By Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education
Delivering courses in cyberclassrooms has gained broad acceptance among top college leaders, but the general public is far less convinced of online education’s quality, according to new survey data released this week by the Pew Research Center, in association with The Chronicle. Just over half of the 1,055 college presidents queried believe that online courses offer a value to students that equals a traditional classroom’s. By contrast, only 29 percent of 2,142 adult Americans thought online education measured up to traditional teaching. The public survey was conducted by telephone.Now many studies have proved the effectiveness of online instruction, and colleges trying to cut costs and serve students who want more convenient options are embracing this form of teaching. Presidents “should be more visible in making the assertion” that online education is high quality, said A. Frank Mayadas, who started the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s online-education support program. “There’s a huge amount of misunderstanding of what ‘online’ is. You ask the man in the street, ‘What do you think of online learning?’ and they’ll say, ‘You can’t just learn by yourself.'”
Share on Facebook