From ivory tower to academic sweatshop

When a cat named Colby earned an MBA online from Trinity Southern University in Plano, Texas, last year, distance-learning critics found a ready caricature for a popular stereotype: distance-learning schools as glorified diploma mills, doling out easy credentials to anyone with a Web browser and a credit card.

Indeed, plug the words "distance learning" into Google and you'll see ads in the right-hand column of the Web page for dubious alma maters like Almeda University, promising your choice of associate's, bachelor's or master's degree with "No Books! No Courses! No Studying!" But if distance learning were so easily dismissed, one might expect a little less enthusiasm from the 97 percent of public universities that now offer online courses. Last year, an estimated 3 million students took at least one class online and 600,000 students completed all of their coursework online.

While many educators continue to insist on the irreplaceable quality of in-person teaching, numerous studies show that under the right circumstances, and with certain subjects, online students achieve learning outcomes similar to those in physical classrooms.

Even critics acknowledge that distance learning opens doors for working professionals and residents of remote areas who would otherwise have limited access to higher education. But these students differ significantly from on-campus students, who often take years off to immerse themselves in a particular discipline. Distance learning students are typically older, mid-career, and careful about managing their time. They favor practical, skill-building courses like those in business, nursing, accounting, computer science and other marketable trades.

"Hitting the sweet spot in online education today means going after the working professional who wants to advance their career by taking courses," says Philip DiSalvio, program director of Seton Hall University's SetonWorldWide program.

While many schools also endeavor to offer "soft" subjects in the humanities online, the market overwhelmingly favors professional education. "There is strong pressure to make education more technical, more like training," says Andrew Feenberg, research chair in philosophy of technology at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University. "That pressure comes both from the corporate world, and from students themselves, who are very career oriented." The result: a growing commoditization of the curriculum and a tendency for schools to market education as a "product."

At some schools, the boundaries between physical and virtual classrooms are dissolving into so-called blended learning environments that incorporate the Internet as an adjunct to the traditional lecture hall. Many faculty now routinely take advantage of courseware like Blackboard or WebCT to publish their lesson plans and lecture notes and to moderate online discussions as an extension of the classroom experience.

Noah Butter is working on his master's degree in library and information science at San Jose State University, a blended program that incorporates online and offline courses. Of the 11 classes he has taken so far, four have met exclusively online, including his two current semester classes in online searching and information technology. All of his courses involve some form of online component, some meeting in person as infrequently as twice a semester.

Butter has discovered that online courses are no cakewalk. "Online courses are a lot more work," he says, pointing out that classes require students to participate actively in online discussions and to stay on top of a constant stream of e-mail. Indeed, Butter feels that he has gotten more for his money from online classes than from some of his in-person classes. "It depends on the teacher," he says. "When teachers don't use the technology, and you only meet a few times during the semester, you end up feeling a little ripped off."

But while Butter knows he is acquiring the professional skills he needs to pursue his chosen career, he sometimes longs for a more traditional campus education. "I have missed having more student and teacher face-to-face interactions," he says. "In the courses where I have met students in class, I wished we could have spent more time together."

Given the demonstrated effectiveness and broader outreach made possible by distance learning, only the most strident Luddite would argue that distance learning has no place in the arsenal of modern instruction. But the larger effect of distance learning technology extends beyond student-teacher dialectics and into the realm of institutional power relationships.

In addition to external market pressures, corporate influence also manifests itself in the expanding role of commercial software vendors, administrators and information technology professionals, who not only wield a growing influence over teaching methods, but who also bring to bear corporate values like teamwork, accountability and an overarching emphasis on "the customer."

Next Page: The rise and fall of dot-com distance learning

• View blog reactions