Arne Duncan Gives For-Profit Colleges a Big Thumbs-Up

For-profit schools in general–and online education specifically–get a bad rap. There’s something about not having a traditional brick-and-mortar campus that makes people think of the degree mills that promised a doctorate in a weekend for three easy payments. Those days are gone, thank goodness, but not all for-profit institutions are providing the quality of education they should be. As is usually the case, a few bad apples are making everybody else look bad.

Secreary of Education Arne Duncan understands this, fortunately. In a briefing today, he went so far as to point out that “Some proprietary schools have profited and prospered but their students haven’t, and this is a disservice to students and to taxpayers. And it undermines the valuable work, the extraordinarily important work, being done by the for-profit industry as a whole.” If that isn’t a vote of confidence for the industry as whole, I don’t know what is.

The Market Agrees: Stocks Go Up for For-Profit Schools

When they heard about this proposed legislation on Wall Street, stocks started climbing. DeVry Inc.’s stock jumped a full 13 percent, making it one of the biggest gainers for the day. Other for-profit schools saw mixed reactions today, but as it becomes clear just which schools will be affected by the new rules, things are sure to sort themselves out.

It’s estimated that if no changes are made, only 5 percent of schools would be losing their federal funding 2012. That’s a good amount of time to get things up to par and not very many schools that have to do it. During the press briefing, Duncan commented, “We want to hit the ones at the bottom, those that simply aren’t working for students. The 5 percent would frankly be the bottom of the barrel.”

What Are the New Rules?

Under the proposal, schools would be grouped into three groups, largely based on former students’ federal student loan debt and income:

• The Good (Qualify for federal aid): A minimum of 45 percent of former students are paying down the principal on their federal loans. Graduates have at most a 20 percent debt-to-earnings ratio for discretionary income and 8 percent ratio for total income.
• The Bad (Subject to enrollment limits and required to warn about high debt levels): Between 35 and 45 percent of former students are paying down their principals, and graduates have a debt-to-earnings ratios of between 20 and 30 percent, and 8 and 12 percent, for discretionary and total incomes respectively.
• The Ugly (Do not qualify for federal aid): Less than 35 percent of students are paying down the principal on their loans. And their debt-to-earnings ratio is enough to make anyone’s life uncomfortable at over 30 percent for discretionary income and 12 percent for total income.

The idea is to make the schools responsible for the claims they make about preparing graduates for careers. And it seems perfectly reasonable to me. This can only help the image of for-profit education, which will be a boon for online education.

Recently, a new report from the Community College Research Center challenged these findings. Perfectly timed, the report’s release coincided with the University of California’s announcement that they are seriously considering offering degrees you can earn entirely online. After reading this report and sifting through the one-sided language, I found that it does a fair job of questioning the validity of the data used in the Dept. of Ed. report. As the report goes on, though, a bias against online education becomes clear.

A Critique of the Response to the Meta-Analysis of Online Learning Studies

Let’s break it down…

Stacking the Odds: Shortening the List in Favor of Face-to-Face Instruction

First, let’s look at how the response chopped the Dept. of Education’s list down to 7 studies. From the report:

“[O]f the 23 hybrid courses that were examined in studies included in the meta-analysis, 20 required the students to physically attend class for the same amount of time that students in a face-to-face course would attend; the online portions of these courses were either in on-campus computer labs or were completed in addition to regular classroom time.”

Okay, great point there. It’s important to distinguish between hybrid programs that require time online outside of a traditional class schedule and those that are split more evenly between face-to-face and online instruction. Now, let’s keep in mind that this response isn’t trying to tackle any further claims about hybrid education–they stop here, and those last three courses that were determined acceptable aren’t mentioned again.

The response is, though, focusing heavily on online education, so they decide to weed through the Dept. of Education list to find the studies “that compared fully online courses to face-to-face courses,” of which there were 28. They focused on seven of these, saying the others were not relevant because “(1) conditions are unrepresentative of typical college courses, or (2) target populations are dissimilar to college students.” Okay, so they’re only interested in semester-long courses, not studies on shorter courses; I can get behind that one.

