| | August - 20218Who are we serving with online learning?By Mark D. Porcaro, Executive Director of Online Learning, Wichita State UniversityIf you follow most studies of online students in North America today, you'll see that by far, most students in online programs are Caucasian, middle-class women in their late 20s to early 40s. From our vantage pointof the middle of this highly irregular year, we are beginning to realize that while online learning has made it possible for this group of disenfranchised people to get an education while juggling competing demands, it may inadvertently be shutting out other groups, namely first generation and underserved populations. The main reason? Access to technology and the tools to be an online student.If you are an administrator in primary, secondary, or higher education like me, you may not look like your students. You've completed college and most likely have a graduate degree. You may personally come from a disadvantaged and underserved population, and you may be a first-generation student, however, you also probably didn't learn online and much of your access to education was through analog means. In addition, you most likely have access to technology and a reliable high-speed internet connection.Today's students become online students not because they feel that they want an online education, but because they want to complete what they started years ago, or take control of thefuture of their career and they choose an online education because they can accomplish those goals without sacrificingall the other obligations they have to their family, community, or work.More importantly, they do it because they have access to a computer that will allow them to do their course work, and they have a reliable and fast internet connection. IN MY OPINION Mark D. Porcaro
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