Given What We Don't Know, Blocking Fully Online Degrees Was Right Call

Abstraction: UC system online degree ban defended amid lack of quality evidence

Key points:

• University of California system (10 campuses, ~300,000 students) banned fully online degrees in early 2023, requiring ~1 year of at least 50% in-person instruction
• No rigorous peer-reviewed research has definitively compared online vs. in-person learning outcomes; existing studies use grades or completion rates, which are inflated by online cheating
• A Northeastern University post-pandemic survey found 29% of C-suite leaders view online credentials as lower quality; only 16% view them as higher quality
• Online degree programs have existed for 30+ years but the industry still operates largely on untested assumptions about equivalency
• Author argues precaution is warranted when billions of dollars and millions of students are at stake with essentially unknown quality tradeoffs

Connections: University Of California · Online Education · Higher Education

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereknewton/2023/03/22/given-what-we-dont-know-blocking-fully-online-degrees-was-right-call/