The target population part of this little formula for whittling down the list of studies they aim to debase, though, doesn’t sit well with me. By only looking at “those studies conducted with undergraduate or graduate students in semester-long online courses”, they ignore the “professionals outside of the college setting”, who are taking online courses because they can’t fit a traditional campus education into their schedules–a good-sized chunk of online students. This one has other implications, too. By limiting their focus to students who are in a college setting, they’re also limiting their focus to studies done in a traditional college setting (i.e., a campus college, not an online one). Why is this important? Because campus-based schools are geared towards campus education not online education–and they should be; it’s their thing. Online instruction isn’t their thing, which means that they may not have done the best job developing the online versions of the classes mentioned in the studies. So the odds are stacked against online programs from the get-go because they’re only looking at campus colleges trying something new, which becomes even more clear when they start critiquing individual studies later on.

Online Instruction Holds Its Own while Getting Downplayed

Now that we know how they determined which bits of data to pay attention to, let’s look at the studies in question. Keep in mind as we go through, that these are online versions of campus courses designed by professors who usually teach in a traditional, face-to-face setting. I’m not saying that courses designed to be taught online by professors experienced in that medium of instruction would be that much better, but, gosh, doesn’t it seem like that would be the case?

Comparing strictly online courses to strictly campus courses (occasionally with a hybrid or additional online version of the course thrown in), the studies found…

• Caldwell (2006): “[...] no significant differences [...].”
• Cavus and Ibrahim (2007): “The advanced-collaboration online course significantly outperformed both the standard-collaboration online and face-to-face courses [...]; there was no significant difference between the standard-collaboration online course and the face-to-face course.”
• Davis, Odell, Abbitt, and Amos (1999): “[...] no significant difference [...]“
• LaRose, Gregg, and Eastin (1998): “[...] no significant difference [...]“
• Mentzer, Cryan, and Teclehaimanot (2007): “[...] students in the online and face-to-face classes had the same test scores, but the online group was less likely to turn in assignments [...].”
• Peterson and Bond (2004): “[...] the online group still scored similarly to the face-to-face group [...].”
• Schoenfeld-Tacher, McConnell, and Graham (2001): “[...] online students showed significantly higher adjusted post-test scores [...].”

For those of you keeping score, that’s six ties and one win for online education (two if you count Cavus and Ibrahim’s advanced collaboration class). Which is why it makes total sense when the response report summarizes by saying that there was a “lack of consistent differences in outcomes between online and face-to-face.” Wait, no, that doesn’t make any sense at all.

Grasping at Straws

My favorite part of this report has to be the way it clings to the following assertion [emph. added]:

In addition, eight students who had taken both an online and a face-to-face teacher education course from the two participating instructors were interviewed, and all eight felt that the face-to-face course had better prepared them for teaching.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that this particular teacher education course wasn’t aimed teaching online courses. This finding only shows that a face-to-face teaching course better prepared students for face-to-face teaching, which isn’t surprising, let alone noteworthy. It’s easier to learn how to stand up in front of people and teach from someone who is standing up in front of you and teaching. The fact that the online students scored the same as their face-to-face counterparts is what should be held up as the primary finding, not that eight of the students who did both felt better prepared.

Some Notes on Another Critique of the Response to the… You Get the Idea

Education news website Inside Higher Ed wrapped up their summary of the report with this quote from John Bourne, executive director of the Sloan Consortium:

“I am exceptionally dubious of studies that tend to compare online education and on-the-ground education without even an attempt to understand the differences in the mechanisms of teaching. The jury is absolutely still out on this, and I don’t believe for a minute that it’s about the delivery mechanism, but what the affordances are of the delivery.”

Bourne added that he thinks both reports in question are flawed but interesting, which seems like a great place to leave things: up in the air (at least until we get some real studies done and have those analyzed by non-biased parties).

Five-Star Degree or Fast-Food Education?

An article in the San Francisco Chronicle starts off with the following:

Taking online college courses is, to many, like eating at McDonald’s: convenient, fast and filling. You may not get filet mignon, but afterward you’re just as full.

The point here is definitely valid, online education leaves one “just as full” of valuable knowledge and critical thinking skills as on-campus education does. But let’s get one thing clear here, there is a huge difference between what we call fast food and healthy, delicious food that is prepared quickly and served conveniently.

