In my 1996 book Generation X Goes to College, I predicted that virtually anyone with a computer and a modem would have access to the storehouse of human knowledge. As a result, higher education as we know would become an anachronism, if not obsolete. The university’s status would diminish because it would lose its competitive advantage in disseminating information.
The recent emergence of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), however, raises obvious questions. Are these new teaching methods as effective, in terms of student performance, as real-life classrooms? Can these new technologies bring down higher education costs? Former Princeton president William G. Bowen takes on these questions and others in his new book Higher-Ed in the Digital Age. Once a skeptic, Bowen now concludes that online learning programs will reduce the cost of higher education without harming student learning outcomes.
His conversion is inspired by the findings of ITHACA, a non-profit organization that conducted “the most rigorous assessment to date” on the economics of online learning technology. That study demonstrated that student learning outcomes, as measured by standardized tests, are no worse in online courses than in traditional classes. Not better, just not worse. Though these results might sound unimpressive, Bowen asserts that they are “very important” because they disprove the common prediction that online education will harm students.