Barriers to Adoption of Online Learning Systems

Among the many sea changes reshaping higher education these days, the opportunities and pitfalls present in the use of online learning systems may be amongst the greatest. I read an interesting report - Barriers to the Adoption of Online Learning Systems in U.S. Higher Education - that is worth considering. As the title implies, this report comes from organization that supports the use of online learning systems and pursues the "promise of adaptive learning technologies...to educate more students at lower cost with similar or even better learning outcomes."

Some of the main points that I took from the report include:

• a wide range of systems and models of online learning currently exist and are of varying quality
• a number of software companies are pushing into new developments the report calls Interactive Online Learning, which is adaptive and "machine-driven"
• the use of learning analytics (data mining embedded within the online learning system) has the potential to support individualized student-centered learning based on proficiency
• the report asserts that cost considerations (and - by implication - market share) are the primary drivers for the implementation of online learning at most institutions, at the moment
• the report concedes that there is limited data on student learning outcomes, at the moment
• the report also concedes that there is limited data on student success and persistence, especially research that controls for the self-selecting variables that shape the demographic enrolling in online courses (older, motivated, self-organizing)
• if "machine-based" online learning systems free faculty from the tasks of content delivery, grading, and tracking, then such systems - in a hybrid environment - may allow for more productive and optimized use of faculty talents and knowledge (mentoring, research, feedback, et cetera)

I came across the Barriers report in the article Elitism, Equality, and MOOCS, which raises one point, in particular, that I find interesting, especially in light of the Barriers report. In sum: online education may lead to better access to high quality education for more students, or it may lead to further bifurcation of higher education whereby the elite institutions maintain (expensive) faculty-driven relationship-based education whereas (public open access) institutions under greater financial stress (and political pressures for numbers and efficiency) pursue machine-driven online learning disconnected from significant faculty guidance.

In Student Affairs, I see great potential for utilizing online learning as a pedagogical tool embedded in a relationship-based student development program (such as TRIO). There is merit, in my mind, to many of the strengths proffered in the Barriers report (increased access to services, student-centered proficiency-based learning, technology and the millennial generation, cost and time efficiencies). Yet, I am concerned about overreach and pursuing online learning as our primary pedagogy, as opposed to a pedagogical tool. There is much research (e.g. Tinto) and many anecdotes that affirm the significance of a caring, mentoring human relationship when viewing education through a student (human) development lens.

A few questions now on my mind after reading the above report and article:

•  How does online learning support (or not) creativity, critical thinking and other higher capacities of the human mind (that, to here, we have not extended to artificial intelligence)?
• How do changing social norms regarding human interaction change learning?
• How well can online learning adapt to multiple learning styles and diversified delivery? 
• Is tech savvy the new variable of inequality?