The Clash in Education

Higher Education is struggling to determine what is quality education and what is the role of the digital communication in an educational institution. The age old system of a highly qualified scholar standing in front of a class of eager students learning amazing new things that combine the brilliance of a teacher with that of an excellent textbook is under question. We have watched the anomalous online course creep into a catalog almost like arthritis makes its way into our bodies. It starts subtly, almost nonchalantly until one day you realize your joints are hurting and not functioning quite as well. What began as very slight difference became ubiquitous and serious.

But unlike arthritis, a debilitating problem that grows worse with aging, online courses are not diseases of destruction (regardless of the suspicion of some faculty), slowly making their way through education until all is in ruins, online courses are simply another mode of delivery of information, and they are changing the entire face of education due to their quality and to their convenience. Online courses allow for targeted learning outcomes, assessments, objective and subjective responses, dialog, socialization in a digital format, textbook and research access, and great variety of learning opportunities. When we consider the three concerns of education, cost, convenience, and quality, we realize that online courses, in spite of the suspicion of quality, meet a minimum of one of these concerns with the possibility of two.

For hundreds of years, education has been about students seeking and finding quality teachers and being willing to pay for the privilege of learning from them in a direct experience. Teachers have responded in kind by waiting patiently and comfortably for students to sit at their feet learning. Institutions supported the brilliant teacher by providing classrooms, desks, bookstores, residential halls, meals, student life experiences, and diplomas to certify accomplishment and achievement. This remarkable system worked and culture responded well by richly rewarding those with degrees through increased salaries and societal refinement.

But is the system slowly crumbling before our eyes like drive-in theatres or dial telephones? Are we going to lose the idea of an eager student seeking out the wisdom of a learned scholar? How do we combat this trend or should we even try? Assuming the past is gone and the system no longer functions as it once did, it is time to alter the system of education and take it to the students. And many institutions and people are doing that very thing. The digital world allows for the exporting of the sage scholar to the people, allowing for great convenience for the learners and, in most cases, the teachers. While this does not answer the question of cost nor quality, it does solve the issue of convenience.

Because of the free market system, pricing remains at the discretion of the teachers or, in most cases, the institutions seeking after a market share of students. While pricing and cost is integral to the process of education, it is beyond the scope of this particular diatribe. We may often believe the hamburger at the local restaurant is overpriced, but it is our choice to pay the price, request a lower price, or seek another locale. The same is true of education. Admittedly, it seems rather maudlin to reduce education to a consumer mentality but at its core, maybe such a commodious interpretation of education is not entirely wrong.

Now we need to address the idea of quality. If quality is dependent upon the personality and verbal communication skills of the collective wisdom of individual teachers, then online courses have little chance of surviving. It is true that the physical presence of a teacher in front of actual students at one time did define quality education and even the judicious invoking of technology interfered with that process, and that such remains the attitude of many and the prevalent practice of traditional education. But social media demonstrates each day that the digital world provides a strong element of human connectedness and that we benefit from others in spite of long distances. One may argue that social media is not learning an academic discipline, but there is no doubt that the potential for learning in a digital format is real and active.

A closer look at what quality means in education as determined by longitudinal studies, collective data, employment records, and standardized testing will ultimately reveal the truth. Meanwhile, higher education continues to feel the strain of a "traditional" face to face approach versus the convenience of online learning. Whatever the end result, which will probably be some kind of hybrid system for younger students and mostly online for older, there is no doubt that technology has dramatically disrupted virtually everything about our educational practices. But somehow we humans keep demanding human contact and for that reason, and maybe that alone, there is still value in the face-to-face experience. We still want to "shake the hand" of the leader we are following, and we still enjoy personal interaction. As in most cultural clashes, society and education will probably land on the planet that embraces both the gain of personal contact while benefiting from all that technology has to offer.