Online for-profit schools have been demonized – often legitimately so. One-fourth of all students at for-profit schools default on their loans, often without a degree. The worst part of their reputation is their aggressive recruiting practices that use suspicious tactics to push the student into programs and disregard over whether the student is fully aware of what they have gotten themselves into.
Traditional Schools Need to Change Speed
However, experts on online college education cannot help but admit that online colleges have a lot to teach them about how to run a virtual school. They explain that many non-profit online schools often do not recognize the necessity for an overhaul and reassessment of the way that they teach and need to jump to the same page as for-profits. Laura Pappano of the New York Times and education writer puts it this way, “Libraries with vast holdings? Less critical than 24/7 digital accessibility. Big name professors with endowed chairs don’t matter, e-mailing students quickly does… Online is about function over style, and about serving adults.”
Online non-profit schools need to adjust themselves to the fast-speed, right-now online culture; where a quick response can mean an enrolled students or just another web surfer that moves on. It also needs to worry about customer service – something that for-profit schools pride themselves on, and non-profit traditional schools have never even discussed in some cases. Also, professors that are great in the classroom cannot necessarily translate their expertise effectively online. There is no room for the absent-minded professor online, who returns emails after days, if ever, and who the student must seek out rather than vice versa. Online students are an entirely different demographic than full-time residential students. They are usually busy mothers and father, spending most of the day in the office, the rest of the day and carting around children and making dinner or taking care of parents.
What We Shouldn’t Learn from For-Profits
While for-profit school’s can teach traditional colleges about the speed, structure and content of online course-making, there are important things to avoid as well. Getting back to a prospective student in a moment illustrates an online school in-tune with the demographic it is courting; harrying them to join a program is questionable ethics. Hiring a professor with less degrees but who is better at online relationship creation acknowledges structural differences in online programs, hiring a professor who has less credentials just because they come cheaper is bad business. Focusing on customer service because that is what students need, and not only because it will raise recruitment quotas, is where the difference will lay. Ultimately, if a school fulfills exactly what a student needs, it doesn’t matter if it is a for-profit or non-profit one.
Read the Pappano’s NYT article here.