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Students take quickly to opportunities for interacting online - but universities need to have a more sophisticated offer. Photograph: Andy Doherty/Doherty Photography Ltd Photograph: Andy Doherty/Doherty Photography Ltd
Students take quickly to opportunities for interacting online - but universities need to have a more sophisticated offer. Photograph: Andy Doherty/Doherty Photography Ltd Photograph: Andy Doherty/Doherty Photography Ltd

Online learning: the UK’s scepticism is holding it back

This article is more than 9 years old

The UK has a long tradition of online learning, but regulation and a shift in attitudes are needed to stay top on the international stage

Online learning is still seen as the poor relation in the UK – but it’s time for attitudes to change. As the student cap is lifted, and opportunities for expansion increase, online education offers a way for UK universities to compete internationally without struggling to meet capacity.

It’s a different story in the US. There, online degree courses have turned a corner. No more lurking in the shadows as the lesser option, the fallback. If it wants to make the most of those opportunities for expansion, the UK can learn some useful lessons from the US experience of learning to love online education.

The lifting of the student cap is one driver, but what will matter long-term is taking a decent share of the ballooning numbers of students globally looking for a world-class degree. The OECD estimates the numbers of people with degrees will grow from around 129 million to 204 million by 2020. It’s also one answer to the problem of declining numbers of part-time students and creating the right kind of higher study offer for people in work.

Latest figures from the Babson Survey Research Group suggest that 7.1 million higher education students in the US are taking at least one online course as part of their degree. There’s some wrangling over the figures, with the US education department’s first research into online study putting the total at more like 5.5 million. Forecasts suggest this will mean more than half of US students taking an online course by 2018.

Online tuition is moving into the mainstream

Perhaps more important than the numbers is the underlying sentiment. Talking to academic leaders, the Babson researchers found that those believing online courses provided the same or better learning outcomes had grown to 74%. Online degrees are no longer the preserve of the for-profit online operators, and three-quarters of all US universities and colleges now offer online degree options. The recent move from Stanford to turn Mooc (massive open online courses) offerings into paid-for courses is another indication of how online tuition is moving into the mainstream.

There’s been a cultural shift. The debate about whether standards in online provision can ever get close to replicating the traditional experience has moved on. Now it’s a case of getting the regulation right, of addressing issues like retention rates (when drop-out rates tend to be higher). It’s happened as a result of necessity – that expansion and international opportunity issue – and because of the bigger social and cultural changes brought about by digital technology and the use of mobile devices in everyday lives.

There’s no doubting the history of online education among UK institutions. The work of the Open University makes it a stand-out, and in the breadth of its offering, an international leader. Many traditional universities have offered online options for years, but their offerings have remained limited and positioned outside of the mainstream as the alternative to the real thing.

The UK (meaning providers, learners and employers) needs to embrace online learning quickly if its higher education sector isn’t to be left behind on the international stage. Overcoming scepticism will, of course, require a clear basis of regulation and maintenance of standards for all online programmes and a clear sense of differentiation for students between the accredited and non-accredited. In the US that has meant all online providers needing to gain accreditation through one of the regional accreditation bodies or the Distance Education and Training Council in order to be taken seriously.

Champions among traditional, not-for-profit institutions make a difference to attitudes. Columbia University’s online education programmes, for example, have an excellent reputation. Online and academic quality have become synonymous, maybe just in pockets, but the examples are powerful.

Universities need to make a sophisticated offer

The other major perception barrier is student experience. In some ways, institutions can push at an open door. The digital basis of everyday interaction of any kind is second nature, and students quickly take to online opportunities for sharing, networking and exploring content. The issue is more of changing engrained university approaches to what works and being sophisticated about what they offer. A website with a message board isn’t going to cut it.

In the US, institutions have been trying to provide a contemporary digital experience for students, looking at the best examples of social networking, remote working and gaming technologies and using them to provoke constant engagement and interaction while studying.

Again, the UK needs role models. Academics in the US have needed to rethink how they teach their subject and recreate content. Most find the experience a useful exercise, getting back to the root of how their students really learn, how to challenge them and get them working both independently and as a collaborative network.

Retention is still a problem. Because online programmes are more accessible, they’re also easier to leave, and online students are more likely to be juggling other responsibilities. It won’t just be additional support, it will be the whole culture of online higher education and its growing status that will help, making learning and working together as an international community increasingly important.

Nancy Coleman is former director of distance education at Boston University and is now vice-president of academic services at PlattForm.

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