If UC does this properly, the program won’t be a cheap knock-off of their campus experience; it’ll be the same high-quality degree without having to find a parking spot on campus, without having to find a cheap place to subsist near campus while earning a degree, without having to wade through a sea of freshman carrying a heavy book bag to find your cramped lecture hall. The point is that making the degree logistically easier to get doesn’t mean making it less rigorous–it’s still just as difficult to earn the degree, but students wouldn’t have to jump through a bunch of hoops to do so.

Campus Education Got Served

Let us not forget the 2009 report from the U.S. Department of Education in which traditional campus education totally got served. To wit…

Students who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction.

Let’s not be one-sided about this, the study did find that hybrid programs are more effective than strictly campus or strictly online degree programs. I don’t mean to make this out to be some kind of one-size-fits-all competition that ignores the fact that different people learn differently and will excel in different types of programs. Online education won, though. Okay, okay, hybrid education won, but in the interest of polarizing the argument (a favorite American pastime), we’ll just skip over that tidbit.

Univ. of Massachusetts and Stanford: Online Degree Mills? No. Not Even a Little.

Let’s look at few other institutes of high-quality higher education and their online programs.

• UMassOnline: The University of Massachusetts has been offering undergraduate and graduate degrees online for years now. They even credit themselves as being “a leader in distance education for over 25 years” on their site.
• Stanford: One of the big names in higher education in the country, Stanford University has been offering completely online degrees since 1998. Correct me if I’m wrong here, but isn’t Stanford still a highly ranked school?

The big counter example to these programs is the one through University of Illinois, or rather the one that was offered through U of I. Their Global Campus program simply wasn’t done properly. Inside Higher Ed covered the story, quoting one professor at the school in a way that summed up the whole debacle:

The department said, ‘This is garbage, and we will not put our degree on it,’ and Global Campus said ‘We’ll offer it.’

So, to wrap things up, there is most certainly a difference between fast food and timely, convenient food. U of I tried to offer the former with a big logo on the front, and they crashed and burned–rightly so. Stanford and U. Mass are doing the latter, and they seem to being doing quite well with it, thank you very much. Which camp the University of California will fall into remains to be seen, but I’ve got my fingers crossed for them.

Is online education inferior to face-to-face teaching? Our blogger thinks so

At first, I read it like it were a call to arms. I put my special war headdress, cinched down my holier-than-thou armor, and drew my rhetorical blade–only to find out that I heartily agreed with the blogger in question. I took off all of my figurative garb, and tweeted back something to the effect of “Different strokes for different folks,” and–you know what?–I bloody well meant it!

Online Education: No, It Isn’t for Everyone

A lot of our content is geared towards online degree programs and how awesome they are; it’s true (true about our content and true that online education is awesome–it is; deal with it). It’s sort of our specialty, but we don’t think it’s the best for everyone, nor do we think that campus programs are entirely outmoded. The point of the aforementioned blog post was simply to say that it’s probably wrong that many campus-based students are being forced to take strictly online classes. And, yeah, I totally agree. It’s not keeping up with the times; it’s putting a smiley-face spin on budget cuts.

Online education is great for students who don’t fit the traditional profile, which, as it turns out, is a whole lot of people. Got a day job? Online education lets you work around that schedule without being relegated to night classes at the local community college. Got a full-time family? Again, online education is a scheduling life saver. Not good with social interaction? Hey, online education has got you covered!

If, on the other hand, you need that disapproving look from a mentor when you blow it, if you crave the way a college campus makes you feel, if you paid for a traditional education, then–no–strictly online classes probably aren’t going to be your cup of tea. Given the choice, I’d still go for an on-campus program, but certain things, like paying the bills, make an online degree a much more viable option for someone like me. If I didn’t live in a city that happened to be home to a pretty decent university, I’d be even better suited for online education.

The truth of the matter is that, while online education does beat traditional face-to-face learning, it’s the union of the two that produces the best results. It’s no secret that you can’t please all the people all the time, so let’s just agree that learning is a wonderful thing. The more people we get to do it, the better.

Wal-Mart Employees to Get Tuition Breaks for Online College

In a partnership with American Public University, Wal-Mart is going to start offering it’s employees a 15 percent tuition break. They’ve dedicated $50 million to dissemination over the course of three years. According to former education under secretary Sara Martinez Tucker, who is now on the company’s external advisory council, If 10 to 15 percent of Wal-Mart employees take advantage of this, that’s like graduating three Ohio State Universities,” which gives you an idea about just how many people work at Wal-Mart.

