Stop Calling It Online Education

The truth is that there is no such thing as “Online Education.”  The term was used to create a false dichotomy to describe what some saw as an alternative to the physical classroom experience. It was conceived at a time when the capabilities of a virtual environment were not well understood. As a result, online classes and programs were often segregated from mainstream higher education and treated as different kinds of "things."  

Much as the unorthodox, misunderstood experiment of Dr. Frankenstein, online education was at first widely reviled and feared by the higher education establishment. Trust me, I was there as the villagers came with their pitchforks and torches.  But today many aspects of the early virtual milieu are now commonplace, such as virtual libraries and course materials. And many institutions now regularly incorporate video and chat into the curriculum.  Frankenstein’s creation should have faired so well.

And then there is the “virtual classroom.”  This unfortunate phrase has led to the false assumption that there is some kind of direct translation or correspondence from the physical to the virtual.  Much research has gone into how this translation works.  But in the end, the fact is that the physical classroom is not directly translatable to a virtual environment any more than live stage plays are translatable to radio or than having a beer at the local tavern with friends is comparable to logging on to a chat room.  

Brick and mortar education and online education are all part of one larger enterprise:  EDUCATION.   In many aspects of current society, our physical experience is enmeshed with and enhanced by technology.  Banking, for instance, is a seamless blend of virtual and physical services tailored to the needs of clients.  The same is true for much of retail shopping.  Higher education needs to catch up and realize that it must also become an environment that provides services and content in multiple ways that meet the multiple needs of students and society in general.

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