Fuel For The Future - predictions about online higher education

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Jan, 2001 by Samuel L. Dunn

"With estimates that the typical citizen will need the equivalent of 30 semester credits of course work each 10 years to keep up with the changes that are coming to society, entrepreneurs see opportunities for huge profits."

EDUCATION IS BIG BUSINESS. The U.S. spends $500-700,000,000,000 each year on it, while the world tab is around two trillion dollars. Education is now the second largest civilian industry in the U.S., after health care. Most of the American education dollar is spent on K-12, postsecondary, and corporate training and education. This commitment of resources reflects the judgment of almost all opinion leaders who see the critical importance of education for the nation's future. Others see dollar signs and want to get part of the action.

With so much of America's resources committed to education, it is always under scrutiny. It is a subject of study and experimentation. As a result, the world of education is changing. In some places, it is in turmoil. Among recent developments are voucher systems, charter schools, professional development schools, corporate takeovers of entire school districts, university takeovers of city schools, for-profit lower schools, sex education, school prayers, technological delivery, seamless education, testing, and outcomes education. In higher education, there are open universities, home colleges, corporate universities, and Internet degrees. We are spending a great amount of money and time trying to improve the quality of our educational systems and getting education to the people who need it. The basic changes in society and the world economy are upping the ante and making education more important. Old methodologies may not be sufficient or efficient; new ways are still unproven.

The move from the industrial society to a knowledge society is made possible by the chip-based technologies. If the computer is the technological engine that drives the emerging global knowledge society, education is the gasoline which fuels that engine. Economists, businesspeople, politicians, and educational agencies worldwide recognize that an educated citizenry is a necessary ingredient for the knowledge society.

Education, particularly higher education, has been available only to the elite in many countries. With the enhanced recognition that it is an absolute imperative, new ways of providing access to education for a much higher percentage of the population are being devised. Just as the computer and its myriad applications are changing most aspects of our lives, the computer and its telecommunications applications are providing improved educational access. Not only are new educational enterprises being formed, existing educational institutions are being reshaped by the digital revolution. The computer is changing the way we deliver education, from preschool through graduate school through continuing education.

The most dramatic examples of access to education are found in the distance education (DE) megauniversities found around the world. Distance education means the student is separated in time and/or space from the teacher or professor. China has the largest of these high-enrollment universities--the China Central Radio and Television University--with over 3,000,000 students. More familiar to those in the English-speaking world are the British Open University, with 215,000 students, and the University of South Africa, with 120,000. In addition to the megauniversities, dozens of other national and regional systems are providing education at all levels to students. The Open University of Hong Kong, Universidade Aberta (Portugal), Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (Spain), and the recently formed Western Governors University (U.S.) are just a few that are providing lower and/or higher education to needy citizenry.

The base delivery system for the DE megauniversities is television, supplemented by other technologies or even some on-site instruction in more-developed countries. Some DE systems employ two-way interactive video connections to particular locations where students gather; others supplement with the Internet, while still others deliver only by Internet. With video- and audio-streaming now available, the Internet technologies appear to be the choice for systems where students have access to computers. Of course, these technologies merely supplement the radio-delivered courses that have been available for years in many countries around the world.

The programs and courses offered vary from basic literacy courses to the highest graduate-level programming. If one defines a university degree as being accessible by distance education if 90% or more of the required credits are given at a distance, then hundreds of university degrees are now available through DE, as are dozens of master's degrees and a small number of accredited doctoral degrees. One estimate suggests that 90,000 university-level courses can be enrolled in through DE delivery systems. In the U.S., approximately two-thirds of traditional colleges and universities offer courses online, while approximately one-third give degrees online.