Online Learning and the Future of Higher Education

Another school year has begun and the enrollment of online learners will be the largest in history. It’s quite a remarkable change if you consider the negative perception online education had just two decades ago. When online education was first emerging, many accredited colleges shied away from this style of learning. Online education became synonymous with low quality degrees and subpar applicants. However, with the creation of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) and the development of Kahn Academy, iTunes U, Coursera, Udemy and TED Talks, the perception of online education has be revolutionized. Talented, brilliant educators and thought leaders were now able to reach millions with high-quality material and presentations. But, there was still one thing missing, and that was an accredited degree.

With the online model established as a viable solution, colleges have now begun to embrace this style of learning and they are integrating the online component into degree programs, something that non-accredited learning methods cannot offer. I firmly believe that this acceptance of online learning will forever change the higher education landscape. Colleges and universities that do not create high-quality online programs will begin to parish.

The average public universities are already hurting. Public funding is decreasing, programs have been eliminated, salaries are being frozen, and professors are being furloughed. A higher education bubble is being predicted by a number of financial gurus. The public institutions need additional private funding or they need new way to generate additional profits. With the ability to bring on additional students through online learning, public universities have the opportunity to increase students and therefore tuition and profits. However, since students will no longer have to deal with out-of-state tuition fees or the expense of traveling to a distant university, public universities that offer the highest quality online programs will be most frequently sought out. Public universities with lesser quality online programs or inferior brand names will lose students and ultimately fail. If the average student has access to every average public university, the early-adopter universities will flourish and the laggards will fall to the wayside.

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