Online education is becoming commonplace. About 5.3 million U.S.
students took at least one online course in fall 2013, according to a recent study.
Yet, while online education is growing in popularity, myths and misconceptions abound.
Below, experts separate the fact from fiction.
Myth 1: Online education is easy. It's not easier to earn a degree online than in a traditional brick-and-mortar setting – just different, says Lynn Atanasoff, a career counselor at Pennsylvania State University—World Campus. Students may have flexibility regarding when they study, but it also comes with challenges.
"At
reputable institutions, students have to complete the same material as
in-person, except they also have to really manage their time because
online no one is reminding them when assignments or projects are due,"
she says.
Marci Grant, director of the Center for Distance and eLearning at Southwestern Oklahoma State University,
agrees. "Online courses require more self-direction than a traditional
course where face-to-face instructors are available," she said in an
email.
Online education can also be quite labor intensive, requiring at least as much time as an on-campus course, Grant adds.
[See how to tell a good online program from a bad one.]
Myth 2: The quality is lower. While academic standards for online courses may vary from school to school, Grant says the online faculty
and online courses at her institution go through a rigorous
certification process to ensure they understand the academic standard
that all
online courses must meet.
In some cases, the instruction in an online class might be even better
than in an on-campus course, says Ramin Sedehi, the director of Higher
Education Consulting at the Berkeley Research Group.
"It requires the teachers to communicate differently," he says. "Some
teachers suggest it forces them to think about effectiveness and
engagement far more actively and makes them better teachers."
Myth 3: Online credits will not transfer to another school. Some students may have problems transferring credits
regardless of whether they complete their study online or on campus,
says professor Michael Bitter, chairman of the M.E. Rinker,
Sr. Institute of Tax and Accountancy at Stetson University.
"You sometimes see transferability issues with certain for-profit
institutions or with certain types of courses/programs," he wrote in an
email.
In many cases, Bitter says, an institution would have no way of knowing
whether a course they are considering for transfer credit was taken in a
classroom, online or some combination of the two.
Overall, though, he says credits from online programs are not any harder to transfer than on-campus credits.
Myth 4: Online courses are not accredited.
As with traditional courses, accreditation may vary from school to
school. But a fair number of online programs are accredited. "If a
student attends an unaccredited school, credits may not transfer,
federal and state financial aid may not be available and employers may
not recognize their credentials," says Christine Broeker,
interim executive director of eLearning at Seminole State College of
Florida.
[Understand how to tell if an online program has the right accreditation.]
She says students can turn to the Council of Higher Education Accreditation, which publishes a list of recognized accrediting bodies that evaluate colleges and universities.
Myth 5: Cheating is more common in online courses.
Cheating can occur with online courses, but experts say that is not more likely to happen with online courses than with traditional courses.
"There are websites that any student can use to have papers written for
them," says Dani Babb, an online instructor and founder and CEO of The
Babb Group. “Since online professors have tools to help them spot
plagiarism, in some ways we have more defenses against this than
traditional education where a student hands in a paper.”
In addition to plagiarism detection software, some online programs
require students to take a test at a physical location, or to use a
webcam while completing an exam. In both cases, students need to show
proof of identification.
Myth 6: Online students can’t meet with the instructor. Although
it might be impossible for students to physically be in the same place
as their instructors, there are opportunities for meaningful
interactions.
[Find out how to tell if you have a bad online instructor.]
"While students may not meet faculty in person, they do have the
opportunity to interact with them, whether it be by phone, by e-mail, by
Skype or during on-line chat sessions," Bitter says.
One way Bitter interacts with students is through online chat sessions,
which are held twice a week when his course is in session. He also says
that some online faculty have online office hours each week.