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WUSL faculty vote to kill online ed

Part of a trend, it seems. InsideHigherEd has a thorough story, here.

One Comment

  1. Birdy 05/02/2014

    What is the trend?

    I dislike teaching online for a number of reasons. But some of my students must travel 40-60 miles, sometimes on icy roads, to reach campus. Child care is also an issue for many students, as well as the fact that we don’t like to teach evening classes for working students (even if we offer them, they are less likely to make).

    My guess regarding the trend is that elite schools with residential campuses will stick with the obviously superior traditional courses, while lower tier schools will shift to online courses as an obviously cheaper alternative. The flagship state schools will do fine, but those of us in the lesser, ugly step sister schools — who, by the way, provide higher ed to most of the state’s kids — are screwed. Our governor, who I would otherwise support, shills for Western Governors University even as the state higher ed budget is cut.

    The trend is deeper stratification — overpriced McDegrees for the peasants and continuing excellence and bloated endowments for those lucky enough to be admitted to the top tier schools.

    In a few hours I will vote on this very issue in Faculty Senate. For us, it is an existential issue and there will be no debate about ending or reducing online instruction. Our concern now is trying to set standards and ensure quality.

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