More Data, More Transparency Coming to Higher Education: Is This Good?

Posted on May 20, 2008 by David Gray

David Gray, UMassOnline As the CEO of UMassOnline I see, and sympathize with, two groups having a vested interest in knowing more – a lot more – about how institutions of higher learning perform. As an administrator, for example, I routinely see how some providers of online higher education seemingly prosper on the basis of attributes of little relevance to the quality of the online programs being offered. While the size and scope of an online institution, the size of its student body for example, may be an indicator of success and popularity, we all know some of the very best colleges are small colleges and some of the very largest are perceived as only average. We also know that there is no real correlation between a massive advertising and marketing budget and massive educational innovation or positive learning outcomes.

Parents and students, of course, are the other party with a huge vested interest in getting heretofore relatively hard-to-find information about educational outcomes at the college level, online or otherwise. I am, in fact, a member of this group since I have a son in college. In the absence of hard data, many of us select colleges on the basis of softer and less reliable qualitative impressions: the school’s perceived reputation, its longevity, whether or not the institution has spawned famous alumni, whether it is a public or private college. But what does that really tell us about the current educational quality of the institution? How are students and other stakeholders to compare apples to apples when evaluating the contemporary offerings and outcomes of several competitive institutions?

More data and more transparency is already starting to come to the traditional world of higher education. Here’s just one of many recent news reports about this trend. It’s about a national, still-voluntary, accountability project among traditional colleges. I see it as a bellwether of what we can expect, and what we need, in online higher education as well.

Here I would like to ask our student readers about how they selected UMassOnline. What factors influenced your decision the most? What information might have been available to aid your decision process? In your opinion, in the future, what kind of data do you think UMassOnline and its competitors ought to make freely available to all who are seeking an online education provider?