Inside Higher Ed

Lindsay McKenzie

July 8, 2020

As many colleges prepare to continue teaching at least partially online this fall, student advocacy groups such as the Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS) are ramping up calls for greater scrutiny of the modality.

“How to Monitor the Risks of Online Education,” recently published by TICAS, describes the unprecedented shift to online education that took place in the spring as a “massive experiment with unknown consequences.”

“It is challenging to assess the quality of online education,” the report said. “Key sources of data on colleges do not identify whether programs are online, making it impossible for students to make informed choices or for regulators to identify potential problems. Changes in data collection are needed to protect students, including data on the graduation rates, loan defaults and other outcomes of online students.”

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