Letters: Online U.: A Look at the Rankings

"The Trouble With Online College" (editorial, Feb. 19) is too quick to discredit online higher education.

We sit at the dawn of an education revolution; advancements in the means of distribution provide instructors instant feedback on their teaching methods from thousands of students, allowing teachers to adapt instruction in real time. This feedback loop generates an evolving education landscape quick to converge on effective instructional methods.

The state of online education may not suit all students, but it is important to avoid conflating present means with the future of the art.

AARON B. KROLIK
Durham, N.C., Feb. 19, 2013

The writer, a sophomore at Duke, is enrolled in "Introduction to Genetics and Evolution," a Duke course taught on Coursera. 

To the Editor:

For years, we have been hearing about the coming wonders and efficiency of "distance learning," "online education" and other names for the same pipe dream. The trumpets have usually been blown by administrators wanting to save on faculty salaries. But humans are not designed to get their basics from computers, at least not without so much interaction with faculty that the technique loses its advantage.

Recorded or live videos are O.K. for learning more about something we already know, but they are not much use in the beginning stages. For example, they don't watch students' faces and see the slack jaws that say, "We don't get that; can you explain it from another angle?"

HARRY J. WYATT
New York, Feb. 19, 2013

The writer is teaching professor emeritus, SUNY College of Optometry.

To the Editor:

A 2010 Department of Education review found that "students in online learning conditions performed modestly better than those receiving face-to-face instruction." How can this be? Because lecture classes, which make up a substantial percentage of undergraduate credit hours, are less engaging, interactive and supportive than most online classes.

Online courses can enhance learning opportunities for nontraditional students and those not well served by lecture classes. High-quality, next-generation online courses incorporate personalized adaptive learning, problem-solving activities, interactive laboratories, animations, simulations, educational gaming, virtual reality environments, social networking and data analytics.

All of these can diagnose and remediate learning deficiencies, enhance student-instructor interaction and improve student learning outcomes.

STEVEN MINTZ
Sunnyvale, Calif., Feb. 20, 2013

The writer is founding director of the University of Texas System's Institute for Transformational Learning and a professor of history at UT Austin.

To the Editor:

Innovation in online delivery is one of the few bright spots in the future of our country's community colleges. Meeting chronic unmet educational need with additional face-to-face instruction (always of uneven quality) is no longer an option for most tax-strapped public systems.

Rather than decrying the inevitable rocky start of this digital revolution, we should be thoughtfully encouraging its growth and improvement.

MITCHELL L. STEVENS
Stanford, Calif., Feb. 19, 2013

The writer, an associate professor of education, is a co-convener of the education's digital future program at Stanford.

To the Editor:

Your conclusion — "that poorly designed courses can seriously shortchange the most vulnerable students" — is obviously correct. But this applies to all courses, not simply online instruction.

Earlier, you note that often online courses have little interaction between professors and students. When we see this, it is clearly a result of poor course design and inadequate faculty training and preparation.

There is no inherent reason online instruction cannot be interactive, especially with students of this generation, who are used to interacting online. I am not speaking about the massive open online courses (MOOCs), which try to enroll many thousands of so-called students.

Indeed, these are overrated, even though other forms of online learning, including "hybrid" courses, which include a mix of face-to-face and online interactions, are quite promising and even transformative if designed appropriately and with care.

LAWRENCE LIPSITZ
Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Feb. 19, 2013

The writer is the editor of Educational Technology Magazine.

To the Editor:

The most obvious weakness of the online college is the relative absence of laboratory courses. In other words, there is little place for the experimental sciences in the curriculum. And no exciting introductory physics course with lecture demonstrations!

One cannot ignore the influence of higher education on the national economy. The crying need is for a work force replete with employees with the skills that come from the laboratory experience at the university level.

ARTHUR R. QUINTON
Amherst, Mass., Feb. 19, 2013

The writer is emeritus professor of physics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

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