Before We Get Too Excited About Online Education…

Amid all the excitement about moving education online, we shouldn’t forget that so far, doing so seems to hurt those who need help the most. As Mark Guzdial says in his recent blog post:

Universities already widen the gap between rich and poor, by flunking out or not admitting the poor. On-line courses tend to flunk out even more students, and mostly at the lower-knowledge and poor levels… I think it's possible for on-line education to be even better than existing University education, in terms of improving learning and engaging a broader range of students… [but] the work has to happen first. If [universities] disappear in favor of [online education], before we make [online education] better, [it] will lead to worse education for society, especially for weaker students.