From the New York Times’ article on the subject:

The program will initially allow about 200,000 employees in positions like cashier, department manager and distribution center unloader to accrue credits for training they already receive in their jobs.

For instance, a department-level manager, who receives training from Wal-Mart in areas like pricing, inventory management and ethics, would be eligible for 24 on-the-job credits, at no charge, toward a 61-credit associates’ degree. A cashier would be eligible for six credits toward a 61-credit associate’s degree or a 120-credit bachelor’s degree.

Credits for work experience and a 15-percent tuition break? It’s an online college, too, which means that–really–any employee with Internet access is good to go. I’m still not sure I’ll shop there, but I’m proud of Wal-Mart. It’s a fantastic nod to online education, too.

Another, shall we say, symptom of the times is that the job market is more competitive than ever. This kind of thing happens all of the time in nature. There’s a dramatic change of some sort–be it climate shift, disease, or the introduction of an invasive specie, change is change–and the flora and fauna in question must adapt to survive. This pressure on the species is what spurs evolution, and this is exactly what is happening in today’s job market.

It should be kept in mind that I’m most certainly not talking about social Darwinsim, at least not in the sense that it is used pejoratively, typically denoting some type of social eugenics. What I’m suggesting is simply a way of understanding this new sort of job market we’ve found ourselves in and a way of adapting to it.

In nature, the name of the game is specialization. When things change, new niches are created, and the species that specialize and take advantage of the situation are the ones that survive. As a job-seeker, you need to be finding the same kind of niche markets and working towards taking advantage. Oddly enough, today, this means diversifying your abilities.

3 New Tricks Any Old Dog Can Learn

These skills can open a world of opportunity. Find the need, and fill it.

1. Marketing. Already got your bachelor’s degree? If you’ve been working in a field professionally for a few years since earning that degree, you’re in a great position to go get your MBA. Your experience, plus an MBA in Marketing, equals marketing specialist in the field. Use it to move up the ladder at work, or go start your own business.
2. Writing. Another great skill to tack on to your previous specialty is writing. Hone this skill, and you could start freelance writing on the side–or make a career out of it. Many industries are on the look for good writers who are genuinely knowledgeable in their field, which is where you come in.
3. Writing Code. Computers are everywhere, and we use them for everything. Learn their language and you could be designing websites, writing hit applications for smartphones, or creating specialty business software for niche industries.

Whether you’re thinking about changing jobs, brining in some extra money on the side, or making yourself way too useful to fire, picking up these skills is a great place to start. Don’t get outmoded in this ever-changing world; evolve right along with it.

All that aside, what’s the best part about earning your degree online?

You Can Make Your Classroom Anywhere, Anytime

The Internet is everywhere. Whether you’re still fiddling with that old cradle modem or streaming class lectures on your phone, you can learn anywhere you can get online–and today, that’s pretty much everywhere. Here are a few fantastic ways to take advantage of online learning:

• Road Trip! Love to travel, but think you have to wait until after graduation? Think again. Drive across the country submitting assignments at coffee shops, downloading lectures at national monuments, and doing homework during those long stretches of open road.
• Raise Your Kids. Don’t miss class to take care of your children. You can be a great parent and a great student at the same time. Write that paper during nap time; sneak in a quick study at the tee-ball game; and don’t worry about day care.
• Keep Your Day Job. Just because you’ve got a 9-to-5 doesn’t mean that you can’t go back to school. If you’re looking to change jobs, sneak in study time while you’re at work (not recommended if you’re gunning for a promotion).
• Get Campy. This one is along the same lines as road tripping your way to a degree, but it’ll be slightly more difficult to find signal. Fortunately for you, many national parks have lodges that are all wired up for your Internet needs. Why not spend the semester hiking the Pacific Crest Trail? If you do it right, you could be in gorgeous Yosemite Valley in time for your midterms.

