ERIC Number: EJ1182610
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018
Pages: 7
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1539-9664
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
An Elite Grad-School Degree Goes Online
Goodman, Joshua; Melkers, Julia; Pallais, Amanda
Education Next, v18 n3 p66-72 Sum 2018
In 2014, the Georgia Institute of Technology's (Georgia Tech) College of Computing, which is regularly ranked in the top 10 in the United States, started enrolling students in a fully online version of its highly regarded Master of Science in Computer Science degree--the earliest educational model to combine the inexpensive nature of online education with a degree program from a highly ranked institution. In this article, the authors first compare the online and in-person applicant pools and find there is nearly no overlap between these two programs. Unlike the in-person master's, the online program attracts older employed students. Next, they rigorously estimate whether this online option expands access to education for students. They find that students admitted to the program are more likely to pursue postsecondary education than those who are not admitted. In other words, access to the online program does not appear to substitute for other educational options. Those not admitted to the online program do not find appealing alternatives in the current higher-education landscape and thus do not pursue further education. These findings indicate that the higher education market has been failing to meet demand for mid-career online options. The authors' analysis does not directly address the question of whether the quality of the online program is as high as that of the in-person program, but it does put that question in a new light. For the vast majority of online students, the alternative is not an in-person degree program but rather no degree at all. Even so, they find that a majority of enrollees in the online program are on track to complete their degrees and perform as well as or better academically than students who enroll on campus. The Georgia Tech program confirms that, when done well, online coursework can substantially increase overall educational attainment and expand access to students who would not otherwise enroll.
Descriptors: Graduate Study, Online Courses, Academic Degrees, Masters Programs, Computer Science Education, Conventional Instruction, Comparative Analysis, Outcomes of Education, Technical Institutes, Enrollment, Global Approach, Academic Achievement, Access to Education
Hoover Institution. Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-6010. Tel: 800-935-2882; Fax: 650-723-8626; e-mail: educationnext@hoover.stanford.edu; Web site: http://educationnext.org/journal/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Georgia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A