Tuesday, March 25th 2008

Today at the AACRAO conference I had the opportunity to hear Darcy Hardy, the Vice Chancellor of the UT TeleCampus speak on some internal measures that can be taken to improve the quality of online course production and delivery.

With experience in the online learning industry that stretches back to the 1980’s Dr. Hardy is surely one of the pioneers of online learning. Dr. Hardy opened the session with two provocative questions, delivered to the receptive audience in a firm tone:

“How do you measure the quality of online learning?” There were many different responses, such as: “accessibility”; “the quality of the delivery” and “the quality of the content”.

The second question was posed in more of a rhetorical manner:

“One of the curios things anyone can witness in the discussion about online learning is the fact that people question the quality of online learning. When was the last time you heard someone discussing the quality of classroom learning?”

As the presentation opened, Dr. Hardy paced back and forth in front of the well-lit room containing about 100 attendees, and gesticulated energetically to emphasize her opinions. She discussed the various tactics for building a successful online learning environment. The topics ranged from universal quality standards set in place by WCET (Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications) and SLOAN-C, to faculty/author considerations to quality course development procedures.

In the news and the world at large, promoting and delivering online learning has been an uphill battle in many respects: from the difficulty of training faculty and the segmented course delivery options that exist, to the negative media attention that the Apollo group and others have faced for recruitment practices, online learning has had many stumbling blocks to overcome. In spite of these factors, online learning continues to grow and evolve, and provide more learners, with more opportunities.

In the room full of distance learning practitioners and administrators from across the country, everyone nodded in assent as Dr. Hardy fielded questions regarding the perception of online degrees: “It has gotten much better over the last few years. Employers have increasingly positive opinions of online degrees. At the University of Texas Telecampus we’ve been fortunate enough to transfer our strong reputation to the online forum. Other smaller schools have struggled a little more than we have.”

Standardization—from pedagogic design, to production & delivery—will surely go a long way in helping to take online learning from schools of all sizes to the next level. Individuals like Dr. Hardy will also play a crucial role, by providing the entire industry with passionate vision and guidance.

In the meantime, online education might be measured the same way all other forms of learning are: does the student have more opportunities as a result of the experience? I think everyone would agree that insomuch as online learning provides more people with more opportunity, it is an overwhelmingly positive asset to our global community.

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