A Few More Ways to Make Online Learning Awesome

• Pants Optional. Dressing for success in an online degree program means being comfortable. If that means posting to the class discussion board while you’re chillin’ in your underoos, so be it.
• Five O’Clock Somewhere. Yeah, you can bring a beer to the lecture; it’s your living room. Better yet, bring the classroom to the bar and plug in your laptop for happy hour. Just keep in mind that you aren’t your sharpest when you’re hitting the sauce.
• But the Game’s On! You don’t want to miss the big game, but you really need to attend the live chat before the test. No problem. Flip on the TV, and settle in for some sporty studying. Tip: Don’t type “gooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllll!!!!!” accidentally, no matter how excited you are–you’ll totally blow your cover.

There are plenty of other ways to make online learning a blast, and we’re sure that you’ve figured a few out. Show us your classroom for a chance at $1,000. Your video doesn’t need to too long (shouldn’t exceed two minutes), and it doesn’t have to be professional (we want to see where you learn, not how awesome you’ve gotten with video editing software).

The Three Biggest Online Education Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

1. Not Doing Your Research. This is the first big mistake that new online students make–and it’s the first one that’ll come back to bite you. Before you enroll in an online degree program, research the school. Find out whether or not you’ve got the Internet access and software required for the course. And if you aren’t all that tech-savvy, check to see if the college has a help desk that’s open when you have the time to call. Make sure that the college is accredited. Without proper accreditation, you won’t be eligible for the same financial aid and you may find that prospective employers won’t honor the degree.
2. Forgetting to Budget the Time. Working at your own pace is great, but you need to remember to actually do the work. Be sure to budget study time every week. With a full course load, that should come to about 10 hours per week. Don’t procrastinate! Again, just because it’s more or less your pace, doesn’t mean that there isn’t work involved. In fact, some online courses require a certain number of weekly posts to class discussion boards. If you put off posting until the last minute–right before that other paper is due and you have to take those quizzes in your other class–chances are high that your quality of work will suffer accordingly. Be realistic about your learning style. If you aren’t disciplined enough to keep up with your courses, you could end up making an expensive mistake.
3. Biting Off More than You Can Chew. Another common mistake is enrolling in far too many classes your first semester. This is another one that goes back to that myth that online education is easy. After all, if it’s easy, shouldn’t you be able take ten classes while working full time and trying to have a life? The answer, of course, is no. This one can be fixed easily–if you catch it early enough to get your money back when you drop a few of those classes. Wait too long, and you’ll end up losing your money and getting a black mark on your transcript.

When you start putting things off and life gets hectic, doing a half-hearted job, missing assignments, and even plagiarism get more and more tempting. Do your self a favor: take a measured approach to starting an online degree program. You’ll thank yourself.

Debra Ann Mynar, 39 and an online psychology student is quoted in the Inside Higher Ed article on the subject as saying, “When you’re on campus, you have opportunities to engage your faculty and your peers. When you do distance education, you don’t have those similar opportunities unless you make them.” And that’s just what students are doing.

Student Clubs Online: It’s About Time

There are a few challenges facing online students, not the least of which is the amount of time they have to spend outside of class. Online education is probably the best way to fit earning a degree into a busy schedule. With online enrollment up a full 17 percent from fall 2007 to fall 2008, more and more students are finding that they do have some time for extracurricular activities, and they’ve certainly taken the initiative.

Another major hurdle is time zones. If your study buddy lives in a different country, an actual meet-up for live chat is difficult to schedule. To get around that, guest speakers upload video lectures and answer questions that roll in electronically, much like online ed professors.

Student Retention: No Student Is an Island

“We see retention improved through the use of any social networks,” John Bourne, executive director of the Sloan Consortium, a major online education research and leadership organization, told Inside Higher Ed. “Clubs tend to form social networks, and those increase communication among students and thus retention. Less isolationism leads to [a greater] feeling of belonging.”

Not only that, but these groups help generate professional connections. With so many online students already working day jobs in fields related to their degree programs, the ability to find out about job openings as they come up is a big draw for many members.

You may not yet be able to join virtual sports teams at your online college, but these clubs are the next best thing for students looking for a traditional college experience without the price tag or rigid schedule.

