Online Learning: Are We There Yet?

Date: September 23, 2013

Time: 1:00 p.m. ET (UTC-4) runs one hour and a half; convert to your time zone

Special Guest

Jeff Seaman

Jeff Seaman is the co-director of the Babson Survey Research Group. He holds degrees in demography/statistics, sociology, electrical engineering, and housing, all from Cornell University. He created and ran the Computing Resource Center and served as associate vice provost for computing for the University of Pennsylvania and as CIO for Lesley University. His industry experience includes serving as CIO at HighWired.com, where he led the development of an online learning system, and serving as the vice president of engineering for Vista Associates building course management systems. Seaman has served on academic technology advisory boards for a number of information technology companies including Apple Computer, IBM, and Microsoft. He has been conducting research in the impact of technology on higher education and K–12 for over a decade. His most recent work includes the annual Sloan survey on the state of online learning, Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States, 2011.

Summary

Join Malcolm Brown and Veronica Diaz as they moderate this webinar with Jeff Seaman. The Babson Survey Research Group has been tracking online education among U.S. higher education institutions for over 10 years. By some measures online has been an amazing success: the number of online students has grown more than fourfold, the vast majority of higher education institutions have online offerings, and many claim it is a critical part of their long-term strategy. Other measures of online activity are very troubling: there remains considerable distrust on the part of faculty, many individuals have serious concerns about the quality of the learning outcomes, and everyone (administrator and faculty alike) believe it requires more time and effort to develop and deliver. So which is it? Is online learning the wonderful new delivery alternative that is providing millions of students with access to high-quality education or it just the latest fad that is watering down the quality for all of higher education?

Additional Resources

• Babson Survey Research Group
• Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States
• Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States, 2011