Education Writer Says Mandatory Online Education Coming for All K-12 Students

Posted on February 18, 2009 by Barbara Macaulay

UMassOnline Barbara Macaulay What are the implications to college-level online institutions like UMassOnline if writer Andrea Hermitt, who posts at the examiner.com, is right in her prediction that at least some mandatory distance learning courses will be required of every K-12 student in America? She doesn’t say when, but she makes a good case for believing it will be soon by identifying all the places where online learning is already happening in primary and secondary education across the nation.

One of the most significant stats presented by Ms. Hermitt comes from a quote from Susan Patrick who is the President of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning:

“More than 70 percent of the nearly 15,000 school districts in the United States currently offer at least one online course, enrolling more than a million students last school year alone…”

For the longest time it seemed potential online college students were concerned about the quality of an online education. Then there was worry about whether or not would-be employers would rate the online degree as highly as the traditionally-achieved degree. But seemingly overnight, we at UMass currently have hundreds of students taking both traditional and online courses all at the same time… and while we weren’t looking, an entire nation of grade schools and high schools discovered online learning.

To me this means a higher and higher percentage of entering college freshmen won’t be asking, “What’s online education… how does it work?” Instead, at least one or two online courses will be more the rule than the exception. And when that happens, I predict we will see an explosion in the number and variety of online course options. Do you agree?