Online learning has experienced a tremendous amount of growth in the past 3 years, and numerous estimates state that 1 in 10 undergraduate students will be an “e-learner” by 2008.

The sudden and dramatic success of online learning has only intensified the debate regarding the "quality" of an online education.

In order to provide some sort of logical means for measuring the “quality” of an online degree, the new portal has taken measures to rate the quality of online colleges and universities.

Interestingly enough, until now, the “quality” of an education has been somewhat of a philosophical debate. In 1977 Howard Bowen attempted to create a comprehensive means for measuring the value of an education in his publication “Investment and Learning: The Individual and Social Value of American Higher Education."

In terms of measuring the academic value of an online learning program, we’ve seen in previous postings that more public university systems are adopting a “performance based funding” model that allocates money based on the success of programs or initiatives. For this reason, as different states seek to increase economic competitiveness by producing a better-educated population, it is important for state university systems to measure the quality the education that an individual will receive; because the question will be raised—“Should I dedicate money to the online institution, or the brick and mortar institution?”

In terms of measuring the economic benefits for the college or university, it is quite clear that the virtual classroom offers a better Return On Investment.

In any case, it will be very interesting to see how online learning evolves and changes as it gains more and more momentum.

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Sources-

BOWEN, HOWARD. 1977. Investment in Learning: The Individual and Social Value of American Higher Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

http://odb.org/rankings