Higher Education Technology Offers Much, But It Is Not Everything | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: The John William Pope Center for Education Policy provides a treasure trove of information suggesting the better path forward in regards to North Carolina's number one issue — public education. Public education, at all levels, requires a significant amount of funding from our state government, and all one hundred North Carolina counties, so it is essential that leaders effecting education policy get it right, and know that concerned entities, like the John William Pope Center, will be minding their progress to do so. We welcome the John William Pope Center for Education Policy to our growing readership, and expect our readers to learn all they can to do their part in this wise endeavor to better educate our People.

    The author of this post is Jesse Saffron.

    E. M. Forster's frightening short story "The Machine Stops" (1909) depicts a post-apocalyptic world in which all human activity has been subsumed by a global digital network similar to the Internet (except that Forster's version is controlled by a worldwide government bureaucracy). In-person human interaction is rare; parents and children are separated at birth and people live in isolated underground rooms in which daily needs and desires are satisfied by "the Machine."

    The science fiction classic is remarkable in that its author foresaw several modern technologies, including a distance education platform that broadcast lectures around the world. Today, of course, we have a name for just such a platform: the Massive Open Online Course, or MOOC.

    Initially, MOOCs were viewed as harbingers of a major disruptive upheaval in higher education. But since 2012, which the New York Times dubbed "The Year of the MOOC", MOOC mania has been on the decline. The notion that the technology will revolutionize the brick-and-mortar college landscape no longer carries much weight in most academic circles. Criticisms have been well-publicized: course completion rates are abysmal; cost savings are minimal and in most instances non-existent; students are not motivated; individualized mentorship is lacking; and enrollees tend to be well-educated professionals, not those at the bottom rungs of the socioeconomic ladder whom proponents said would most benefit.

    The MOOC platform is now seen, at best, as a tool for pedagogical experimentation and student recruitment (and for reaching growing markets in India and China). At worst, it's seen as an ineffective way to deliver a quality education, and a losing proposition for small- and mid-sized schools seeking to mimic larger or more elite universities.

    Although MOOCs are experiencing a downturn, higher education's overall online marketplace is larger than ever. In the 1997-98 academic year, roughly 33 percent of undergraduate institutions offered for-credit distance education courses, and there were about 1.3 million enrollments. Today, more than 70 percent of degree-granting institutions offer distance education courses and there are approximately 5.2 million students enrolled in at least one online class. Also, there are thousands of online degree programs (1,200 of which are now ranked by U.S. News & World Report) offered by more than 600 accredited colleges.

    But is online growth beginning to plateau? According to a report released earlier this year by the Babson Survey Research Group (in concert with the College Board and the National Center for Education Statistics), colleges' online enrollment grew by 3.7 percent from fall 2012 to 2013, the lowest growth rate ever recorded by Babson. For comparison, in the first decade of the 2000s, there were several academic years in which such enrollment grew by more than 20 percent.

    Contributing to the sluggish growth were private for-profit colleges and universities, which have struggled lately because of federal and state regulatory pressure. The for-profit sector's online enrollment dipped by about 8 percent from fall 2012 to 2013. Some argue that the Babson survey should be taken with a grain of salt because of growth taking place in the private nonprofit (12.6 percent) and public (4.6 percent) sectors (totaling 246,000 students) and because it doesn't account for flipped and blended classes.

    At any rate, whether fully online, blended, or flipped, online learning at K-12 and higher education levels has spawned a multi-billion dollar industry. That industry, often shorthanded as "EdTech," received $2.5 billion from investors in just the first half of this year, breaking all previous annual records, according to Ambient Insight, a market research firm. But a close look at the numbers reveals an investment reduction in learning technology companies that deal mainly with colleges and universities. In the first half of this year, such firms saw $152 million of venture capital; $251 million was invested during the same span last year. This raises a unique question: is learning technology in higher education experiencing a bubble?

    "Investor fatigue is one way a bubble could form in the market. Another would be if the entrepreneurs themselves lost faith in their ability to make a difference," wrote Carl Straumsheim in this August 2014 Inside Higher Ed article. Several reasons why entrepreneurs could lose faith in their ability to make a difference include:

• Colleges are by nature slow to adopt new technological platforms created by private firms, preferring instead to "work within"
• Navigating higher education's increasingly complex regulatory environment is perceived by some businesses as an unattractive proposition
• As evidence of online learning's shortcomings continues to pile up, some institutions and students may become less inclined to experiment with new tech products
• Faculty, who play a major role in designing curricula and setting academic standards, generally distrust online education. Many are unwilling to try new online teaching methods; almost 75 percent of chief academic officers surveyed by Babson indicated that faculty do not accept "the value and legitimacy of online education"

    For now, at least, educational firms are continuing to innovate and offer new products, and colleges-as well as individual consumers-are continuing to test them. Alternatives to traditional college, such as Code School and competency-based education (offered by fully online schools such as Western Governors University and Southern New Hampshire University) frequently grab headlines.

    At brick-and-mortar universities, the once-ubiquitous Blackboard learning management system is being challenged by up-and-coming firms such as Moodle and Instructure. (Learning management systems are vital for online education delivery; communication is easier, and course materials and assessments are more accessible, thanks to such technology.) Companies such as Smart Sparrow and D2L are attempting to help colleges boost online student retention rates, enhance academic guidance, and improve learning outcomes by providing more course customization options for instructors. And in the future, according to investor Roger Novak, "student-centered" companies that help individuals create marketable online learning portfolios-that is, digital resumes that showcase what people have learned online-will see significant growth.

    There is also a new focus on the act of creating and improving online pedagogy. Programs centered on educational technology and distance education delivery are cropping up. UNC-Chapel Hill, for instance, recently announced the creation of a master's in Educational Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship that is intended to "provide early- and mid-career professionals with the skill sets they need to create successful educational innovations, grounded in the latest science of learning."

    Whether online enrollment and investment in education technologies are flattening is anyone's guess. What is less indeterminate is traditional higher education's continued staying power. The Internet has been in full force for two decades now, and we've seen much of what it can offer: mostly, an unparalleled way to deliver information. But information appears to be not enough for those seeking advanced education. In terms of higher order thinking, complex problem solving, scientific research, written analysis, etc., brick-and-mortar institutions' comparative advantage in developing those skills is clear. In many academic fields, learning by doing and interpersonal engagement remain crucial. Online coursework, on the other hand, makes it easy for those without strong self-discipline and motivation to coast through assignments and to avoid the "desirable difficulties" that often occur in physical settings by way of frequent quizzes or tests, in-depth criticism from professors, the Socratic Method, study sessions, and so on.

    At the beginning of Forster's "The Machine Stops," a young man named Kuno tells his mother, whom he rarely sees in person, that he wants to visit her, that he's tired of virtual communication, and that "The Machine is much, but it is not everything." Similarly, online learning offers much, but it is not everything. Going forward, however, new technology will likely bring out the best in traditional universities by forcing them to justify their existence. If brick-and-mortar schools offer nothing better than the digital sphere does, they will be finished.