In the
ongoing debate over whether online-only courses are just as good as on-campus
ones, a new report shows that in-person campus courses still have the edge.
The report,
compiled by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE)
Cooperative for Educational Technologies (known as WCET), surveyed college
institutions providing solely online programs as well as institutions offering
a mix of online and on-campus courses.
According
to Campus Technology, WCET’s report
touts the finding that the online schools’ courses boasted an 89% completion
rate, not bad when compared to the 94% rate for face-to-face classes. But then
WCET immediately backed away from that statistic, noting just four of 10
online-only schools provided data—presumably the others had less impressive
completion stats—and the rate might not represent a true average.
It’s easy
to understand how busy adults might be more apt to drop an online course than
one where they’ve already put in a live appearance, especially if they’re not
motivated to take the course to earn a specific degree, to meet an employer’s
requirement, or to keep parents off their back for not having a job.
Other results
from the WCET survey, however, reveal a gap in student support services between
online and on-campus programs, which might make some difference in whether
students persist to completion. For example, only 59% of responding schools
make tutoring available for online students. Just 30% furnish 24-hour technical
support for online students, even though they’re more likely to be studying at
odd hours.
Some
schools don’t provide any help for disabled students taking online courses and
a few institutions have no library resources available to online students.