Tips for Getting Back into the Higher Education Swing of Things

1. Make Yourself Known. If you walk into class on day one and make for the back, you’re asking for a chance to screw around. The first thing that’s wrong with your seating choice is that your professor doesn’t know you’re a go-getter. I’m not suggesting that you sit front row, center, but give the second row a shot. There’s nothing quite like eye contact to suggest that you’re paying full attention. Online students can give the appearance of being completely focused by posting a big hello on the class discussion board. Starting off with a great first impression gives you a leg up in the professor’s mind, whether or not you actually earn it.
2. Participate. If you never raise your hand, contribute, or post, you’re just another face in the class–and professor’s might forget about you. If you aren’t noticed, why are you showing up at all? I once saw a professor call out a student who’d only missed a few classes during a final exam. Interrupting the rest of us taking the test, the professor asked, loudly, “And where have you been?” It was embarrassing and easily avoidable. Show up. Participate. If the professor has an idea of who you are, you’re far more likely to get an extension on a paper or an extra credit opportunity down the line–and you can avoid being embarrassed in front of your classmates.
3. Fake It ‘Til You Make It. This tip is more to augment all of the other tips, preceding and following. Ever tried smiling when you’re in a bad mood? You’d be surprised how this kind of talking of the talk can turn your mood around. Likewise, you might not be thrilled to be back in class, but if you make it seem like you are, you’ll be walking the walk before you know it.
4. Save Your Procrastination for Later. Develop a name for yourself as someone who always gets work in on time–at least starting off. If you’re taking more than one class, it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll have some homework/studying conflicts down the line. Take advantage of the early weeks in a class to stay on top of things. When things are too chaotic further down the line, you’re more likely to get a little leeway on due dates. Don’t pull any stunts around finals, though. Generally, I used to start off strong through ’til the midterm, ease off and relax for a bit, and then hit the books hard for finals–frankly, an A is an A even if it isn’t a 100-percent.
5. Put Your Lame Excuses Out to Pasture. Stop killing off your grandma! Every year, when midterms and finals roll around, students’ older relatives start dropping like flies–at least, that’s what they tell their professors, who aren’t stupid, by the way. The next time life gets too hectic to study or finish that paper, tell your professor just that: things are hectic. People don’t like being lied to and, in general, want to be nice. Also, professors were once students, and they know that things get crazy. If you’re preemptive about asking for an extension, the professor knows you (at least a little), and you don’t pile on the BS, you’re likely to get the same leeway (if not more) as someone who kills a octogenarian twice a year–and your professor will still respect you.
6. Goof Off Productively. You aren’t going to be working 24/7, but you can be getting your brain in shape for those academic pursuits. It’s as easy as switching from video games to chess or from sit-coms to documentaries. You just need to get those synapses firing.
7. Make a List. Things slip my mind all the time, which is way you’ll always find a to-do list or two on my desk. Not only does this help me keep track of everything that needs to get done, it also helps me prioritize. There’s almost always something easy, even fun, on the list, and I try to save those until I can’t take the grueling tasks anymore. Break projects down into their component parts when you make your list, too. This way, you can cross things off more quickly (a great feeling), and you won’t be overwhelmed by a huge project, just ten little ones.
8. Buddy Up. Whether you’re starting an online class or wandering around a campus, it’s a good idea to acquaint yourself with someone in the class. You’ll have a chatting buddy, for one. You’ll also have a partner when group projects rear their ugly heads (and someone you know is less likely to stick you with all the work). You’ll also have a study partner, a place to get notes when you miss class, and someone to help keep you motivated (note: go for someone who looks smart and ambitious, if only a little).
9. Drop the Dead Weight. If you’ve got a class that you don’t need to be taking and your schedule looks daunting, drop it–now. You need to get your money back for the class and hock those books ASAP. Of course, take the time to weigh the merits of the class. If it’s interesting and it doesn’t look too hard, stay on for the ride. If you don’t like going after only three sessions, run for your life (or your GPA and cash reserves).
10. Get Out. I always had a problem studying at home. There were too many distractions, roomies doing things, and places to fall asleep. Between 24-hour coffee shops, the library on campus, and the occasional bar, I had plenty of places I could go and actually get work done. The trick was getting myself out the door. Find a good spot or three where you actually study, and make yourself get off the couch and out the door. Make sure that at least one place is completely free–you aren’t made of money.

These ten tips just scratch the surface of what it takes to keep yourself motivated in school, but follow them, and you’ve got a great start.