| | JULY - 202319The adage of quality over quantity will surely regulate the online learning marketplace as student demand for flexible learning continues to increase. And our students will continue to choose whether they want to consume proverbial fast-food learning or something more farm-to-table when perusing the menu of online educational offerings across the webGiven the limits of on-campus space and enrollment challenges facing many traditional institutions, universities see dollar signs and want in on the action when it comes to online programming. To that end, some colleges have elected to expedite entry into the online education marketplace and have attempted to launch as many online learning opportunities as possible. This is often accomplished by partnering with an online program manager (OPM) or some third-party course design firm to rapidly create content and online programming to bring to market on a short timeline (oftentimes with student recruitment support available for an additional fee). While this path has merit from a business perspective, it often does little to convey the unique faculty expertise afforded by campus instructors, and in some instances creates a more generic "canned" product that varies little from university to university or program to competitor program. While learning surely happens in these programs, if the content and degree outcomes are largely comparable between competing universities, the cost will likely drive student choice and registration when deciding to pursue distance learning endeavors. That said, you typically get what you pay for and cheaper may not translate to better.The COVID years reinforced the fact that the college experience is so much more than a series of courses strung together to earn a degree. Whether onsite or online, a meaningful university experience should showcase and instill institutional values, provide students with access to individualized services and resources, create an authentic sense of belonging and community, and offer unique, rigorous, accessible, and engaging curricular experiences to all participants. While higher education is undoubtedly a business, the business of education is truly teaching and learning while supporting our students on their journey. If we genuinely wish to create high-quality digital learning experiences, faculty subject matter experts must be provided with substantial support for course building and instructional design for their courses, so that their creativity and expertise can be reimagined and delivered for today's online learners across varied modalities. In the long term, institutions that properly invest in online instruction and choose to institutionalize instructional design and academic technology services will distinguish themselves from their higher ed counterparts, creating superior programs that highlight strengths in areas where their institutions are already distinguished. While it may take some time, the adage of quality over quantity will surely regulate the online learning marketplace as student demand for flexible learning continues to increase. And our students will continue to choose whether they want to consume proverbial fast-food learning or something more farm-to-table when perusing the menu of online educational offerings across the web.
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