Does Online Learning Hold the Promise of a Customized Education for All?

Posted on July 24, 2008 by David Gray

UMassOnline CEO David Gray In the ‘Readers’ opinions’ section of USA Today, there’s a letter posted by the distinguished authors of a new book called Disrupting Class. I am not attempting here to promote the book. It is in the stack on my desk of about a dozen must-read volumes I’ll get to as soon as the summer slowdown – which never seems to come – arrives at long last. But I do want to note a point the authors make in their letter about the disruptive value of online learning and their view that online technology can evolve to bring a customized education to every student. If they are right, and I think they may be, my question is simply, “Is this a good thing across the board in higher education with reference to two specific issues: cost and consistency?” But first, here’s an excerpted portion of their position:

A major poll by the Public Education Network came out recently and said education is slipping behind other concerns as an important issue to the public… more Americans believe that the nation’s schools are getting worse. Where is the outrage?

Perhaps it’s not there because people are concluding that although the problem is worsening, none of the traditional solutions bandied about really holds the answer… We need to break the mold. We need disruptive innovations to enter the education market and revolutionize the actual process of schooling… Online learning is one such innovation that can alter the delivery of education to customize learning for each child… Online learning is in the beginning stages of doing just this.

Everyone in education at any level will verify that each individual learns in a unique way (though subject to some recognized general patterns). But everyone in academia will also say that individualized learning packages are costly to develop. In support of the authors of this letter, I agree that online technology makes customized learning and teaching methodologies more accessible, easier to implement, and more varied. Within the limits of having to convey the basic course material, one way or another, online learning technology is rich with variations. But to say that every course can be tailored uniquely for every student I think is to suggest online colleges and professors have unlimited budgets and infinite time and energy.

Secondly, if Tom, let’s say, earns his BS degree in Engineering in one way and Mary earns her BS degree in engineering at the same institution, but in another way, are the two degrees equivalent? They could be. They probably would be… unless customization reaches a point where the actual content is altered or weighted in one direction versus another, for different students. See, I think online learning technology can be customized to let a student decide if he or she wishes to read or listen to a text; to contribute more or less to class discussions; to go slow or fast. But while technology can be customized to meet the student’s learning preferences, the content must remain consistent. What do you think? How much room should there be for customizing learning in the higher education environment?