Dive Brief:
- Students interested in enrolling at Drexel University Online can take a week-long course beforehand so they can better determine whether online learning fits their needs, writes to Drexel president Susan Aldridge in an op-ed for The Evolllution.
- The "Test Drive," as the school calls it, began in December 2014 with the institution's nursing program and offers administrators data which can be used to better target student recruitment approaches, in addition to a "more engaging and responsive, connected and customized," online learning experience, writes Aldridge.
- The piece comes at the same time the Education Department's Office of the Inspector General released an audit of Western Governors University's competency-based-education model and online courses, finding that the institution may have to return $700 million in federal financial aid not incorporate enough faculty interaction in those programs.
Dive Insight:
One of the persistent issues with programs that utilize online learning tools, like those of Western Governors University, is that there is no clear definition of what kind of faculty interaction is substantive enough to satisfy the requirements of the Education Department, according to many critics of the Office of Inspector General's latest audit. While there is bipartisan support for CBE programs, the lack of insight from the education department means that there is still uncertainty around whether online schools are considered adequate, at least until the Higher Education Act is revisited.
So to stay ahead of any possible pushback, strategies like Drexel University Online's "Test Drive" are critical to help institutions create valuable self-evaluation measures. Further, the data garnered from students trying out the online programs, as Aldridge notes, helps the schools develop and update the online experience to better fit students' needs — as well as conduct research around the all-important online education "fit" factor, explains Aldridge. She says that, "by having valuable baseline data for benchmarking student readiness against performance and persistence," the school can start looking at academic success levels between those students who engaged in online programs and those who didn't. Through a system of self-evaluation, such programs can more effectively determine what the appropriate level of student-to-faculty interaction is, ahead of vague clarification from the Department of Education. Determining the right amount of interaction is also critical to recruitment and retention, as well, as survey data from shows 60% of student respondents want to personally interact with their professors.