Online Education: Huge Growth Creates Concerns

As the economy has tightened in recent years, online education has seen explosive growth. Once viewed as an up and coming industry, online schooling is now booming. While the industry grows for students of all age groups, online institutions seek to provide answers to concerns and solutions to issues including accreditation and quality of learning.

The number of Americans who enrolled in at least one online course doubled from 2003 to 2009—and online students now include school-aged children as well as adults. More than 4 million Americans enrolled in at least one online course last fall as compared to 2 million in the fall of 2003. For the large online institutions, such as University of Phoenix, new enrollment has jumped by about 20 percent just over the past year. Online students now include K-12 as well as adult learners. As of February 2008, a total of 18 states had charter school programs online.

The explosive growth has lead to questions and concerns about the quality of instruction. For school aged children, state officials and parents alike question the best approach to ensuring that online classes provide youths with the same standards—or higher ones—that those met by traditional classroom studies.

Internet college courses face frequent complaints regarding poor quality. While some schools provide quality online courses for as little as $500 per class, others charge up to $9,000 to $10,000 for master’s degrees, despite being unaccredited–therefore receiving no recognition from employers or other colleges. In a recent survey, nearly half of professors who had taught an online course indicated that online students received an inferior education. Many online institutions are taking measures to ensure quality instruction, such as limiting student count to 20 per class and requiring instructors to respond to students within a 24 hour time frame.