. from a legitimate institution of higher education, who has been around teachers and professors my entire adult life, and who has been on the job market and understands the reputation and prestige that accompanies various kinds of institutions, I can tell you that online universities are considered the bottom-of-the-barrel with respect to where a professor would hope to teach. I would only consider teaching for an online university only if every other option available to me has been exhausted—and that includes teaching in high school or grade school. The professors that you find at these online universities are definitely not the best of the best.
Many of these online universities accelerate their students’/customers’ education by offering them credit for “life experience.” Certainly, if you are looking for a promotion within a company, or a better job with another company, then one’s previous work experience should definitely play a role, but one of the purposes of higher education is, and should be, to teach you something new. That’s what education is—learning what you didn’t know before. No matter how much real-world experience one has, one can still learn something new and broaden one’s knowledge. This is especially true when it comes to graduate studies. Here, your ideas and knowledge need to be pushed to the next level; you shouldn’t simply be given a pat on the head and told that you already know what you need to know. If that were true, then why are you wasting your time in a classroom—online or otherwise? You should be seeking an education, not an affirmation.
I think it is the availability for Master’s degrees and Doctorates from online universities that I find to be most disturbing. For one thing, no online university, no matter what resources they may have at their disposal, can match the full range of educational resources at hand at a Research I or Research II university. Online universities also aren’t going to be able to offer their students/customers the same range of assistantships and internships that would allow students to practice and put into use—in a real world environment—the lessons they have learned.
I also can’t believe that such advanced degrees, especially in fields like education or psychology, would be worth anything at all on the job market. In such fields, where the job market is already flooded with recent graduates sporting advanced degrees from traditional universities, a student with a degree from an online university would almost certainly get passed over for a student from a traditional school. To some extent, I think online universities depend upon the ignorance of employers about whether a school is online or not. Most universities have names that make them sound like liberal arts colleges, like Brighton University, Kent College, or St. Regis University.
So if you are thinking about going back to school and getting or completing a college education, please do, but let the online university option be your very last option. When it comes to a quality education, there are no short-cuts, no bargains. Like anything else worth pursuing, it takes a commitment of time and effort.
posted by Depthfunction @ 10:30 AM
4 Comments
