Thanks for this post. Just read some rubbish on the abysmal completion rates in for-profit schools and how that translates to for-profit schools only being concerned with money and not education.

Thanks again,

Mike

The thing everyone needs to understand is that the customer is the one who makes the decision in the end. Right now a number of forces are at play that are reducing the ROI of traditional brick and mortar shops.

Social media is and the changing behaviors of consumers along with the incredible cost increases of education are making online education acceptable. Additionally we are coming into a time where people are starting to understand they’d rather take an online course from a world class professor than one that is not.

Consumers are going to start to FLOCK to online education providers like Capella as long as they can help drive down the cost of education. Like WalMart, someone is going to build a world class course structure with Rock star professors and offer it at at penny’s on the dollar.

One of the big reasons people don’t finish brick and mortar colleges is economics. Drive costs out, make it available 24/7/365, add a dash of social media tools to expand my support network and viola, you’ve got a model that has higher retention rates.

Wish all of you luck in driving out costs!

We have moved from the agricultural to the industrial and now to the information age. I believe in this information age, the world economy will be built on intangibles: information, ideas and relationships. World class enterprises will have to be managed differently – our 21st century organizations are staffed by people with 17th century thinking skills: plan, organize, direct and control mentality. But the demand today, however, is for the enterprise to be different – to be creative at all times, in all areas and in all activities.

The biggest advantage for online education universities is to compete by developing experiential education programs that embrace systematic creativity and innovation in the curriculum and prepare students for this new information economy rather than provide the same traditional education programs (received, subjective and procedural thinking) face-to-face universities provide by just using different delivery vehicle (the Internet).

The future is about integrating information technology and experiential education programs very efficiently and effectively. “Socialization, face-to-face presentation skills, and lifetime friendships and professional connections” can all be achieved today by using collaborative technologies. See the new Cisco technology “TelePresence”.
Today’s student body is so fluid and dynamic that only comprehensive data collection system must be put in place to make any relevant conclusion regarding graduation rates.

I know I didn’t directly address the issue at hand but there are too many online degree programs that it’s really hard to distinguish the difference.
And from business strategy perspective, what would happen to Capella and other online universities if Harvard, Stanford or other high ranking university decides to provide similar online degree programs that are cost comparable?

Online universities must have superior execution capability that face-to-face universities can’t match or wait to die.

Thanks for such an assertive post. I began writing this blog to stimulate dialog, and appreciate your contribution to the discussion. Here is my response to your point of view on this subject.

You don’t mention whether or not you work for a college or university. Let me guess: you work for a campus-based institution.

I have no doubt that traditional students can get a good education in a face-to-face, institution. It is great that those “select few” that you cite will have acquired improved socialization skills. Will develop lifetime friendships and professional connections. Are you seriously suggesting, however, that online students will not and cannot develop friendships and professional connections through engagement with other online students? I don’t buy that. And, older students don’t require the socialization that may be provided face-to-face.

My complaint is that public policy is driven by the romanticized notion of college even though only a distinct minority of students fit that notion. I am not dismissing traditional campus-based schools but rather am saying that the way various data are collected and the way public policy decisions are made need to change. I am certainly not condemning the type of institution you are defending (employed by?) as you have criticized both online and for-profit institutions. I am also not demeaning the students at institutions like the ones you are defending as you have done for students at online or for-profit institutions when you say that they are “merely seeking the credential.” Excuse me! The Students enrolled in online and/or for-profit institutions face and overcome extraordinary challenges to achieve their educational dreams.

You seem to be demeaning the faculty who teach these students by questioning their credentials and publication track records. Let me assure you that their credentials are at a comparable level to any other university.

And, regarding the for-profit status of some adult-serving institutions. Are you saying that traditional schools don’t generate revenues that exceed costs? . The fact is that a huge population of Americans desired a higher education, and traditional colleges and universities were not serving them. New schools were needed. States don’t build new universities anymore. Neither do many churches. Not many philanthropists. So, where do new universities come from? Investors. And, the fact that investors want return on their investment does not necessarily mean that quality suffers.

How do you define and measure a quality education? We do it by measuring whether learning has actually occurred. See some of my other posts on Transparency by Design.

One last comment. if my logic undermines the credibility of the first-time, full-time data, then any numbers using that method, including those that report a higher graduation rate at one type of institution versus another are invalid. If you are arguing that selective schools where traditional-aged students study full-time and are financially dependent on their parents have higher graduation rates than schools with older, part-time students who work full-time and have families, you are absolutely correct. And it is abundantly obvious why.

Mike

You make excellent points regarding the problems of completion rate statistics. However, the proof is in the pudding — how many executive-level managers at Capella or any similar for-profit university received their degrees through the kind of online university for whom they work? Your points regarding the gradually-disappearing “first-time, full-time” model are well made; however, I foresee a growing cleft between those that follow the traditional higher education model and those setting out with the online/part-time model. The select few who continue to utilize the face-to-face, brick-and-mortar, full-time 18-22 year old higher education model will benefit from the improved student outcomes that come from focusing on coursework and student life on a college campus. Chief among these improved outcomes are improved socialization, face-to-face presentation skills, and lifetime friendships and professional connections. Admittedly, these are not “skills” or objectives within the bounds of a college course, but they offer significant advantages to the traditional higher ed student. These graduates will be the “advantaged,” while the part-time, online, non-traditional graduate will be “disadvantaged,” though both will have the same degree, whether it is a Bachelor’s, EdD, or MBA.

The increased accessibility of higher education indicates the increasing emphasis on credentialization in American society, but the growth that comes from the ability of institutions like Capella to adjust to the needs of the market should not be confused with quality. Plato and Aristotle’s students didn’t take correspondence courses (although “online” has replaced that word). People that want education will follow the traditional path; those merely seeking the credential will fuel the for-profit education sector’s continued growth. Furthermore, the fact that for-profits like Capella are legally bound by their corporate charters to make money for shareholders will necessarily cause vast differences in quality between the traditional institutions and the for-profit/online institutions. The dirty little secret is that low-pay, no-benefits adjunct instructors are unreliable, unhappy, frazzled, and oftentimes unfamiliar with the current scholarship in their own discipline. For-profit institutions’ profit margins depends on contingent, no-benefits labor from adjuncts. *Who* are the 1,200 faculty teaching the courses at Capella? Your website does not share with me their names, let alone their scholarly publications or research interests. For-profit institutions will be forced — by the logic of the market — to imitate the University of Phoenix and its policy of no classes taught by a full-timer. But marketing campaigns cannot build a reputation.

You write, “The data are biased to an outdated, romanticized view of college and fail to count many, many students.” While your post effectively undermines the applicability of the first-time, full-time-based graduation rate statistics, the numbers still indicate that the graduation rate for the “romanticized” version of college is still quantitatively better than graduations rates for online/for-profit institutions.